catamaran hull speed

How Fast Do Catamarans Go? 5 Examples (With Pictures)

A catamaran is generally more balanced on the water and can be faster than a multi-hull vessel.

Unless you compare them to foiling monohulls like the new America’s Cup boats that sail at over 50 knots, they are not recreational vessels.

In this article, we will look at how fast each type of catamaran will go.

Table of Contents

Here are the numbers before we dive into the details:

Average Speed For Sailing Catamarans

Catamarans can vary in size from 14 ft to over 100 ft. Catamarans can come in a wide variety of design types.

Sailing Catamarans have been attempting to make advancements over their mono-hulled counterparts.

These advancements include:

• Foils that assist with lifting the vessel out of the water.
• Stability advancements.
• Racers that can maintain their speed while out in the ocean.

3 Different Types of Sailing Catamarans:

1) sport catamarans.

One type of sailing catamaran is a sport catamaran, which is otherwise known as recreational. These are typically supposed to have a small crew and launch and land on beaches.

Sport catamarans do not normally have living quarters and are ideal for day trips. Resorts or other rental services often use these.

These can also be used for racing.

Sport vessels have been known to travel over 30 knots but can speed over 40 knots in the proper conditions.

2) Cruising Catamarans

Another type of sailing catamaran is a cruising catamaran. These often come with complete living accommodations, so they sacrifice speed over their sportier counterparts.

They can average between 9 and 10 knots, depending on the conditions. The top speed is typically around 15 knots.

It would be best if you were careful with catamarans that have living quarters. The more you weigh it down, the less speed you will have.

3) Racing Catamarans

The final type of sailing catamaran is an ocean racing catamaran.

These boats are large and can reach over 100 feet in length.

The top speed of this type of catamaran is around 45 knots.

Because of the prize money for entering these in races, much research goes into their advancement.

Average Speed Of Power Catamarans

Catamarans with power motors fill a different type of boating category.

These are commonly used when speed and smoothness are favored over space or capacity.

Because of their stability, catamarans are good vessels for combating seasickness as well as transportation. We have a separate article here with all you should know about catamarans and (how to overcome) seasickness .

On a commercial level, these can be used for ferries for both people and vehicles. They are used for short term travel, often to or from islands.

Like sailing catamarans, there are a few types of power catamarans.

1) Power Cruising Catamarans

Similar to sailing cruising catamarans, they also have power cruising catamarans. These also have living quarters and are stable while out on the water. The speed of these vessels highly depends on the motors equipped and the size of the boat itself.

Like passenger transport or ferries, catamarans have a high speed of about 40 to 70 miles per hour.

These are made to travel at great speeds to allow their commuters the shortest possible ride to their destination.

The military also utilizes power catamarans. They use power catamarans to transport military cargo. These ships are ideal because of their speed, holding capacity, and ability to venture into shallow ports.

2) Swath Catamarans

They also have small-waterplane-area twin-hull vessels. These are called SWATHs.

These differ from the average catamaran because they also have submarine-like hulls that stay completely under the water.

Due to the hulls being submerged, they are not normally affected by waves. These are used most often in the ocean as research vessels. They can also be used for certain types of yachts. Because of their stability, they are good vessels for furniture that will not require as much securing.

These often travel between 20 and 30 knots.

Some catamarans are designed for wave piercing. These are made to pierce through waves rather than sail over them, causing them to be faster. These can be used as passenger ferries, yachts, and military vessels as well.

3) Whitewater Catamarans

There are also recreational catamarans made for whitewater travel. These are sometimes called “cata-rafts.”

They are made using two inflatable hulls connected with a scaffold. These are lightweight and perfect for whitewater sports.

They are even able to be packed away in a backpack. They can take up to 20 minutes to assemble, including inflation.

They have high speeds on white water rivers and can be most compared to a canoe, kayak, whitewater raft, or other white water vessels.

Performance Characteristics Of Catamarans

Catamarans require four times the power to double their speed. A mono-hull vessel, however, would require eight times the power to double their speed.

This is because a Catamaran has less resistance in the water.

This is also good for conserving and using less energy.

Catamarans are also more stable in the water. This stability is effective at resisting heeling or capsizing. A multi-hull vessel would require four times the force to capsize as a similar-sized mono-hull vessel.

The general sailing in a catamaran is smoother and allows for activities that are not always possible on a mono-hull sailboat.

Are Catamarans Faster than Mono-Hull Vessels?

Because catamarans have less water resistance, they are generally faster than mono-hull vessels.

This is because their hulls are smaller, which means they have a smaller bow wave to fight.

A bow wave is a wave created by the displacement of water by the bow of a ship. After a certain speed, a boat has to start hauling itself over its own bow wave.

The larger hull a ship has, the larger its bow wave will be and the more power required to fight it.

Catamarans have two small and narrow hulls, so they do not have much of an issue with their bow wave. This is one reason they are usually faster than a similar-sized mono-hull vessel.

Catamarans can be between 20-30 percent faster than their monohull counterparts.

Issues with catamarans over mono-hulls are that they can take more time to turn.

How Is The Speed Measured?

Boats commonly measure speed using GPS tracking devices to measure distance traveled. Speed while sailing is measured in knots. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, which equals about 1.15 miles per hour.

How Fast Are Catamarans Compared To Other Boat Types?

• Sailing catamarans typically average about 10 knots.
• Pontoon boats average about 20 mph.
• A powerboat cruiser can average anywhere between 30 and 50 mph.
• Cigarette boats can even reach close to 90 mph in the proper conditions.
• Sailboats average between 6 and 12 mph depending on wind conditions. This includes mono-hull between 6 to 8 mph and catamarans and trimarans between 9 and 10mph

Two different factors can determine the speed of sailing ships:

1) The hull type as listed above.

Different hulls rest in the water more or less than other types. The less of the hull that is underwater, the faster it can go.

This is because the less of the hull in the water, the less drag created while sailing.

2) The length of the boat

The longer the boat, the faster it can go. Every boat has a maximum hull speed that cannot be exceeded unless the boat can plane on the water’s surface or be lifted on hydrofoils.  For most boats, the longer the boat, the higher the maximum hull speed is.

Speed Vs. Comfort Considerations For Catamarans

If you are looking for a catamaran, you have a lot of options.

You can choose to prioritize speed or comfort.

After deciding to purchase a catamaran, the type of catamaran you should look at depends on where and what you are using it for.

You will want to make sure that you look at what type of water you will be traveling in, how many people you are traveling with on average, and what type of speed you hope to achieve.

One thing you will want to keep in mind before the purchase of a catamaran is storage. If you intend to store your boat in a marina, you are often charged for two slips due to the beam, or width, of a catamaran versus the standard mono-hull vessel.

Catamarans can be beneficial for those who get seasick because they offer a steadier ride and the ability to have more open air space. Because the living quarters are not inside the hull and under the water’s surface, you have more windows and visibility.

Both sailing and power catamarans are viable options. Also, sailing catamarans can come with back-up power engines for low winds or situations such as docking in a marina.

Catamarans that have twin engines can offer more control and precision than those on a mono-hull vessel. This is good for tight and busy areas or navigating marinas.

Overall, there are plenty of options for you, and they offer many benefits over their mono-hull counterparts.

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Catamaran Hull Design

• Post author By Rick
• Post date June 29, 2010
• 2 Comments on Catamaran Hull Design

Part 1: Notes from Richard Woods

Since the America’s Cup experimented with going multihull, there’s been a lot of interest in catamaran performance and the catamaran hull designs that define performance. Many guys are investigating whether to buy a catamaran or design and build their dream boat. Let it be said here that building a large catamaran is not for the faint of heart. People begin building 100s of boats a year, yet few are ever completed, as life always seems to have a way of interfering with a good boat build. 

Never the less, since the rest of this website is about selecting and buying a boat , it only seems fair to have at least one webpage that covers catamaran design. This page contains notes on boat hull design goals and an accompanying page from Terho Halme has mathematical formulas used in actual catamaran hull design. It has become a popular research stop and an important reference to the catamaran design community.

The content of this page was reproduced from the maestro of Catamaran designs, renown British naval architect, Richard Woods, who not only designs catamarans, he sails them across oceans…. repeatedly. He has a lot to say on the subject of catamaran hull design.

“…When it’ all said and done, the performance of a sailing catamaran is dependent on three primary specs: length, sail area and weight. If the boat is longer it generally means it’ a faster boat. If she has more sail area, it means she’ a faster boat and if she’ light it means she’ a faster boat.  Of course, there are limits: Too much sail area capsizes the boat in brisk winds. If the boat is designed too light, she will not take any kind of punishment. Too slim a hull design and the boat becomes a large Hobie Cat capable of only carrying your lunch. Of course, too long and large and you’d have to be Bill Gates to afford one. Then there are lot of additional and very important factors like underwater hull shape, aspect ratios of boards and sails, wet deck clearance, rotating or fixed rigging and so on….” Richard Woods

All Catamarans are not equal, but all sailboats have two things in common: They travel on water and they’re wind powered, so the Catamaran design equations in the 2nd part should apply to every catamaran from a heavy cruising Cat to a true ocean racer.

Richard Wood’s comments on catamaran design:

We all know that multihulls can be made faster by making them longer or lighter or by adding more sail. Those factors are the most important and why they are used as the basis of most rating rules. However using just those figures is a bit like determining a cars performance just by its hp and curbside weight. It would also imply that a Tornado would sail as fast forwards as backwards (OK, I know I just wrote that a Catalac went faster backwards than forwards)

So what next?? Weight and length can be combined into the Slenderness Ratio (SLR). But since most multihulls have similar Depth/WL beam ratios you can pretty much say the SLR equates to the LWL/BWL ratio. Typically this will be 8-10:1 for a slow cruising catamaran (or the main hull of most trimarans), 12-14:1 for a performance cruiser and 20:1 for an extreme racer.

So by and large faster boats have finer hulls. But the wetted surface area (WSA) increases proportionately as fineness increases (for a given displacement the half orange shape gives the least WSA) so fine hulls tend to be slower in low wind speeds.

The most important catamaran design hull shape factor, is the Prismatic Coefficient (Cp). This is a measure of the fullness of the ends of the hull. Instinctively you might think that fine ends would be faster as they would “cut through the water better”. But in fact you want a high Cp for high speeds. However everything is interrelated. If you have fine hulls you can use a lower Cp. Most monohulls have a Cp of 0.55- 0.57. And that is about right for displacement speeds.

However the key to Catamaran design is you need a higher Cp if you want to sail fast. So a multihull should be at least 0.61 and a heavy displacement multihull a bit higher still. It is difficult to get much over 0.67 without a very distorted hull shape or one with excessive WSA. So all multihulls should have a Cp between 0.61 and 0.65. None of this is very special or new. It has been well known by naval architects for at least 50 years.

There are various ways of achieving a high Cp. You could fit bulb bows (as Lock Crowther did). Note this bow is a bit different from those seen on ships (which work at very specific hull speeds – which are very low for their LOA). But one problem with them is that these tend to slam in a seaway. 

Another way is to have a very wide planing aft section. But that can increase WSA and leads to other problems I’ll mention in a minute. Finally you can flatten out the hull rocker (the keel shape seen from the side) and add a bustle aft. That is the approach I use, in part because that adds displacement aft, just where it is most needed.

I agree that a high Cp increases drag at low speeds. But at speeds over hull speed drag decreases dramatically on a high Cp boat relative to one with a low Cp. With the correct Cp drag can be reduced by over 10%. In other words you will go 10% faster (and that is a lot!) in the same wind and with the same sails as a boat with a unfavorable Cp. In light winds it is easy to overcome the extra drag because you have lots of stability and so can fly extra light weather sails.

The time you really need a high Cp boat is when beating to windward in a big sea. Then you don’t have the stability and really want to get to your destination fast. At least I do, I don’t mind slowly drifting along in a calm. But I hate “windward bashing”

But when you sail to windward the boat pitches. The sea isn’t like a test tank or a computer program. And here I agree with Evan. Immersed transoms will slow you down (that is why I use a narrower transom than most designers).

I also agree with Evan (and why not, he knows more about Volvo 60 design than nearly anyone else on the planet) in that I don’t think you should compare a catamaran hull to a monohull, even a racing one. Why chose a Volvo 60/Vendee boat with an immersed transom? Why not chose a 60ft Americas Cup boat with a narrow out of the water transom?? 

To be honest I haven’t use Michelet so cannot really comment. But I have tested model catamarans in a big test tank and I know how inaccurate tank test results can be. I cannot believe that a computer program will be better.

It would be easy to prove one way or the other though. A catamaran hull is much like a frigate hull (similar SLR, L/B ratios and Froude numbers) and there is plenty of data available for those. There is also a lot of data for the round bilge narrow non planing motorboats popular in the 1930’-50’s which again are similar to a single multihull hull.

One of the key findings I discovered with my tank test work was just how great the drag was due to wave interference between the hulls. Even a catamaran with a modern wide hull spacing had a drag increase of up to 20 % when compared to hulls at infinite spacing. One reason why just flying a hull is fast (the Cp increases when you do as well, which also helps). So you cannot just double the drag of a single hull and expect to get accurate results. And any speed prediction formula must include a windage factor if it is to give meaningful results.About 25 years ago we sailed two identical 24ft Striders next to each other. They were the same speed. Then we moved the crew of one boat to the bow. That boat IMMEDIATELY went ½ knot faster. That is why I now arrange the deck layout of my racing boats so that the crew can stay in front of the mast at all times, even when tacking or using the spinnaker.

I once raced against a bridge deck cabin catamaran whose skipper kept the 5 crew on the forward netting beam the whole race. He won.

Richard Woods of Woods Designs www.sailingcatamarans.com

• Tags Buying Advice , Catamaran Designers

Owner of a Catalac 8M and Catamaransite webmaster.

2 replies on “Catamaran Hull Design”

I totally agree with what you say. But Uli only talk sailing catamarans.

If only solar power. You need the very best. As limited watts. Hp.

The closer to 1-20 the better.

Closing the hulls to fit in cheaper marina berth. ?

You say not too close. But is that for sailing only.

Any comment is greatly appreciated

Kind regards Jeppe

Superb article

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Cruising Catamaran Speed! With Examples and Explanation

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One of the most popular cruising vessels is cruising catamarans. Cruising catamarans are popular thanks to their stability and space, but some sailors have concerns about cruising catamarans’ speed. So, how fast are cruising catamarans? 

Sailing cruising catamarans can travel at an average of 9-15 knots and max out around 35 kts. Power Cruising catamarans have a maximum speed of 70 knots but averages around 20-25 kts. How fast a catamaran can go also depends on the load it is carrying, its structural design, and its engine power.

This article explores details of what affects a cruising catamaran’s speed. It also considers how fast sailing and power cruising catamarans can go, along with some of the most rapid cruising catamaran models available today. 

How Is a Cruising Catamaran’s Speed Measured?

To better understand a cruising catamaran’s speed, it is essential to consider how a boat’s speed is measured. Boat speed is measured in knots , which is one nautical mile per hour, (or 1.15 mph). One nautical mile is approximately 1.15 land miles. 

The speed of a catamaran is calculated by a GPS tracker that records the distance sailed every hour. 

How Fast Are Sailing Cruising Catamarans? 

The wind powers sailing cruising catamarans – their speed depends on the speed of the wind. If there is a lot of wind, more wind equals higher a faster boat. However, if there is little to no wind, the catamaran won’t move very fast or very far. 

At about 14-16 knots of wind speed, sailing catamarans can average 9-12 knots . Some high-end sailing catamarans can be even faster. For instance, the Gunboat 62 Tribe can sail up to 36.6 knots when the wind is between 35-45 knots.  

How Fast Are Power Cruising Catamarans?

Unlike sailing catamarans, power catamarans do not rely on the wind to move. Instead, they are powered by fuel (usually diesel). This means that they can travel faster than sailing catamarans and that their speed is more reliable. 

Under light loads the Power catamarans can travel at between 20-25 knots. When the load is higher, power catamarans speed drops to 15-20 knots. 

Some high-end catamarans, such as the Freeman 47, can reach up to 70 knots .

What Affects the Speed of a Cruising Catamaran? 

There are several features of a cruising catamaran that impact its speed. These include: 

• The type of hull. The less the hull is submerged into the water, the faster the catamaran will go. When they are submerged, hulls create drag which slows the velocity of the boat. 
• The beam/length ratio. When a catamaran has a higher surface area (stable base), it can better withstand stronger winds, therefore allowing it utilize more of the wind before needing to reduce sail area.
• The material used to construct and reinforce the vessel. When areas of the catamaran are filled with foam, it decreases the catamaran’s weight while ensuring that stability is maintained. As a result, the catamaran has a lighter weight, making it faster. 
• The type of propellers. Propellers are an essential part of a vessel as they act as brakes, which are necessary to slow down and stop a boat. However, many modern cruising catamarans have folding propellers that reduce the boat’s water resistance when the engine is turned off. As a result, the catamaran can travel faster under sail. 
• The engines. The higher the horsepower of the catamaran’s engine, the faster it can go. Most newer catamarans have two engines which makes them faster than the older, one-engined counterparts. 
• The load of the catamaran. Each catamaran has a load-carrying capacity. If the amount of weight the catamaran has onboard exceeds this capacity, it will “sit” lower in the water and significantly slow down the catamaran’s speed. 
• The sail trim and reef. When sail area is reduced (called reefing), the catamaran slows down (in most situations). Properly trimming the sails will also enhance performance.

In addition, catamarans will be faster downwind . Going downwind removes the headwind and will many times allow you to surf with the waves.

Why Should You Look for a Faster Cruising Catamaran?

The old adage is that “slow and steady” wins the race. However, when it comes to cruising catamarans, many sailors believe the faster, the better. Faster catamarans are preferred because they: 

• Allow the crew to quickly move the catamaran out of bad weather conditions, protect the vessel and passengers on board.
• Allow the captain to more predictably calculate Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA).
• A shorter time spent in bad patches of sea making big ocean crossings safer and more enjoyable.

What Are the Fastest Cruising Catamaran Models? 

Some catamarans have been recognized and won awards for their speed. Some of these models are explored below. 

Freeman 47 (Power)

Freeman catamarans are symmetrical catamarans that have especially been designed to carry a heavy load without sacrificing speed. Released in 2020, the Freeman 47 has quad 450R Mercury outboards that allow it to travel at 70 knots.

In addition to the outboards, many features of the Freeman 47 allow it to move faster. It has a fuel capacity of 1000 gallons (3785 liters) and a maximum power of 1800 HP. 

If you’re interested in purchasing or finding out more about the Freeman 47, register your interest on Freemanboatworks.com . 

Glider SS18 (Power)

The Glider SS18 is a power catamaran that was launched in 2017, after eight years of development. It is powered by 300 BHP supercharged engines that allow it to travel for up to 50 knots. It also has a built-in Stability Control System (SCS), ensuring that the catamaran remains stable and comfortable, even when traveling at top speed. 

To buy or get a quotation for the Glider SS18, visit glideryachts.com . 

ICE Cat 61 (Sail)

The Ice Cat 61 is a luxury catamaran. At 61 feet (18.60 meters) long, it is a large catamaran that has been designed with both speed and stability in mind. While its average cruising speed is 12 knots, it can achieve up to 25 knots. 

The ICE Cat 61 has been designed with carbon and glass fiber – materials that allow the boat to be lighter. It has two engines with 55 HP each and a fuel capacity of 206 gallons (780 liters). 

If you’re interested in an ICE Cat 61, you can learn more at iceyachts.it .

Gunboat 68 (Sail)

At 68 feet (20.8 meters) long, the Gunboat 68 makes for an impressive sight on the open ocean. It averages 20 knots but can reach 30 knots depending on the amount of wind power. 

The Gunboat 68 has been designed by VPLP, also known as the ‘ fastest naval architects in the world .’ It has been designed with large sails, long daggerboards, and material that has lighter weight. This vessel also has retractable rudders, which reduce the boat’s drag. 

To find out more about the Gunboat 68 or register interest in purchasing one, visit Gunboat.com . 

Conclusion 

A catamaran’s speed depends on its design, its load, its type, and on a variety of other factors. However, on average, most sailing catamarans can achieve between 9-15 knots, while power catamarans can, on average, achieve between 20-25 knots. If you are looking to splurge for the best on the market, some power catamarans can reach 50-70 knots. 

If you’re looking to buy a cruising catamaran, make sure you use the information you have gained to assess the speed of the catamaran you are considering. A faster catamaran can make for safer and more exciting sailing. Ultimately, it will make your cruising experience more enjoyable and satisfying. 

Owner of CatamaranFreedom.com. A minimalist that has lived in a caravan in Sweden, 35ft Monohull in the Bahamas, and right now in his self-built Van. He just started the next adventure, to circumnavigate the world on a Catamaran!

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Hull Speed Calculator

Table of contents

Welcome to the hull speed calculator . If you've ever seen a boat go so fast that its nose started rising, then you've seen the concept of hull speed in action. In this article, we'll explain what hull speed is and what it means for a ship's design. Later, we'll show you how to calculate hull speed with the hull speed formula, so that you can work out how to calculate hull speed for your own boat.

What is hull speed?

Hull speed is the speed at which a vessel with a displacement hull must travel for its waterline to be equal to its bow wave's wavelength. A displacement hull travels through water, instead of on top of it as a planing hull (like a kiteboard ) would, thereby displacing water with its buoyancy as it sails. The pressure that this displacement exerts on the water creates a wave; this wave is known as the vessel's bow wave . A slow-moving boat's bow wave might make small waves, but, as the boat sails faster, the bow wave's wavelength λ \lambda λ grows. When the wavelength meets the waterline length (that's also when the bow wave's first and second crests are at opposite tips of the waterline), the boat is said to be traveling at hull speed. Take a look at the picture below to see what we mean:

Why does hull speed matter?

Although it's not perfect, hull speed remains a useful concept that can help us answer questions about how fast a sailboat can go, and the optimal amount of thrust you need to keep a boat moving forward.

A boat's hull speed limits how fast it can travel efficiently. When traveling at hull speed, the boat's bow wave and stern wave have synchronized and constructive interference occurs, which allows the boat to move very efficiently. However, at speeds greater than hull speed, a vessel's nose automatically starts rising as the vessel tries to climb its bow wave. This process is called planing , and it wastes lots of energy. Trying to move faster than the hull speed will therefore require more and more thrust (whether that comes from sails, rowing, or engines) in exchange for smaller and smaller gains in speed as more energy is wasted angling the boat upwards. Hull speed can therefore be said to impose a flat limit on how fast a sailboat can go.

Shortcomings of hull speed

Although the physics behind hull speed is sound, it is heavily dependent on the hull's shape. Long and thin hulls with piercing designs can easily break their hull speed without planing. Such hulls are found on:

• Catamarans; and
• Competitive kayaks.

A hull's design can enable it to circumvent the workings of hull speed. It is for this reason that hull speed is not used in present-day ship design; naval institutions nowadays favor more modern measurements of speed-to-length ratio, such as the Froude number .

How to calculate hull speed

The formula for hull speed only needs the length of the vessel's waterline in feet, denoted as L waterline L_\text{waterline} L waterline ​ . With this length, the vessel's hull speed in knots can be calculated with

If you want to instead work out exactly how long your new boat's waterline must be for it to have a certain hull speed, you can invert the formula to obtain

How to use the hull speed calculator

The hull speed calculator is just as easy to use as the formula.

Enter your vessel's waterline length into the first field. This is the length of your boat's hull at the height of the waterline. Your vessel's hull speed will then be calculated and presented in the second field.

You can also use the hull speed calculator backward to work out how long a vessel's waterline must be if you know its hull speed.

You can freely change the units of your measurements without interfering with the hull speed formula.

How can I increase my boat's hull speed without changing its hull?

Load your boat heavier! If you think about a normal displacement hull, it's usually narrower near the bottom than at the deck. So pushing it down with some weight will lengthen the boat's waterline, and so its hull speed is increased. Of course, heavier boats are harder to move, so while your loaded boat now has a higher hull speed, you would need more power to move it.

Waterline length

The length of the ship at its waterline.

The speed at which the ship's waterline length equals its bow wave's wavelength.

My Cruiser Life Magazine

Sailing Catamaran Speed

You’ve probably heard that one of the best reasons to get a catamaran is because they’re fast. After all, there’s a race any time there are two sailboats on the same waterway.

But like all things in boating, speed is a relative term. Catamarans seem fast to those coming from slow and heavy monohull sailboats, but cruising catamarans are still pretty slow vessels. There are indeed high-tech racing catamarans breaking speed records all the time. Still, the vessels that most liveaboard cruisers venture out on are only slightly faster than their monohull counterparts. 

For this article, we will look at the types of catamarans people live on and cruise on. Forget about those fantastic America’s Cup yachts or those multihull go-fast fishing boats for a few minutes. 

I have had experience cruising and living aboard both catamarans and monohulls. For five years, my wife and I enjoyed catamaran sailing on a Lagoon 380. We then switched—for many reasons—to a Cabo Rico 38. The Cabo Rico is a traditionally-designed monohull with a full keel and a heavy displacement. In other words, it’s about as far away from a “speedy” catamaran as one can get.

Table of Contents

How fast can a catamaran go, measuring catamaran speed, catamaran speeds vs monohull speeds, sailing cruising catamarans, performance cruising catamarans, racing catamarans, power cruising catamarans, catamaran top speed, faqs – how fast are catamarans.

There’s no doubt that catamarans are some of the fastest sailboats around—but there’s also a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding online about how fast they really are. 

Realize that not all catamarans are created equally. There are cruising catamarans built to carry their passengers in comfort. And then there are racing catamarans built for nothing but speed. Somewhere in between, there is a poorly-defined category of “performance cruising” catamarans that stir passions.

So, are catamarans fast? Well, it’s all relative. But, if you compare them to monohull sailboats of similar sizes and capabilities, the catamarans are usually faster for several reasons. 

The speed difference is even harder to measure in the cruising catamaran category. One of the reasons catamarans beat monohulls during races is because they are built light with no ballast. But a heavily-laden cruising cat ready for an ocean crossing is hardly “lightly loaded.” Will it still beat a similarly heavily-laden monohull? Sure! But probably not by as much as you might think.

Boats measure their speed in knots. Traditionally, this was measured by a tool known as a knot log. The modern equivalent is an underwater instrument with a spinning wheel that effectively measures the speed of the water passing over the hull. So long as no currents are present, that speed will equal the boat’s speed over the ground (SOG).

Satellite navigation allows us to measure our SOG more accurately, but this isn’t a great indication of boat performance since it will be affected by tides and ocean currents. 

For landlubbers, one knot is equal to about 1.15 statute miles. So, in other words, when we say that a sailboat cruises at 6 knots, it means it’s going about 7 mph.

But before going any further, consider this—the maximum speed that a sailboat makes is generally a pretty meaningless number. Maybe the knot log pegs to 13 knots for a few seconds, thanks to a strong gust of wind while you’re headed down a large swell. Does this mean you’re driving a 13-knot boat?

A voyaging sailor who has made a long passage will have little interest in this sort of number. When you’re crossing oceans, what really matters is how many miles pass under the keel each day. The more miles you tick off, the shorter the passage. So most sailors learn quickly to look past the “fastest speed in knots” number and find real-world stats on passage miles. 

Comparing speeds between radically different sailing vessel hulls is like comparing apples to oranges. Even seemingly similar boats, like “cruising sailboats,” the differences between one and the other are endless.

For example, let’s say you wanted to compare 38-foot monohulls to 38-foot catamarans. The speed of a monohull is limited by waterline length, which means you’d have to look at a hull that is significantly more than 38 feet in most cases. On the other hand, the catamaran is known for long swim platforms on inverse transoms and plumb bows—meaning most 38 foot cats have nearly 38 feet of waterline. 

Then, what sort of hull design makes a fair comparison to a catamaran? Would it make sense to compare a transitional, salty 38-footer with a full keel? Probably not. Most sailors interested in the cruising catamaran lifestyle would more than likely be comparing it to a modern monohull with a flatter bottom, fin keel, and spade rudder. 

What about the catamaran? There’s a lot of variation in the catamaran field regarding performance. If speed is your goal, you likely want to compare the high-end performance brands—Outremer, Gunboat, HH, and the like. These boats are becoming more popular, but most cruising cats you see on the water are not performance models. Instead, they are the big and comfortable cruisers made by Lagoon, Leopard, or Fountaine Pajot.

Finally, how can you fairly compare the stats? Boats sail differently in different wind speeds and at different points of sail. In other words—there are a lot of variables that make it hard to answer the question, “How fast can a catamaran go?”

Polar charts for each vessel can provide some clues to make a somewhat fair comparison. Polar charts are graphical plots of a sailboat’s performance in different wind conditions and at different points of sail. Manufacturers seldom publish since no two are ever perfectly alike. They are less of a boat specification and more of one sailor’s results for a particular boat. Most owners make their own polar diagrams, but they’re still a tool for those looking to get an idea of a model’s performance in the real world.

Speeds of Various Types of Sailing Catamarans

There are several distinct catamaran classes, and predicting speed means understanding what the designers were building the craft to do. You might be surprised to learn that the first “modern” catamarans popped up in the New England racing circles in the late 1800s. Nat Herreshoff’s Amaryllis is particularly famous from the time .

Since then, catamarans have been synonymous with speed. But in today’s world of many different multihull designs, it’s important to set your expectations accordingly. As you would not buy a Ferrari for its cargo space, don’t expect your minivan to win any races at the track.

Examples of cruising cats include popular models made by the big-three catamaran makers—Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot, and Leopard. However, there are dozens of other companies making these boats. The market and industry for cruising catamarans have never been larger. 

Most of these boats are engineered to provide comfortable accommodations for voyaging. They first became famous as vessels for sail charter holidays, where their huge cockpits and private cabins made them much more popular than the smaller and cramped monohull options.

As a result, they’re not built with high-tech components or super lightweight performance rigs. Instead, they’re the catamaran equivalent of a Hunter or a Catalina sailboat—mass-produced on an assembly line. That keeps prices lower than other types of catamarans, but it also means that they’re not winning any races. The makers use traditional layups with end-grain balsa-cored fiberglass to keep costs down. In addition, they usually feature stub fin keels, which are foolproof to sail but will not provide the upwind performance of a lift-making daggerboard. 

Still, without ballast and when lightly loaded, cruising catamarans can move. They show their colors in light air when heavy displacement-hulled sailboats usually make their poorest showing. Since these moderate conditions also make for great cruising, these boats can provide a lovely ride in smooth weather. 

Cruising catamarans can’t plane or anything, but their narrow hulls create an effect that means they can beat the hull speeds of a similarly sized monohull. Of course, it’s not a precise number since every boat and crew is different, but generally, you could expect speeds to be about one and a half times that of a same-sized monohull.

These catamarans are still rigged for comfort, but they’re built using the highest-quality and lightest-weight materials. While their hulls are rigged for comfortable living, they are generally designed much sleeker than regular charter-style cruising catamarans. The hulls are narrower, and you’re unlikely to see tall flybridges or forward lounge seating.

Several companies are making these boats. But in the world of catamarans, a performance cruiser is the upper end of the market. If you want a car comparison, Lagoons are something like a Chevy sedan, whereas an Outremer is like an M-series BMW. A Gunboat would be even more exotic, like a Ferrari. Not only are they more fashionable brands, but they’re also made to higher standards with cutting-edge designs . 

It’s also worth noting that the category of “performance cruising cat” is a sliding scale. Some companies make vessels with better materials and craftsmanship than the cruising cats but aren’t designed for speed. Others build cats that are all about performance with few amenities. 

With every new model, companies building these cutting-edge boats are attempting to boost the “performance” and the “cruising” aspect of their vessels. As a result, amenities and speed continue to get better and better. 

Any racing sailboat is not designed for comfort. Especially on a catamaran, accommodations take up space and weigh the boat down. True racing vessels are designed to not worry about the crew but optimize every element for speed. Once the boat is designed for the desired performance, they’ll squeeze in bunks and storage wherever they can. 

As such, there’s not much point in comparing them to liveaboard or cruising sailing vessels—they are too different. Some modern racing catamarans even fly above the water on foils. This makes for a high-speed boat and a considerable risk for sailors traveling for pleasure. Gunboat tried to make a foiling cruising cat in the G4 model, but it didn’t go so well for them. 

Power cats run the same gamut of designs that sailing catamarans do. Power catamarans and sport catamarans designs are popular in powerboat circles for the same reasons they are in the sailing world–their hull designs allow for smaller underwater profiles and high speeds. There are many fast catamarans out there with twin engines and average speeds of well over 70 knots. Most recreational vessels cruise at about 20 knots, however.

Power catamarans also offer a smooth ride, making them a popular choice for large vessels like passenger ferries. There are even military vessels that use two hulls, like the stealth M80 Stiletto .

As you can see, catamaran speeds vary from just slightly better than monohulls to extraordinary flying machines. But cats are about much more than just speed. Their open and bright living space makes living aboard an entirely different experience than living on a monohull. Their cockpits flow into their salons for a full-time outdoor living feel that no other type of vessel can match. There are many reasons to choose a catamaran as a liveaboard sailboat.

How fast is a catamaran?

The answer depends on many other questions, like what sort of catamaran is it? And if it’s a sail cat, how fast is the wind blowing? 

Sailing catamarans come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are optimized for living space and comfort, while others are designed with fast cruising speeds being the sole goal of the boat. The Gunboat 68, one of the fastest cruising sailboats currently made, can exceed 30 knots. 

The world of power cats is much the same. Some power cats can do well over 70 knots, while most cruising boats top out at around 20 knots.

Do catamarans have a hull speed?

A hull speed is a characteristic of traditional displacement-hulled sailing vessels. The properties of the hull shape under the water create drag that limits the overall speed that the vessel can achieve. Even if you keep adding more power (or more wind), the vessel cannot exceed its designed hull speed for any length of time. Hull speed is a factor of waterline length. 

Multihulls, however, have an entirely different underwater profile than monohulls. Their narrow hulls and shallow keels mean that drag is not the limiting factor. With this in mind, designers can tweak catamaran hulls to plane and cruise well above the hull speed of a similarly sized monohull.

What is the fastest cruising catamaran?

The market for fast-moving cruising cats has never seen more innovation than in the past decade. This type of boat has taken off, spurred in part by new designs and the overall popularity of multihulls for cruising. The industry leader in fast multihulls is generally considered the French-based company Gunboat . After all, one of the company’s mottos is “Life is too short to sail a slow boat.”

The company’s largest boat to date is the Gunboat 90 Sunshine . However, the delivery of the company’s current flagship, the Gunboat 68 Condor , from France to St. Maarten, provides some real-world numbers. In the delivery crew’s words, “Our max speed exceeded 30 knots a couple of times, and the max 24-hour run was 328 nm.” To save you the math, that works out for an average speed of 13.7 knots for their best day.

Matt has been boating around Florida for over 25 years in everything from small powerboats to large cruising catamarans. He currently lives aboard a 38-foot Cabo Rico sailboat with his wife Lucy and adventure dog Chelsea. Together, they cruise between winters in The Bahamas and summers in the Chesapeake Bay.

• PERFORMANCE TOPICS

Optimising Hull Lines for Performance

This article was inspired by a question about the rocker line in the new 8.5m cat Design 256 and I want to stick to the point, so we won’t turn it into a book, but I’ll discuss two issues, hull fineness ratio and some aspects of the rocker profile.

When you manipulate the hull form you’re adjusting the lines in three planes, waterplanes (plan view), buttocks (side view including the keel rocker) and the section shapes. So you need to be aware of how the shapes are changing in the other two planes as you manipulate any one of these three, or all three globally as is now possible with computer modelling.

There are two fundamental constants that you start with and don’t change throughout the process. The big one is the displacement or the amount of buoyancy you need.

If you make the hull finer by narrowing the waterlines you have to increase the draft or make the ends fuller to get back to the required displacement number.

If you flatten the rocker line you have to increase the hull width, fill out the ends, or square up the section shapes rather than having a V or rounded V. 

The other constant is the longitudinal centre of buoyancy. You really can’t do any meaningful shaping of the hull form until you have settled on the these two constants.

A third number that we can plug in as a constant if we want to is the prismatic coefficient which describes bow much volume there is end the ends relative to the cross section shape in the middle of the boat, but in sailing boats this is of less importance compared to other factors. 

The hull lines for Design 256, 8.5m Cat. It's that hump in the rocker line - right under the back of the cabin that brought up the question and is one of the key points discussed here.

Hull fineness.

Fine hulls are fast, but only in the higher speed range. There’s a misconception I come across quite a bit that you can add weight and windage and you’ll still be fast as long as your hulls are fine.

Well you won’t be. Your boat will simply sink to find the new state of equilibrium. If your transoms are submerged you’ll have more drag. If your bridge deck is too close to the water you’ll have slamming. Much better to be conservative with your displacement figure in the design stage than overly optimistic.

And fine hulls have more wetted area so you have more drag in light air where friction resistance is the primary drag factor. 

I’ve seen promotional material for catamarans stating that the boat has less wetted area because it has fine hulls. For a given displacement the minimum wetted area is described by a sphere (or a semi sphere in the case of a floating object). The more you stretch it out in length, keeping the displacement constant, the more wetted area you have.

The more you make the section shape into a deep V or a broad U with tight corners, as opposed to a semicircle, the more wetted area you have. Add into the equation finer hulls are slower to tack.

So fine hulls are only an advantage if your boat is light and has enough sail area to ensure you’re travelling at speeds where form resistance is greater than skin resistance.

In my view the advantage of fine hulls is often overrated as it applies to cruising cats.

At the other end of the scale the resistance curve is fairly flat up to about 1:9 which is still quite fast in most conditions. From there the resistance rises steeply as the hull gets fatter and at 1:8 and fatter you’re suffering from some serious form drag.

This is the rocker line isolated from the lines plan above (in blue) and and the red line shows a more moderate rocker line that achieves the same buoyancy and maintains the centre of buoyancy in the same position.  The bow is to the right.

In the image lower right I've squashed it up and increased the height to make the difference in the lines more obvious.

The difference in the two lines is quite subtle, but races are often won or lost by seconds.

Rocker Profile

So if we’re looking for low wetted area we would want a rocker profile that was even and rounded, relatively deep in the middle and rising smoothly to the surface at each end. But this would give us a low prismatic which is not ideal in the higher speed range, and it’s not ideal for pitch damping which in my view is the critical design factor that is often underrated. 

Pitching is slow. It destroys the airflow in your sails and the flow around the hulls, and your performance is suffering from slamming loads.

The single most effective way to counter pitching is with asymmetry in the water planes. You can achieve that in the with a fine bow and broad transom. Or you can achieve it with V sections forward and a flattened U shape aft. Or you can achieve it in the profile view with a very straight run forward and a bump in the aft sections. A flatter rocker line is better for resisting pitching than an evenly curved one with deeper draft in the middle.

The final result is a combination of all three of these factors.

On a cat like Design 256 the weight is concentrated well aft so we need to get buoyancy well aft.

The kink you see in the rocker profile helps to do this. It also helps to keep the rocker straight for most of its length and smooth the water flow exiting the hull aft at higher speeds, possibly promoting some planing effect.

If we had a more even rocker line we would slightly reduce the wetted area, but we would increase the pitching and the water would exit the hull aft at a steeper angle, increasing form drag in the higher speed range.

How much of a bump can you put in there without creating a flow separation, and how damaging would that flow separation be? I really don’t know. The way all of these factors interplay in the various conditions we sail in is very complex.

Ultimately a lot of this work is gut feel nurtured by experience, observing things in nature and most importantly experimenting and trying new ideas.

Is the new Groupama AC45 a breakthrough that will influence the form of racing catamarans into the future? I don’t think anyone has a computer that can answer that. We have to wait and see.

Symmetric and non symmetric water-planes. The blue line with grey fill is the DWL from the design above. As is typical with modern cat hulls the bow is long and fine, the stern is full and rounded. This is the asymmetry that has a damping effect on pitching. The red line on the other hand is more like you would see on a double ended monohull and quite a few multihulls have also used this shape in the past. It's quite symmetric about the pitch axis and does not have good pitch resistance.

The hull lines of the new 8.5m Sports Cat Design 256

Mad Max , Previously Carbon Copy . She was designed in 1997 but she's the current (2016) title holder of the Australian Multihull Chamionships (2 successive years) and the fastest inshore racing boat in Australian waters.

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Busting the hull speed myth

• julianwolfram
• December 13, 2021

Waterline length is not the defining factor in maximum boat speed that we all think it is. Julian Wolfram busts the hull speed myth

Modern hull forms, like this Jeanneau SO440, use chines to create volume forward while keeping a narrow entrance at the waterline

Every sailor is delighted when the breeze picks up and the boat really starts to get going with a bone in her teeth.

Julian Wolfram is a physicist, naval architect, former professor of ocean engineering at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh and a Yachtmaster Offshore who has cruised and raced for 45 years

The crew will want to know how fast she will go and perhaps surreptitiously race her against any similar sized boat in the vicinity.

Speculation may start about what allows one boat to go faster than another – is it the hull shape or the sails?

It is easy to spot good, well-trimmed sails but what about the hull ?

The important part is not visible below the water surface. However there is one key indicator that is often very apparent – the waves generated by the sailing yacht.

When a yacht picks up speed the wave pattern around it grows and the greater the speed the bigger the waves .

The energy in these waves is proportional to the square of their height – double the height and the energy goes up by a factor of four.

This energy comes from the wind , via the sails and rig , making the hull push water out of the way.

If less of this wind energy was wasted in producing waves the yacht would go faster.

When a typical displacement monohull reaches a speed-to-length ratio of around 1.1 to 1.2 (speed in knots divided by the square root of the waterline in feet) up to half the wind energy driving it is usually wasted in generating waves.

The hull speed myth: Half angle of entrance

So how can we tell if a yacht will sail efficiently, or have high wave resistance and waste a lot of energy generating waves?

The answer starts back in the 19th century with the Australian J H Michell.

In 1898 he wrote one of the most important papers in the history of naval architecture in which he developed a formula for calculating wave resistance of ships.

Light displacement cruising boat: The bow of this Feeling 44 is finer than older cruising boats

This showed that wave resistance depended critically on the angle of the waterlines to the centreline of the ship – the half angle of entrance.

The smaller the angle the smaller the height of the waves generated and the lower the wave-making drag.

A knife blade can slice through water with minimal disturbance – drag the knife’s handle through and you generate waves.

The big hull speed myth

For a displacement hull the so-called ‘hull speed’ occurs when the waves it generates are the same length as the hull.

This occurs when the speed-length ratio is 1.34.

It is claimed that hulls cannot go significantly faster than this without planing. It is called ‘the displacement trap’ but is a myth.

Heavy displacement cruising boat: An older design has a bow that is several degrees wider

As an example, consider a 25ft (7.6m) boat that goes at 10 knots in flat water.

This is a speed-length ratio of two. That is the average speed over 2,000m for a single sculls rower in a world record time.

The reason for this high speed is a half angle of entrance of less than 5º. Hobie Cats, Darts and many other catamarans have similarly low angles of entrance and reach even higher speed-length ratios with their V-shaped displacement hulls.

These hulls also have almost equally fine sterns, which is also critically important to their low wave resistance.

The monohull problem

Now a monohull sailing yacht needs reasonable beam to achieve stability and, unless waterline length is particularly long, the half angle of entrance will inevitably be much larger than those on rowing skulls and multihulls .

In his 1966 Sailing Yacht Design Douglas Phillips-Birt suggests values of 15º to 30º for cruising yachts.

Many older cruising yachts with long overhangs and short waterline lengths, for their overall length, have values around the top of this range.

Busting the hull speed myth: A Thames barge is a similar length and beam to a J-Class, but its bluff bow, built for volume, makes it much slower. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Newer sailing yachts, with plumb bows, have somewhat smaller half angles and a modern 12m-long fast cruiser may have a value around 20º and a racing yacht 17º or 18º.

Size matters here as, to achieve stability, a little yacht is likely to have a bigger half angle than a large one, such as the German Frers-designed 42m (138ft), Rebecca which has a half angle of entrance of under 13º.

Rebecca also has a fine, elegant stern which helps minimise the stern wave – I’ll come back to sterns and stern waves.

Interestingly the half angle of entrance is not mentioned in the otherwise excellent 2014 Principles of Yacht Design by Larsson et al, although it is currently used as one of the parameters in the preliminary estimation of wave resistance for ships.

While it is still particularly applicable to very slender hulls, naval architects are not generally familiar with Michell’s work.

His formula for wave resistance involves quadruple integrals of complex functions.

German-Frers’ designed Rebecca has a half angle of entrance of just 18°. Credit: Cory Silken

These are not ‘meat and drink’ for your average naval architect, and only a few mathematically inclined academics have much interest in theoretical wave resistance.

Michell’s work is rarely, if ever, covered in naval architecture courses now.

Nowadays the emphasis is much more on numerical methods, high-speed computers and computational fluid mechanics (CFD) using the so called Navier-Stokes equations.

Examining these equations, which apply to any fluid situation, does not give any insights into wave resistance, albeit they can model wave resistance very well when used in the piecewise manner of CFD.

It is very easy to measure the half angle of entrance at the design waterline when a yacht is out of the water.

Take a photograph directly upwards from the ground under the centreline at the bow.

Busting the hull speed myth: Multihulls achieve high speeds due to fine hulls, light displacement and ample stability. Credit: Joe McCarthy/Yachting Monthly

Now blow this up on a computer screen, or print it off at a large scale, and measure the angle with a protractor.

Alternatively, if you have a properly scaled accommodation plan drawn for a level close to the design waterline this will yield a reasonable approximation of the half angle of entrance.

Unfortunately there is not a simple relationship between the fineness of the bow and the wave drag.

But, all other things being equal, the smaller the half angle the better.

It is easy to measure and is a useful parameter to know when comparing yachts.

Stern shape and hull speed

The half angle of entrance cannot be taken alone as a measure of wave drag, and the fairness of the hull and in particular the run aft is also critical.

Just as the half angle of entrance dictates the height of the bow wave, so the fineness of the stern is a key influence on the height of the stern wave.

Consider the water flowing around both sides of the hull and meeting at the stern.

Modern race boats, like Pip Hare ‘s IMOCA 60, combine a fine angle of entrance with wide, flat hulls for maximum form stability and planing ability. Credit: Richard Langdon

If these streams meet at a large angle the water will pile up into a high stern wave.

On the other hand if they meet at a shallow angle there will be less piling up. A fine stern can maintain a streamline flow of water.

However if the sides of the hull meet at the stern at a large angle then the streamline flow will tend to separate from the hull, leaving a wide wake full of drag-inducing eddies.

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In many modern designs the hull sides are not far off parallel at the stern and it is then the upward slope of the buttock lines that are critical and, again, the shallower the slope the better from a hull drag perspective.

The slope of the buttocks can easily be measured if the lines plan is available and a good indication can be obtained from a profile drawing or a photo taken beam on with the boat out of the water.

Drawing a chalk line parallel to the centreline and half a metre out from it will provide a buttock line that can be checked visually for fairness when the boat is viewed from abeam.

A rowing scull easily exceeds its theoretical max hull speed. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Again, the smaller the angle the better – provided the transom is clear of the water.

An angle of more than 17º will lead to separated flow and eddy making. This also happens if the transom is immersed.

The greater the immersion the greater the drag, so weight in stern lockers on modern boats can be critical.

Modern hull design

The modern wedge shape attempts to resolve the conflicting demands of a small angle of entrance, good stability and a fine stern.

The plumb bow extends the waterline forward and, with the maximum beam taken well aft, the hull forward can be relatively narrow, providing a low half angle of entrance.

The stern is wide, which helps achieve good stability, but at the same time the buttocks rise slowly at a shallow angle to the water surface.

This gives a smooth and gradual change in the hull’s cross section area ensuring the water flow remains attached to the hull and that the stern wave is kept low.

A modern cruising boat gains stability from a wide stern, but needs twin rudders

This wide, flat stern also helps surfing down waves and possibly planing.

Some designs have chines just above the design waterline which increases usable internal volume and gives a little more form stability when heeled.

However, as soon as the chine is immersed there will be separation along the chine edge as water will not flow smoothly around a sharp edge.

It is just not possible to get the chine perfectly aligned with the streamlines of the water flow in all sailing conditions and there will be some extra drag at times.

There are two downsides to the wedge- shaped hull.

Overloading aft will create a large increase in drag

First the boat has to be sailed at a small angle of heel to keep the rudder properly immersed and to avoid broaching. This can be offset to some extent by using twin rudders .

The second is that the weight must be kept relatively low.

This is because a relatively small increase in weight causes a big increase in wetted surface area at the stern and hence in the frictional drag which makes the boat slower, particularly in light airs.

This is the downside of slowing rising buttocks and the reason why dinghy sailors get their weight forward in a light breeze .

Displacement Length Ratios

Traditionally for sailing yachts the displacement-length ratio has been used as a measure of speed potential, partly because it is easy to calculate from the yacht particulars.

It is waterline length (in metres) divided by the cube root of displacement (in cubic metres or tonnes).

A heavy boat, such as the Heard 35, will have a value of about 4 to 4.8.

A more moderate displacement boat, such as the Hallberg Rassy 342 or Dufour 32 Classic, will have a value in the range 5 to about 5.5; whilst a racing boat may a value of up to, and even over, 7.

A heavy displacement cruising boat with a fair run aft is less affected by additional weight

However the displacement length ratio can be misleading as making a hull 20% deeper and 20% narrower will keep the displacement the same but will significantly reduce the half angle of entrance and the wave drag.

It is interesting to note a Thames barge in racing trim has the same length-displacement ratio as a J class yacht, but their speed potential is vastly different.

Finally I should mention the older ‘length-displacement’ ratio, which is quoted in imperial units.

This is calculated by dividing a boat’s displacement in tons (2,240 pounds) by one one-hundredth of the waterline length (in feet) cubed.

Credit: Maxine Heath

It is still used in the USA and should be treated with caution.

The myth that your boat’s speed is only restricted by it waterline length does a disservice to its designers, and does little to help you understand how to get the best from her when the wind picks up.

Have a look at how the boat is loaded, how you sail on the wind, your boat handling and how much canvas you ask her to carry and you may discover more speed than you expect.

The remarkable John Henry Mitchell

Pioneer of wave theory

It’s worth saying a little more about the remarkable John Henry Michell.

He produced a series of ground-breaking papers including one that proved a wave would break when its height reached a seventh of its length.

He was the son of Devon miner who had emigrated to the gold mining area near Melbourne.

He showed such promise that he got a scholarship to Cambridge.

He was later elected a fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 35 – not bad for the son of a Devonshire miner.

His brother George was no slouch either – he invented and patented the thrust bearing that is named after him.

The half angle of entrance became the traditional factor for assessing the fineness of hulls.

It is defined as the angle the designed waterline makes with the centreline at the bow.It varies from less than 5º for very fine hull forms up to 60º or more for a full-form barge.

At higher speeds, modest increases in the half angle can give rise to substantial increases in wave resistance.

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Catamaran Vs Monohull

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

August 30, 2022

Monohulls and traditional sailboats, once ubiquitous, are giving way to modern catamarans. But how do these designs differ?

Monohulls have a single hull, and catamarans have two hulls side-by-side. Catamarans are faster than monohulls of the same length and displacement, but monohulls are stronger and more spacious. Monohulls are also cheaper and easier to build than multi-hulls.

In this article, we’ll cover the differences between catamarans and monohulls, along with the benefits and drawbacks of each design. We’ll also cover the sailing characteristics of each and why catamarans so easily outrun equivalently-sized monohulls.

We sourced the information used in this article from trusted sailboat design resources, along with manufacturer specifications and boat market analysis.

Table of contents

‍ What is a Catamaran?

Catamarans are a kind of multi-hull sailboat with two hulls joined together. They are often short and wide, resembling a square or rectangle from above.

Catamarans are colloquially distinct from outriggers, which are double-hulled vessels with one large primary hull and a small outboard stabilizing hull.

Catamarans usually have hulls that mirror each other, both in size and arrangement. Sometimes, the interior layouts are mirrored, too—but this varies between designs and manufacturers. Catamaran hulls are narrower and taller than most monohull designs of equal lengths.

Catamarans have limited commercial and military utility, as these applications favor space and ease-of-construction over handling characteristics. That said, there are some commercial uses for catamaran designs—most commonly passenger and car ferries.

What is a Monohull Sailboat?

A monohull is probably what you traditionally think of as a boat. Monohulls are longer than they are wide. It features a single hull—it’s that simple. Sailing monohull designs have evolved over the centuries into many distinct types, usually distinguished by keel type.

Monohulls come in many shapes and sizes . For example, sailing monohulls designed for offshore use have long keels that sometimes extend much further below the waterline than the freeboard and cabin extend above it.

Monohull sailboats are also designed for other purposes, such as inland sailing and racing. These vessels have more contemporary characteristics, such as rounded shallow ‘canoe’ bottoms, V-bottoms, and fin keels.

Monohulls aren’t just sailboats. Virtually every cargo and container ship, warship, and many passenger ships are monohulls due to their strength, ease of construction, and high cargo capacity.

Are Monohull Sailboats More Common?

Monohulls are more common in every application, though multi-hulls are becoming more common for ferries. Monohulls have numerous benefits over multi-hulls, and these benefits only increase with scale.

Monohulls are easy to construct. They’re also cheap. Large monohull ships, such as container ships, can be built with very little material and effort. This is because the vast majority of the length of a monohull is just a box, with a bow and stern welded onto the end.

Sailboat construction is more intricate, but the costs are still lower. Plus, monohull designs are robust, and cabin space is plentiful. There’s a lot more study in the field of monohull design, which was the universal truth until somewhat recently.

But all in all, the reason why monohull sailboats are more common is that they work just fine. Most sailboat owners aren’t interested in breaking speed records or hosting dozens of people aboard their boats. As a result, a standard, simple, and easy-to-control monohull are more than sufficient.

Are Catamarans Faster than Monohulls?

Catamarans are most certainly faster than monohulls. This is almost always the case. Even the fastest production monohulls can’t hold a candle to the average cruising catamaran.

But why is this the case? Aren’t catamarans restricted by the same hydrodynamic forces as monohulls? As it turns out, they aren’t. This has to do with the unusual way hull waves impact speed.

Hull Speed Limitations

Monohull speed is limited by something called hull speed. Hull speed is determined using a formula that calculates the maximum speed a displacement hull can travel under normal power and conditions.

When a displacement hull moves through the water, it kicks up a set of waves at the bow and stern. These waves travel along the side of the vessel and create drag, which slows down the boat. Normally, the power of the wind can overcome this drag—but only to a point.

At a certain speed, the waves kicked up by the bow will sync with the waves kicked up at the stern and begin ‘working together’ against the boat. The speed at which this occurs is the hull speed, which is calculated from the length of the boat.

Hull speed limitations for monohulls aren’t universally true all the time. Some vessels exceed it, and some don’t—but the number is a useful estimate of the limitations of monohull designs. Modern monohulls with clever hull shapes can defeat hull speed calculations.

Do Hull Speed Limitations Apply to Catamarans?

Surprisingly no—hull speed calculations don’t work for catamarans. This is because, for one, the hulls are shaped differently. Alone, catamaran hulls wouldn’t float correctly. But together, they create different hydrodynamic effects and cancel out the effects of hull speed.

This means that catamarans can easily exceed the speeds of even the fastest monohulls of equal length—and sometimes beat them by a margin of 50% or more. It’s not unheard of for 40-foot catamarans to exceed 20 knots, whereas 40-foot monohulls rarely get past 10.

Are Catamarans More Comfortable than Monohulls?

Catamarans can be much more comfortable than equivalently-sized monohulls—up to a point. This is because catamarans engage in ‘wave piercing’ and have a wider and more stable footprint on the water.

Catamaran hulls, when properly designed, can slice through parts of a wave instead of riding over every peak and trough. This effectively reduces the height of the weight, which reduces the amount the boat rolls.

Additionally, the wide footprint of a catamaran allows some waves to simply pass right under it, keeping the boat level for longer durations. Catamarans also don’t heel under sail—instead, they plane slightly, raising the bows out of the water and reducing bumps.

Monohull Benefits

Monohulls are proven in all conditions. A well-designed displacement monohull sailboat can ride out the strongest storms, and monohull workboats can support enormous loads and move them efficiently. They can be fast, comfortable, and also easy to sail (even for beginners).

Monohulls are cheap to build and forgiving, as precision doesn’t have to be microscopic to get them to sail right. They’re robust and strong, featuring a naturally stress-resistant hull shape. They’re also easy to modify and aren’t required to meet as strict of dimensional ratios to operate.

With a monohull sailboat, you have a lot of interior room to work with. This means that monohulls are available in numerous cabin layouts and are just as easy to modify as they are to build. Monohulls often have a center of gravity at or below the waterline, which enhances stability at steep heel angles.

On the water, displacement monohulls can weather extreme conditions with ease. They lack the initial stability of multi-hulls, but they can recover from knockdowns on their own, and they’re very difficult to push past their rollover point.

Why do Catamarans Cost More than Monohulls?

Catamarans cost more than monohulls because they’re more expensive to build, more complex to engineer, and require more material. This isn’t always the case, but the design of catamarans requires much more careful engineering and strength-of-materials analysis than comparatively simple monohulls.

There are several critical structural points on catamarans that monohulls lack. In fact, the very shape of a monohull is physically strong—so it has inherent durability. Catamaran hulls must be joined in the middle, and the mast must have a strong point far from the inherently sturdy hulls.

This requires stronger materials and more care during design or construction. This is why catamarans remain a premium part of the sailboat market and why they still aren’t the most popular sailboats despite their numerous performance and comfort benefits.

Catamaran Cabin Layout

Catamaran cabins are split between the two hulls, and there’s usually a large pilothouse in the center. Pilothouse catamarans can be quite spacious, primarily due to the large space between the hulls.

The pilothouse is usually where kitchen and sitting areas are located, along with cockpit access and the controls of the sailboat. The mast is also located in this area.

Catamaran cabins sometimes mirror each other. For example, each hull may contain two identical bedroom/bathroom combos, while the center console area contains the kitchen and living spaces.

The two identical hulls sometimes make for unusual design decisions (such as small catamarans with four master bedrooms), but owners say this gives their passengers a much better experience than a monohull cabin.

Monohull Cabin Layout

Monohull cabins, with the exception of split-cabin sailboats with a center cockpit, have only one large interior space to work with. It’s usually much wider than catamarans of equal length.

Monohull cabins are usually accessible from the bow (via a flush deck hatch) and the stern via a traditional companionway. They run the span of the hull between the bow and the cockpit and sometimes include spare berths under the cockpit seats.

These spare berths are often used as convenient sea cabins, as they offer quick access to controls in case of an emergency. Catamarans often have convertible berths in the center console for the same reason.

Monohull cabins are traditional and include everything that catamaran cabins do—albeit with slightly less room overall. That said, individual spaces are often much wider, and facilities are more appropriate.

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I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

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Advantages of Catamarans and Catamaran Hull Speeds Calculation

• Categories : Marine history
• Tags : Marine engineering

What is a Catamaran?

Before going into the advantages of catamarans, I’d just like to define the term. Catamarans are a class of boat that has two hulls, generally equal in size. The hulls are connected by a structure of some sort. Catamaran hull speeds are very high, making them a good choice for recreational uses. Catamaran sailboats are common, but catamaran ferry designs are quickly growing in popularity due to their unique advantages.

The catamaran is a ship design with an interesting history. The twin-hull design was first observed by Europeans in India in the late 17th century, but it was actually invented by South Pacific islanders. The capabilities of catamarans were more or less ignored in the West until 1877, when an American named Nathanael Herreshoff began developing and racing catamarans. His designs were so much faster than traditional monohull designs that sailing authorities banned them from competition for nearly a century. Today, catamarans are a popular design for recreational and racing sailboats, and are being used in efficient, low-wake ferries .

Image: Flickr , Catamaran in Cozumel.

Advantages of Catamarans

Catamarans are, in general, faster than single hull boats. This is due to several factors, the most important of which is the hull shape. Displacement hulls are the most common shapes for single hull craft. A displacement hull is supported on the water entirely by buoyancy effects. This creates a hydrodynamic drag barrier, which slows the craft. Catamaran hulls can be designed as planing or displacement hulls, but they are not slowed nearly as much by the drag barrier. Catamarans reduce drag by making use of a very thin and pointed hull design.

Catamarans are also very light, which further reduces drag and displacement. Catamarans save on weight because the multihull design eliminates the need for a keel counterweight, as the same purpose (righting the ship) is served by the hull spacing. This can make them difficult to turn, however.

Catamarans are also more stable than monohull ships, enabling designers to use more sail per foot of the boat. Stability comes from the wide beam legth; beam length is the distance from one side of the boat to the other. This wide beam and stability also allows catamarans to gain more power from heavy gusts, because they do not tend to heel over like monohulls do.

Catamaran Hull Speed

More efficient single hull boats are designed to travel with a low Froude number, which reduces but does not eliminate the drag barrier. This drag limits hull speed based on a relation involving length at waterline, given by the formula V=(gL/(2pi))1/2, where g is the gravitational constant and L is the waterline length. This is the theoretical limit for single hull displacement craft. Note that ships can sometimes exceed this theoretical limit, but to do so requires a very large power source.

The calculations for a catamaran are more complicated. The formula for catamaran hull speed is 1.34*(wetted length)1/2; however, this drag formula is generally not the limiting factor for catamaran hull speed. This is because boats with waterline length to beam ratios greater than 8:1 are not limited by hydrodynamic drag factors, whereas smaller boats need to plane to do so (planing requires enormous amounts of power for displacement hulls). A more important factor to consider is the prismatic coefficient, Cp. Cp = V/(LBP*Am), where V is the volume of water displaced by the hull, LBP is the length between perpendiculars, and Am is the area at midship.

Very fast boats actually require a high prismatic coefficient, which in turn requires a less-narrow boat. However, narrower hulls can get away with a lower prismatic coefficient. The ideal range of Cp for a catamaran is between 0.61 and 0.65. There are a few ways of increasing the prismatic coefficients: sailors can use bulb bows, a wide planing aft segment, or a flat hull rocker in conjunction with a bustle aft. Though high prismatic coefficients increase drag at low speed, at high speeds they can reduce drag by as much as ten percent.

Catamaran Hulls and Low-Wake craft.

As explained here , catamarans can be used to create low-wake ferries. Because of their wide bows and low weights, catamarans can be made to travel quickly with minimal wake. Catamaran ferries are also more fuel-efficient, because of the previously-mentioned factors.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons , Catamaran Ferry

Catamaran Boat Design

Hull Speed Calculations

Catamaran Hull Comparisons

Better Sailing

How Fast Do Catamarans Sail? Average Sailing Speed of a Catamaran

In most aspects, sailing a catamaran is very similar to sailing a monohull. If you learn to sail on a monohull then most of the skills are transferable. But, there are a couple of subtle differences that we will analyze further in this article. A catamaran is generally more balanced on the water and can be faster than a multi-hull vessel. And, cruising on a sailboat with a cat hull will be much faster than cruising on a sailboat with a monohull. Therefore, a catamaran hull is able to achieve the speeds of a racing monohull and is also more comfortable to sail on.

A tri-hull is even much better as they’re designed towards the performance end of the spectrum. And that is why they double the speed of a racing monohull. So, let’s analyze this subject further in this article and see what’s the average sailing speed of a cat. Follow me!

Catamaran Vs Monohull Speed: Are Cats Faster than Monohulls?

Not all cruising cats are always faster than an equivalent length monohull. But, many well-designed and balanced multihulls can easily surpass the speed of their monohull cousins. And, it’s not fair to mass all cats into one example, but performance cruising catamarans like the Nautitech or Neel trimarans distinguish from others. Their narrow waterline beams, hull chines, deep and fine keels, and rudders as well as efficient sail plans will typically be faster than the average cruising monohull.

“The fun of sailing is proportional to the speed of sailing”, as an American designer, L. Francis Herreshoff, said. And, it’s basically true because when we sail and see another boat heeling in the breeze, we also feel we want to do the same. This is because for many sailors speed means much more than just fun. You should, however, consider keeping your cat as light as possible if you want to maximize speed. I know that keeping your sailboat light is difficult but it’s of importance if speed is your main goal.

Keep in mind that a boat’s speed has won wars and has also been a contributor to safety. In the past, a fast warship was able to outmaneuver its adversary or escape from a boat with more firepower. And just as proven in history, the speed of a sailboat is important and provides a faster boat with more options.

Monohull VS Catamarans Differences

• When tacking, you must work hard to keep your speed consistent in the tack and always ease the mainsheet to avoid “windvaning.” When the larger mainsail on a catamaran attempts to turn the boat back towards the wind, this is known as windvaning.
• On a monohull, you must be extremely cautious about an unintended gybe. Meaning that you must gybe much more slowly. On a catamaran, you can take advantage of the increased speed and sustain it while gybing to help depower the main.
• On a monohull, and when winds increase, the boat starts heeling. This automatically informs you that you have too much sail up and it’s time to reef. And, as catamarans don’t heel, you have to be very careful when to reef the massive main. Most of the time, you will throw in the first reef at 18-20 knots of wind speed. The second reef will be put as the wind gets closer to 23-25 knots. The above-mentioned always depend on the size and type of your vessel.

Wind as a Main Factor for Speed

Thanks to tech evolutions in radar, satellite, and computer technology, a five-day forecast is as accurate as a two-day forecast was back in 1980. A multihull’s higher speed also contributes to easier and safer planning of ocean passages around weather windows since exposure time will be less. Moreover, meteorological prediction for shorter periods is far more accurate. Keep in mind that when sailing faster you also introduce the concept of apparent wind to the strategy of efficient sailing.

Multihull speed upwind? Sailing upwind, the catamaran usually experiences more apparent wind across the deck since it’s sailing faster. Therefore, the sails will feel more pressure, which will make the boat perform even better. And, of course, the concept of apparent wind contributes to the joy of sailing, as it adds another dimension to it. When sailing towards a downwind destination, fast multihulls are able to sail at smaller wind angles. Subsequently, this brings the apparent wind forward of the beam, hence optimizing the angle of attack on the sails.

While cats will fly gennakers, code-zeros, or asymmetric spinnakers, monohulls mostly set symmetric spinnakers to the poles. And most importantly, their boat speed will often cancel out the true wind and will reduce the apparent wind and performance. The faster the multihull is the more it is able to take advantage of the apparent wind and tack downwind towards its destination. Although it might be sailing twice the distance, it will arrive at the downwind mark quicker because its Velocity Made Good (VMG) will be faster.

>>Also Read: How Fast is a Laser Sailboat? Laser Sailboat Top Speed

Performance Characteristics

Bear in mind that cats require four times the power to double their speed. But, a mono-hull vessel requires eight times the power to double the speed. This is due to the fact that a cat has less resistance in the water. However, this is great in terms of conserving and using less energy. Catamarans are also more stable in the water. This stability is effective at resisting heeling or capsizing. In other words, a multi-hull vessel requires four times the force to capsize as a similar-sized mono-hull vessel.

Most of the time, sailing in a catamaran is smoother and facilitates activities that are not always possible on a mono-hull sailboat. In addition, as catamarans have less water resistance, they are generally faster than mono-hull vessels. As their hulls are smaller, this means that they have a smaller bow wave to fight. The bow wave is a wave created by the displacement of water by the bow of a ship. After a certain speed, the boat has to start hauling itself over its own bow wave. Meaning that the larger hull a boat has, the larger its bow wave will be and the more power will be required in order to fight it.

Since catamarans have two small and narrow hulls, they don’t have much of a bow wave. This is one of the reasons they are normally quicker than a monohull vessel of comparable size. Catamarans can travel at speeds of up to 30% faster than monohull boats. Catamarans have the disadvantage of taking longer to transform than monohulls.

Lastly, the thing that makes monohulls harder to sail is heeling and smaller spaces. In stronger winds, monohulls tend to heel. This results in making most tasks a bit more difficult to perform. Whether you’re heading forward to reef, trying to winch in a sail, or move about the boat, sailing on a heeling boat is always more difficult. However, cats have extra stability and room, and this allows for much easier movement around the boat as they do not heel. And, for this reason, catamarans are often considered easier to sail.

How Fast Are Catamarans Compared To Other Boat Types?

There are two main factors that determine the speed of ships. The first one is the hull type. There are hulls that stay beneath the water more or less than others. But, keep in mind that the less the hull is underwater, the faster it can go. This is due to the fact that the less of the hull underwater, the less the drag created when sailing. The other factor is the length of the boat. And, reasonably, the longer the boat, the faster it can go. Every boat has a maximum hull speed that can’t be exceeded. This can only happen in case the boat can plane on the water’s surface or be lifted on hydrofoils. For most boats, the longer the boat, the higher the maximum hull speed is.

Sailing catamarans typically average about 10 knots while pontoon boats average about 16 knots. As for powerboats, they can average anywhere between 30 and 50 mph. Most average sailboats are designed with monohulls and they average from 6 to 9 knots depending on wind conditions. Generally, sailboats average between 8 and 12 mph, again depending on weather conditions. This includes mono-hull between 6 to 8 mph and cats or trimarans between 9 and 10mph.

Speed and Comfort Considerations For Cats

You have a lot of choices if you choose to buy a catamaran. You have the option of prioritizing speed or comfort. After you’ve decided to buy a catamaran, the type of catamaran you can consider is determined by where you’ll be using it and what you’ll be doing with it. In addition, make sure that you look at what type of water you will be traveling in, your crew members, and what type of speed you want to achieve.

Storage is an important consideration to make before purchasing a catamaran. Due to the beam, or width, of a catamaran versus a regular mono-hull vessel, you are often charged for two slips if you wish to store your boat in a marina. Moreover, catamarans are a great option for those who get seasick because they have a more stable ride and more open air space. You have more windows and visibility since the living quarters are not within the hull and below the water’s surface.

Sailing and power catamarans are both great choices. In addition, for low winds or conditions such as docking in a marina, sailing catamarans may be equipped with backup power engines. Twin-engine catamarans can have more power and precision than mono-hull vessels.

>>Also Read: How Fast Can Sailboats Go?

Main Advantages of Catamarans

• Space! If you want to opt for more interior and exterior space then the two separate hulls of a catamaran can often double the amount of social space than a monohull of the same length.
• Catamarans are far more stable than monohulls. For this reason, they don’t heel when sailing, and are less prone to rocking when at anchor. This factor also contributes to comfortable sailing.
• Catamarans have a shallow draft which allows them to enter shallower areas. Keep in mind that in the South Pacific, most lagoons are 6 to 8 ft in depth. This depth doesn’t allow for monohulls to enter, but a catamaran can easily enter these areas.
• Stability is another big plus of cats. A cat isn’t that susceptible to the effects of wave action and it also doesn’t heal the way a monohull does. Therefore, it’s much easier to walk around on deck and within the interior of the cat while underway.
• In terms of speed, and mostly for downwind sailing , cats are faster than monohulls. This particularly applies to downwind runs, reaches, and broad reaches.
• More light, customizable, and airy living area. On a catamaran, the living space is usually situated in the middle of the boat and built on the bridge deck. But, in a monohull you go down into the hull where it is darker and less airy.
• More storage space and room for extra systems, provisions, and general sailing equipment. These may include air conditioning, heaters, oven, watermakers, generators, larger fridges, and freezers, etc. And, if you’re a liveaboard, then living on a cat is far more comfortable than living in a sailboat. You have more interior, exterior, and storage space as well as stability and speed in terms of sailing performance.
• Many modern cats have flybridge helms. And of course, no monohull achieves this visibility from the helm provided on most modern catamarans.
• The galley, main salon, and cockpit are all located on one level , above the waterline.
• Because the majority of living space is above the waterline , there’s a better flow of ventilation on a cat making the need for air conditioning somewhat less important during the daylight hours.
• When you plan to set sail, you almost never have to rush around stowing stuff or using bungee cords to hold things in place. Except in relatively rough waters, most things stay put.
• Since catamarans lack a large, heavy keel filled with lead, they can float even if they’re holed. Production cats are constructed with so much buoyancy that sinking them is nearly impossible.
• Catamarans are usually easy to dock because you have two motors and two rudders. Additionally, there’s also no need for a bow thruster.
• Most catamarans are able to turn 360 degrees within their own length.

Average Sailing Speed of Catamarans

How fast do catamarans sail – the bottom line.

Bear in mind that not all catamarans are created equal. In other words, catamaran speed is relative. The most important benefit of the speed of a multihull is the ability to outrun bad weather. Meaning that you’re able to average 9-10 knots on a catamaran rather than 6-7 knots on a monohull. Subsequently, this will give you more options in your strategy to avoid bad weather. In general, sailing catamarans typically average about 10 knots. Higher maximum and average speeds are what makes cats distinguish as well as their stability. These are the most important characteristics which makes many sailors prefer cats rather than monohull boats.

Peter is the editor of Better Sailing. He has sailed for countless hours and has maintained his own boats and sailboats for years. After years of trial and error, he decided to start this website to share the knowledge.

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Catamaran Hull Speed

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The hull speed formula for displacement monohulls is 1.34 x the square root of the waterline length. When planing, a monohull will exceed it's hull speed. Obviously this formula doesn't apply to catamarans. Even when not planing, they will travel much faster than what the hull speed formula predicts. Is there a formula or general guideline for catamaran hull speed related to waterline length and / or hull length:beam ratio?  

Here, read this ...  

Few Catamarans are actually planning vessels. Most are semi-displacement boats (like most modern IMS/IRC derived monohulls). Both forms of semi-displacement boats achieve speeds that are higher than normal hullspeed (i.e. 1.34 x the square root of the waterline length) by minimizing wave production. In the case of multihulls, this is done through a very narrow waterline beam to length ratio, and minimal interference between the waves produced by the other hull(s). Semi-displacement mono-hulls cheat a bit by using very fine entries to minimize the size of the bow wave that they produce. In both cases, clean hull forms and minimal drag is critical to overall performance, but properly designed, semi-displacement boats can achieve sustained speeds that can literally exceed twice their theoretical hull speed without planning. Of course as Alex points out, and as the article that he linked to explains, few cruising cats achieve passage speeds that exceed or even match those of modern performance mono-hull cruising boats. Respectfully, Jeff  

Thanks guys.  

Damn multis. They leave me standing.  

Under body shapes: keels and centerboards, Beam & hull-beam ratios, Beam overall – overall wide beam versus standard beam, Displacement but I can`t find any mention of the optimal hight of the bridge deck cabins, Giuliettas post mentions under deck clearance and it`s extremely important but if you build the bridge on top off the bridge deck would that make it extremely unstable as the center of gravity would be to high making the cat useless in any swell.  

sctpc said: Under body shapes: keels and centerboards, Beam & hull-beam ratios, Beam overall - overall wide beam versus standard beam, Displacement but I can`t find any mention of the optimal hight of the bridge deck cabins, Giuliettas post mentions under deck clearance and it`s extremely important but if you build the bridge on top off the bridge deck would that make it extremely unstable as the center of gravity would be to high making the cat useless in any swell. Click to expand...

Yes but what would the optimal height formula be I have been reading for over 4 hours since I read this post and lots of designers mention it but is there a rule to it, 'deck should be 2 foot making cabin 9 foot for a 30 foot cat or deck 4 foot cabin roof 10 foot for a 50 foot cat. I find it interesting that all the other design stuff is quite well out explained but none on windage problems ect.  

The less cabin, the better from a windage and weight standpoint. There are various rules of thumb for bridgedeck clearance. .06 x DWL is one. As far as hull waterline beam goes, some say 16 to 1 is as good as it gets from a resistance standpoint. A fast cruiser will be about 12 or 13 to 1, but the shorter the boat, the more beam there will be in the hulls in order to get a reasonable amount of room inside and carrying capacity. 8 to 1 hull beam to DWL length is common in small to medium size cruising cats. Overall beam is usually about one half of the overall length. Recent designs are often somewhat beamier overall-BOA 55% of LOA is not uncommon now. Tim Dunn - 65 Foot Sailing Catamaran Design by Tim Dunn  

there isn't a basic rule for bridge deck clearance and cabin height. Some designers avoid the problem entirely by not using the bridgedeck form living accommodations. Wharram's design often don't have any living space on the bridge deck.  

Check out Performance Cruising Inc. - The Official Gemini 105MC and Telstar 28 Web - I find the boat to be a best of both worlds design in a smallish cruising catamaran. I am of course partial and biased. The hulls are roughly 8:1 length: beam. I've had mine at 10.3 knts SOG in 16 knts on a close reach (50 degrees off the wind) going up current in 1.25 knts of current. Other owners have reported (and photographed) top speeds of 18 knts, and routinely get 10+. From the side the gemini looks like a moderately high windage mono. That's hard to do with a queen sized bed in the master cabin and twin staterooms aft with double beds. It has 39 inches of clearance at the front it takes chesapeake chop well on the nose, but with only 18 inches at the stern we do get the occasional 'thumb' on the floor of the cockpit. Reportedly they do well in typical ocean swell and have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean quite well. Several reside in Hawaii, having sailed there on their own bottoms, a couple are currently circumnavigating ( theslapdash.com . By making the salon area standing height for only the walk in area and sitting height at the salon table Tony Smith (the designer) was able to give it a nice profile. Otherwise, headroom is 6'2" throughout. I routinely dock my boat in a cross wind of 5 or so knots and I can tell you it parks and tracks as surely as a car with very little problem caused by windage. Mine:  

Attachments

Fixed it, thanks.  

Bridge deck, pounding, and windage So, 3 feet between the bottom of the bridge deck & the deep blue sea. In some cases long and thin is good but can it be taken to extremes? For example a 50' cat with a waterline beam of 2.5' mathmatically will produce a vapor trail at 35+ kts. In reality though, will it? Since I hate doing time in the hulls of any boat I am going to keep the boat light in terms of gear and have a tapered bridge deck encompassing all accomodations with a profile to the wind of about 3'. Add a nice sail plan and I'm having fun! Or at least that is the current plan. So, any thoughts on the long skinny hull thing?  

One other point is the overall beam of the boat, especially in the case of a catamaran matters as well. If the beam is relatively narrow for the boat size, the hull wake from the two hulls can interfere with performance.  

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Excerpt from newly revised edition (2017) of” CATAMARANS, The Complete Guide for Cruising Sailors ” (hardcover, published by McGraw Hill – New York)

Catamaran Advantages vs. Monohulls: SPEED

Not all cruising cats are faster than an equivalent length monohull but most well designed and balanced multihulls will arrive earlier, and with more comfort at their respective destination. It would not be fair to mass all cats into one example, but performance cruising catamarans such the Nautitech or Neel trimarans with their narrow waterline beams, hull chines, deep and fine keels and rudders and generous sail plans will typically be faster that your average cruising monohull.

Higher maximum and average speeds is what catamarans are all about and this and their stability are maybe the most important characteristic which lures monohull sailors to catamarans. L. Francis Herrschoff, a legendary American designer once said: “The fun of sailing is proportional to the speed of sailing” Let’s be honest. Isn’t it true that every single time we sail and see another boat heeling in the breeze, we want to catch up to it? Frequently we do it quite inconspicuously so that no one realizes that we are actually trying to overtake a competitor, but in the back of our minds we are always racing our catamaran. Speed is more than just fun. There are times when we are actually participating in a race and by having a fast boat our chances to win are obviously higher. And what a joy it is to win!

In an incident after the Annapolis Boat Show years ago, I sailed on a Bavaria Nautitech Open 40 on the Chesapeake Bay, with 10 clients aboard in about 14 knots of breeze. We were heavily loaded, had cruising sails and were certainly not in racing trim. My guests on board were in absolute awe, as we sailed faster, pointed higher, and at the end overtook a J-40 monohull with Kevlar sails, a boat considered by most to be one of the ultimate monohull cruiser/racers. The definitive speed comparison between monohulls and catamarans is most apparent at the annual Around Long Island Race (ALIR), which takes a fleet of ca.150 monohulls and a dozen multihulls past New York City, in a 220 mile offshore race around Long Island. The catamarans usually start about one hour after the leaders and it is not uncommon for us to have overtaken the entire fleet within the first 40 miles of the course. I have participated in 5 ALIR’s and every single year had an upwind start into strong headwinds. Many proponents of monohulls will say that sailing upwind is not the strength of catamarans, yet it is always on that first leg sailing to weather, where we pass almost the entire fleet. It is puzzling to see monohull crews in their full foul weather gear acting as “rail meat” taking spray, while we blast by on the level with cocktails on the cockpit table discussing sail trim.

Boat speed has won wars, turned commercial fisherman into wealthy entrepreneurs and has also been a contributor of safety. In battle, a fast warship could outmaneuver its adversary or even escape from a boat with more firepower. Higher performance meant that Gloucester Schooners, 100 years ago could race against each other back to port and offer the freshest catch at the highest price. Just as proven in history, speed of a sailing yacht is important and gives a faster yacht more options.

Catamaran speed is relative. Personally, I find, the most important benefit of speed of a multihull is the ability to outrun bad weather. Being able to average 9- 10 knots on a catamaran rather than 6-7 knots on a monohull, will give you more options in your strategy to avoid bad weather.  Getting to your destination quicker and shaving off days on a transatlantic voyage will simply mean that you have, mathematically estimated, less chance of getting the toilet clogged, running into a submerged container or falling overboard.

Thanks to advances in radar, satellite and computer technology, a five-day forecast today is as accurate as a two-day forecast was in 1980. A multihull’s higher speed will greatly contribute to easier and safer planning of ocean passages around weather windows, since exposure time will be less and meteorological prediction for shorter periods more accurate. Being able to sail faster will also introduce the concept of apparent wind to the strategy of efficient sailing.

Multihull speed upwind ? Sailing upwind, the catamaran will usually experience more apparent wind across the deck since she is sailing faster, hence the sails will feel more pressure, making the boat perform even better. The concept of apparent wind will greatly contribute to the joy of sailing, as it adds another dimension. When sailing towards a downwind destination, fast multihulls will be able to sail at smaller wind angles, often bringing the apparent wind forward of the beam, optimizing the angle of attack on the sails. Whereas catamarans will fly Gennakers, Code-Zeros or asymmetric spinnakers, monohulls in contrast will set symmetric spinnakers off clumsy poles. Their boat speed will often cancel out the true wind reducing the apparent wind and performance. The faster the multihull is the more she will be able to take advantage of the apparent wind and tack downwind towards her destination. Although she might be sailing twice the distance, she will arrive at the downwind mark quicker because her Velocity Made Good (VMG) will be faster.

Excerpt from new revised edition (2017) of” CATAMARANS, The Complete Guide for Cruising Sailors ” (hardcover, published by McGraw Hill – New York)

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Catamaran hulls- everything you need to know.

• Post Written By: Boater Jer
• Published: July 17, 2022
• Updated: July 19, 2022

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Catamaran hulls are not like normal boats but provide increased stability. Let’s take a look at these incredible boats and how their hulls create one of the most versatile watercraft available today.

The Tamil Cholas used catamarans to ferry their troops to invade Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma. The early paravars or fishing communities in the southern part of Tamil Nadu used two-hulled boats to fish. Polynesian seafarers were also early users of the catamaran, utilizing the watercraft to get to hard-to-reach islands. ( source )

Although the catamaran hull concept is a relatively new introduction to modern boat design , the boat has been in use since the 5th century. It was used for fishing, traveling, and transporting people and supplies. 

Parts Of A Catamaran

Here are the basic parts of the modern sailing catamaran:

• Hulls are what sets this boat apart from the rest. The catamaran has two hulls, while the monohull, as the name suggests, has only one hull. Most of the advantages of this boat are hinged on these two hulls. 
• The bridge deck connects the two catamaran hulls. 
• On top of the catamaran hulls and the bridge deck is the deck . It is where owners attach most of the equipment in a boat. 
• You can locate the berth, the galley, and other living amenities in the cabin . 
• The cockpit is where you find the navigation equipment of the boat . It is where you control the catamaran’s rudder, sails, and engine. 

Types Of Catamaran

The modern catamaran is far more different than its crude ancestor. Instead of tree cutouts, catamarans are now carbon fiber or fiberglass. Here are the different types of catamarans: 

Based On function

Pontoons are usually present on rivers and lakes and sometimes even on oceans, but they only travel near the shore.

In a catamaran pontoon-type boat, the pontoons serve as storage areas, where you will find the onboard motors. They are useful for water leisure activities such as short water trips, tubing, wakeboarding, and water skiing. 

Some pontoons may also serve as houseboats. They provide a broader, more stable platform ideal for a floating house. Plus, the space is bigger, and most of it is above water. It offers a better viewing option than a monohull. ( Source )

Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull is a catamaran-type boat that the United States Navy initially used for military purposes. They provide the water stability that is necessary when transporting heavy military equipment. 

One example of a military SWATH catamaran is the Spearhead class EPF. It is as long as a World War II escort destroyer, yet it is twice as fast at 43 knots. It can reach that speed because of its two separate hulls.

Because of their innate speed, SWATH catamarans can become patrol boats in lakes and rivers. They can easily outrun and outmaneuver standard watercraft.  

Nowadays, there are SWATH cruise ships and other non-military variations. ( Source )

Based On Design

• Sailing Catamaran

The smaller sailing catamarans do not have auxiliary engines, so the owner can propel the boat by harnessing the wind using the sails. It’s a popular choice for people with very little or no sailing experience because they are light and easy to use. 

The larger sailing catamarans are for group charters and long-distance cruising. They have become so popular lately that they now outnumber monohulls in tropical locations all over the world. They have a last, a headsail, and a mainsail. And the twin hulls have one engine each. 

• Power Catamaran

Unlike their sailing cousins, the powered catamarans do not have sails. They have massive engines which provide high speed. Their twin hulls are stronger and can carry and protect the large motors. 

The smaller “powercats” are used mainly for fishing. The bigger ones are rented out for charters and cruises. 

Catamaran Hulls Performance 

Thanks to the catamaran hulls, the boat offers many advantages over other boat types. 

• Because its dual-hull design provides a broader base, it offers more water stability than monohull boats. It makes the cat (catamaran) a popular choice for fishing expeditions and cruises.
• Riding a catamaran is ideal for people who feel seasick whenever they ride boats. The twin hulls prevent the boat from moving from side to side. The hulls allow the boat to travel smoothly, even on moderately choppy waters.
• The catamaran is the best choice when storing provisions and other household items with less heeling and bobbing. 
• The twin hulls’ stability is ideal for many activities such as cooking and partying. 
• Cats offer more moving space because of their broader base, thanks to dual hulls.
• With a catamaran, you have two great options on where to hang out. You can do it on the spacious deck or below the galley. 
• Compared to a monohull of the same size, the catamaran can accommodate more equipment and people.
• The living area in a catamaran is above the water line. This feature provides more natural light, a greater view of the outside, and better air circulation. 
• Since catamarans do not have keels, they can anchor on shallow waters, something that most monohulls will not be able to do. This ability of catamaran boats is impressive, especially if you are going around areas with many reefs and small islands.
• Catamaran hulls allow the boat to cut through the waves easier and faster. It means they require less engine power than their monohull counterparts.
• Because it has two engines and two rudders, the catamaran can easily maneuver in very tight spaces. 
• Because they do not carry heavy keels, catamarans can sail faster than monohulls. 
• The catamaran’s stability, speed, and weight make it a safer option than the monohull. It can sail in shallow waters, make a 360 degrees maneuver effortlessly, and carry more provisions. 

Disadvantages Of A Catamaran

Like any other boat type, the catamaran also has drawbacks and limitations. Here are some of them:

• The catamaran hulls prevent the boat from sailing as fast as the monohull upwind. The two hulls cause drag, and this slows the boat considerably. 
• Because of its bigger size, looking for a docking site can be more difficult and costlier than a monohull. 
• For hardcore sailing fans, the experience of sailing with a catamaran will never be able to match that of sailing with a monohull. To them, the challenge of true sailing is just not there with a catamaran.

What Are The Hulls Of The Catamaran Called?

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the Tamil word கட்டுமரம், which is pronounced as kattumaran, is where the word catamaran takes its name. The word means “pieces of logs tied together”. Through the years, the term has evolved into what is now a catamaran in English. 

What Are The Characteristics Of A Catamaran Hull?

• Both hulls of a catamaran complement each other to achieve very minimum water resistance. 
• Because of this, it takes less energy to propel a catamaran, whether via an engine or sails. 
• The catamaran hulls provide stability to the boat. The twin-hull significantly reduces bobbing. 
• The catamaran’s ability to keep steady on the water makes it an ideal vessel for cooking, dining, and storing provisions. 

Are Catamarans Good In Rough Water?

Catamarans are amazingly stable in rough water. The catamaran’s design and build, which provides stability, are factors why it is one of the best boats to use when the waters are choppy. 

Yes, catamarans are relatively more expensive than monohulls. Nevertheless, since single-hull boats are less expensive, their resale value is also cheap. 

If you add all the advantages that a catamaran offers – safety, comfort, and speed- it does not come out expensive. 

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determining CATamaran hull speed

Discussion in ' Boat Design ' started by SCATAR , Mar 22, 2010 .

SCATAR New Member

we have a very rigid rather over-engineered heavy (30ton) 18m catamaran. the original owner is deceased and boatyard lost all its records in hurricane katrina. from what I may make of the four engineering drawing found, she sits 8” (±2”) low as a result of the extra alloy. the result is a cat that struggles at 6-7 knots in 20-30 knot winds. we are considering a new sail plan but wanting, feel we are needing, to have a calculation of the hull speed. anyone who would be able to recommend someone, or may themselves be able, to do the requisite calculations to determine hull speed? we are also considering adding 1.5-2m stern with an extended swim platform but wonder about the impact on handling...  

marshmat Senior Member

Hi Scatar, There are a few naval architects around this community who specialize in multihulls, although your particular boat might be a rather rare one. We'll see if any of them chime in here.... The short answer is- from my perspective- that I agree with you, 6-7 knots for a 30 ton 18 m cat in 20-30 knot winds is not good sailing performance. (But wow, is that heavy for a sailing cat- is she more of a "charter cruiser" type than a "blue-water" type?) However, knowing "hull speed" is almost irrelevant in this case. The concept of "hull speed" (v = 1.34 * sqrt(LWL) for waterline in feet, v in knots) assumes that the boat is essentially limited to the speed of a wave that's as long as the hull- a rough (at best) approximation for monos, and almost meaningless for cats. Your naval architect, once you find one, will have access to much more sophisticated performance prediction techniques that take into account the actual hull shape, weight, windage, sail plan, sail trim for different points of sail, etc. This is a fairly involved process, as it involves the NA reviewing all the drawings and known data about the boat and preparing computer simulations to determine the effect of various modifications on her performance.  

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The 8 Main Characteristics of a Catamaran Hull

Posted on May 28, 2022

Ever wonder why your catamaran ride is so much smoother than other boats, including yachts? Why don’t I get as oozy as when I’m on other vessels, even when the water is choppy?

It’s all about the hull, my fellow water enthusiasts. Not just one but two hulls, positioned in such a way as to give us the most perfect ride we can get on the ocean, without us having to grow fins.

Catamarans have a wide beam, instead of a ballasted keel like a monohull vessel, which provides its steadiness. It has a more shallow draft and smaller displacement than a monohull with a similar length. Its hull offers stability, more space, privacy, no heeling, lower hydrodynamic resistance, and more.

Now that you’ve gotten the gist of it, let’s look in-depth at the hull characteristics.

1. Lower Hydrodynamic Resistance

Hydrodynamic resistance of the combined two hulls is usually lower than equivalent monohulls, needing less power from the sails or the engines. A catamaran’s broader posture on the water can decrease the feeling. 

It also lessens the motions caused by waves, which can also produce smaller wakes than on a single-hulled vessel. 

A cat’s hulls have a less wetted surface area, which means they burn less fuel. The boat may be propelled by one engine in mild winds.

2. Reduced Heeling

The term “heeling” refers to the tendency of a sailboat to lean to one side due to the force of the wind on its sails. The boat is oriented so that the wind hits the sails at an angle and pushes them to one side of the boat, propelling the boat.

Catamarans are the safest way to navigate the oceans because they have no heel angle. Cruising catamarans are safer than monohulls for their crew because they offer better protection and a no-heel environment. 

As a result, the crew will be less exposed, make fewer mistakes due to exhaustion, and arrive at their destination more rested.

3. Less Displacement

Boats that employ buoyancy to support their weight are referred to as displacement hulls. To provide its name, it is partially immersed and moves by causing water to be dislodged. 

Its weight is equal to the amount of water it dispenses. In stormy water, it maintains its sturdiness. As a result, cruisers and sailboats alike frequently make use of this design.

4. Stability 

In place to evade capsizing as well as heeling, the catamaran depends on hull stability, while hull stability depends on buoyancy and beam. About half of a typical cruising catamaran’s length is its beam. 

Say, for example, that the boat was 50 feet in length, the beam might be about 25 feet broad so that you could maintain the balance between heel and righting moment.

On a cat, passengers who are prone to motion sickness will be far less affected by the impacts of motion than they would be on a monohull. The cook’s task is made much easier while traveling and at anchor because of the cat’s extra stability. When compared to monohulls, catamarans have less rock and roll.

Once you’ve decided to sail, you won’t have to worry about scrambling to stow things or securing them with bungee cords. Relatively rough seas have little effect on most of the ship’s equipment.

5. A Bridgedeck Connects Them

You can’t ignore this reality! Bridgedeck clearance, or the gap between the water and the bridge deck, is an important factor in a catamaran’s safety and reliability. Ocean waves have room to flow between the hulls thanks to the bridge deck clearance. 

Our catamaran’s hulls create waves that converge underneath the bridge deck, requiring a larger buffer for the bridge.

If you don’t have enough clearance, your catamaran will be pounded by the waves. 

In addition to slowing your catamaran down by 3 to 4 knots, rough seas can also put your guests’ health and safety at risk, as well as inflict significant damage to your boat and rigging.

6. Can Maneuver Shallow Water

A boat’s draft is the distance from the water’s edge to the hull’s center of gravity. It is important to know the depth of a boat’s draft since it determines the quantity of water that can be displaced for safe passage. As a result of their parallel hulls’ buoyancy, catamaran vessels can have fewer drafts without affecting their stability or their ability to maneuver. 

When it comes to hull stability and handling, monohull vessels are built with a deeper draft to protect against capsizing as well as heeling. Because of this, the catamaran was deemed suitable for use in shallow waters. 

Boating activities such as swimming and fishing aren’t the only ones that benefit from being able to dock in shallow water. A boat with a shallow draft will be more maneuverable in areas where you may have to sail through a variety of shallow areas, some more than others. 

Monohull boats with deeper drafts may be unable to access shores, intertidal zones, coral reefs, or even sandbars because of their shallower depths. Also, shallow-water swimming and snorkeling are two of the most popular pastimes for sailors plus their families. To ensure a smooth experience, you’ll need secure access to shallow waters.

There are several types of fishing that require a catamaran’s dependability and readiness, and these include trout, oystering, and clamming. These activities become much easier when you can navigate shallow waters without worrying about running aground or striking underwater objects.

7. Allows Cat to Have More Space

It certainly does. Eating and preparing food can be done side by side. One hull is used as a big cabin in the “owner versions,” which are fantastic for parties.

Most comparable-priced monohulls lack the amount of interior room seen on catamarans, especially in the primary salon, galley, plus cockpit. As a result, their cabins tend to be larger, and now even the tiniest cat in the group has a stand-up headroom in each one.

8. Offer More Privacy

The distance between the two hulls allows for greater privacy than on monohull yachts, which tend to be closer together. 

Because of the configuration, a cat offers more solitude than monohulls, and the increased separation between the main living area and the cabins makes it simpler for children to go off to sleep at a normal hour when aboard.

What Are the Differences Between Catamaran and Monohull Sailing?

Most characteristics of sailing a catamaran resemble those of sailing a monohull. In most Catamaran Sailing Boats, the abilities you acquire on a monohull, you can transfer to a cat. A few minor distinctions must be made though, including these.

Keep a steady speed during the tack to avoid “winning,” which can occur if you relax the mainsheet too much. Winning occurs when a catamaran’s larger mainsail tries to direct the boat towards the direction of the wind.

Gybing on the monohull necessitates much more caution, therefore you have to slow down your gybe considerably. Travelers on catamaran boats have an advantage since they can sustain a pace while gybing to depower the main.

You can tell when you’ve got too much sail on a monohull by the way the boat is heeling, which tells you it’s time to reef. Since catamarans don’t heel, we have to be super cautious when reefing the enormous mainsail because it’s so heavy. 

In most cases, the first reef will be thrown in between wind speeds of 18 and 20 knots (determined by the size of our yacht) and the second reef will be thrown in as the wind speeds reach up to 25 knots.

Many elements of sailing a catamaran are fairly similar to those of a monohull, so making the switch should not be too difficult.

Are Catamarans Safer Than Monohulls?

Exactly what I was looking for! People are less likely to drown when sailing on a catamaran than on a monohull, thanks to the boat’s greater stability. They are bigger, more steady vessels. In most cases, this makes cats “safer” than a monohull of the same size.

Having two engines makes catamarans “safer” in the event of an engine breakdown. Sailing is the sole alternative on a monohull boat if the motor is out of commission. In the event of an emergency, the second engine on a catamaran is always ready to assist!

Is Sailing A Catamaran Easier Than Sailing A Monohull?

It is more difficult to sail a monohull because of heeling and the constrained space it has to offer. In greater gusts, monohulls heel, making it harder to accomplish most activities. 

Sailing aboard a heeling vessel is more difficult for a variety of reasons, including heading forward to a reef, having to haul in a sail, or just moving around the boat. 

The greater stability and space provided by catamarans, on the other hand, make moving around the boat easier than on other types of boats. The fact that catamarans are typically referred to as “easier” to sail is due to this.

Hull speed is a phenomenon of displacement boats, and not of planing boats. Most sailing boats and all ships displace water—move it aside—as they plow through it. Planing craft, such as most motor boats, glide over the top like a surfboard. It takes more energy to push water aside than it does to slide over the top of it, and so displacement boats move at a more sedate pace than their lighter planing cousins. Some small sailing boats can be made to plane, but the general rule is that sailing boats are of the displacement type. Hull speed is usually an upper limit to the speed of displacement boats.* It is unsurprising that such a limit exists: we have seen how drag increases with speed, and so sooner or later drag will balance out the drive force and a sailboat will not be able to go faster. Yet there is a surprise in store for those of you who are not familiar with sailing: the hull speed of a given boat depends on its hull length at the waterline. It is not obvious from a simple consideration of drag why this should be so, but it is a well-attested fact, often quoted in the sailing literature, that the maximum natural speed of a displacement boat (in knots) is 4/3 the square root of waterline length in feet.

A key feature of the phenomenon, again well known to any sailor, is that hull speed has been reached when the bow wave of the boat lengthens to the waterline length. At lower speeds, there may be three or four complete waves seen to lap along the boat hull, but this number decreases as the boat picks up speed and reaches, pretty closely, one complete wave by the time the boat reaches her hull speed. It may be possible for her to go faster than hull speed, but this requires a disproportionate amount of effort. In other words, the hydrodynamic drag

* There is one trick by which a small displacement boat can exceed hull speed without expending enormous effort, and that is by surfing. Riding along the front of a wave is not the sole preserve of surfboards.

Figure 6.1. (a) Your hull-speed raft, viewed from above. Note the direction of motion. (b) When the bow wavelength is less than the distance between the long beams, drag is reduced compared to the case of (c). In (c) bow wavelength equals the distance between beams because the aft beam is more submerged. So hull speed is reached when hull length equals bow wavelength. Consequently, hull speed is limited by hull length.

force that is acting to hold back the boat increases rapidly once hull speed is reached. My goal in this section is to explain to you, in simple physics terms, why these phenomena occur.

Which is why I have press-ganged you into service onboard the undignified vessel illustrated in figure 6.1. She is a wooden raft with two long logs fore and aft that stretch way beyond her beam. These logs are not there to provide flotation, please note—we will suppose that the raft has enough buoyancy without them—but rather to illustrate hull speed. You set the primitive sail and drift off to the right. The forward log generates a bow wave which spreads out in the wake, as waves do. You notice something that you have seen many times before in other craft: the bow wave size (amplitude) increases as the vessel speed increases. This makes sense because the hull is pushing water aside, the displaced water has to go somewhere, and the faster you go, the more water is moved. So the wave size increases. Now you pick up speed, and so the wavelength of the wake, as observed alongside your hull, stretches out until exactly one wave lies between the two extended logs at bow and stern. The raft speed that gives rise to this condition is her top speed, you

Figure 6.2. Your hull-speed barge. Bow waves forward of the center of gravity, CG (open circle) exert a buoyancy force (vertical arrows) proportional to wave height that acts to rotate the barge hull counterclockwise. Similarly, waves aft of the CG act to rotate the hull clockwise. If we can assume that drag forces are proportional to counterclockwise torque (a dominant CCW torque means that the barge is climbing a hill created by its bow wave), we can show that hull speed occurs when bow wavelength equals hull length.

find. It is clear why: the aft log is now submerged, and so experiences more drag than it did earlier, when there was no wave crest at the hull stern (see fig. 6.1). So, drag force peaks when bow wavelength equals hull length, in this simple example.

Now we are able to see where the old formula for hull speed comes from. The speed of a bow wave, or of any other surface water wave,1 is c where c2 = gk/2p. Here l is the water wavelength, and g is the constant acceleration due to gravity. Now the raft speed, v, equals the water wave speed, c, so that v = VgL/2p (since hull length, L, equals water wavelength at hull speed, as we just saw). Substitute numbers and we arrive at the old formula.

The ungainly raft has served her purpose, and you can now abandon her. The lesson learned is intuitive, and yet it gives us a basis for understanding quantitatively what hull speed is about. Now I can do another calculation, this time a little more realistic. The math is more involved (you need not wade though it), but the basic idea is again quite intuitive. Figure 6.2 shows the profile of a steep-sided hull plowing through water and generating a bow wave, which oscillates along the line of the hull. This vessel is kept afloat by the buoyancy force, and we can see that the buoyancy force is going to be different at different points along the line of the hull because the wave height varies along the hull. Buoyancy that acts forward of the hull CG (shown in fig. 6.2) will create a counterclockwise torque that tends to twist the hull about the CG—trying to make it do a backflip. The buoyancy force aft of the CG produces a torque that acts in the clockwise sense. These two more or less cancel* but not quite. If the counterclockwise buoyancy torque is just a little bigger than the clockwise torque, the boat will tilt backwards, until her stern goes deep enough to generate a compensating torque. We would then be left with a boat that is going uphill, trying to reach the crest of her own bow wave.

Where am I going with all this? Roughly speaking, counterclockwise torque equates to uphill motion, and uphill motion leads to increased drag, for reasons that will soon be made clear. So, I am saying that increasing the unbalanced counterclockwise torque generated by a bow wave will increase drag. If this increase should suddenly take off at a certain speed, then we have found our hull speed. In fact, I can calculate the torque generated by the bow wave. You can see that as the bow wavelength changes, the torque will also change because the manner in which buoyancy force is distributed along the hull length changes with wavelength (fig. 6.2). The results of this calculation are plotted in figure 6.3. (For those interested, the math is provided in this endnote 2 in sufficient detail for you to reproduce the calculation.2) In figure 6.3 we see once again that drag force takes off for water wavelengths exceeding hull length, more or less.3

For simplicity, the hull of figure 6.2 was given vertical sides, but most boats don't have vertical sides, for a host of reasons. Recall that, in the Age of Sail, ships of the line were given a tumblehome cross section to deter boarders. Nowadays we are less likely to have to repel nefarious enemies swarming over our gunwales with cutlass in hand, casting a single bloodshot eye (the other being patched) in search of our gold doubloons. Hull sides are angled but the other way, with cross sections resembling a martini glass rather than a brandy glass. In plain language: more V-shaped. Here are some physics reasons for different hull cross sections.

——'Rounded hull bottoms are stronger than V-shaped hulls, but the latter will be deeper for the same displacement and so will better resist leeway.

*Just as well, because backflipping boats would be pretty uncomfortable.

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 Water wavelength / L

Figure 6.3. Hull speed is limited by drag. In the simple model described in the text, the drag increases with water wavelength, l, as shown (L is hull waterline length). Here, drag force is set arbitrarily to 1 at zero speed. If the bow wave is assumed to have constant amplitude, independent of speed, then drag changes with speed as shown. For a more realistic model, with bow wave amplitude increasing with speed, the curve looks similar. In this simple model, hull speed occurs at l « 1.2L because for longer waves (higher boat speed) the drag force becomes too strong.

•—A large deck area is desirable, but large hydrodynamic drag is not. For a hull of a given displacement, the choice of hull shape is constrained by the trade-off between these two characteristics. •—'An angled hull—say one that is V-shaped—will have greater reserve buoyancy. That is, the righting moment will increase as the hull heels further and further. •—'During heeling, the waterline along an angled hull will not be symmetric about the longitudinal axis; the port side waterline length and shape will be different from that on the starboard side. This asymmetry can assist the boat to head up while heeling. Thus, even without aerodynamic assistance from her sails, a boat may automatically

point to windward when heeling solely because of hydrodynamic forces acting on the hull. •—'Different angled hull shapes beneath the waterline assist with planing. For certain boats, such as racers, this is important because planing requires less displacement, less wetted area, and so less drag—and hence increased speed.

The physics of angled hull shapes casts an interesting light on the capabilities of some ancient ships . Certain ancient ships were built with a lot of overhang at the bow and stern, but this practice is usually thought to have been of little value for the old square-riggers because these ships were supposed to be nippy only when running or on a broad reach. Today, such hull shapes are utilized to increase hull speed while heeling because the waterline length is increased when the hull is heeled over. This lengthened waterline increases boat speed on a beam reach, for example. It seems plausible to suppose that ancient vessels with overlapping bows and sterns may have been capable of traveling across the wind at speed. Indeed, such a hull design offers no other advantage for these square-rigged vessels. (An overhanging bow and stern increases deck area, but for merchantmen—and in ancient times most of the sailing ships were merchant vessels because warships were oar-powered—deck area was not such a big deal. Volume of the hold was what mattered.) For a downwind point of sail, extended hull length above the waterline will increase pitching motion when traveling downwind; this is bad, and yet the overhanging bow and stern must have conferred some advantage or these ancient ships would not have been built this way.

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Readers' Questions

Is it possible for a displacement boat to exceed hull speed?

No, it is not possible for a displacement boat to exceed its hull speed. Hull speed is the theoretical maximum speed that a displacement boat can reach, and it is determined by the length of the waterline. When a boat exceeds its hull speed, it starts to climb up on its own bow wave and create excessive drag, making it difficult to go any faster.

What can you say about the speed of a boat that makes a bow wave?

The speed of a boat that makes a bow wave is usually quite fast, as the bow wave is usually associated with a boat moving at high speeds.

How to calculate hull speed?

Hull speed, also known as displacement speed, is the speed at which a boat hull moves through the water. It is calculated by taking the square root of the waterline length of the boat in feet and dividing it by 1.34. The formula is: Hull Speed = √LWL / 1.34 where LWL = waterline length in feet.

What is maximum hull speed for a boat?

The maximum hull speed for a boat is typically 1.34 times the square root of the waterline length of the boat in feet. For example, the maximum hull speed for a boat with a waterline length of 20 feet would be about 24 knots (1.34 x √20).

Why catamarans sail faster than hull speed?

Catamarans sail faster than hull speed because of their unique hull design. Their twin hulls provide greater stability and lift than a single hull, which results in less drag on the boat. This reduced resistance allows the boat to move more quickly through the water, resulting in higher speeds than what is normally achieved with a traditional hull design. Additionally, the width of the catamarans hulls also distributes the weight of the boat more evenly, which further reduces drag and increases speed.

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• Meet Spear, an Epic 460-Foot Trimaran Concept That Looks Like It’s From the Year 3000

The sleek behemoth could soar to an impressive top speed of 21 knots.

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This new 131-foot aluminum catamaran concept can take on a transoceanic expedition.

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Believe it or not, one of man’s oldest weapons has inspired a futuristic new trimaran concept.

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Speaking of power, Spear’s propulsion system is built around a medium-speed engine often found in large commercial vessels that reportedly provides a further 15 percent fuel saving per kW compared to a typical high-speed engine. The sponsons will be able to store plenty of fuel, too, with tanks designed to hold the renewable biofuel of the future.

As for performance, Spear can reach a top speed of 21 knots and a cruising speed of 18 knots. With reduced fuel demands, the go-anywhere cruiser has an impressive estimated range of more than 7,500 nautical miles.

Seafarers will be able to explore the globe in comfort, too. With a giant beam of 75 feet and a generous interior volume of 4,650 GT, Spear offers abundant living space onboard.

The main deck is centered around a large lounge and dining area, with two generous guest staterooms positioned amidships. Upstairs, the owner’s deck features a full-beam forward-facing stateroom with a private lounge, a luxe en suite, and a private deck with views of the helipad. The owner’s deck also has an additional guest stateroom and another lounge and dining area. Crew cabins can be found on the lower deck, while the captain’s cabin sits on the bridge deck.

“With its striking streamline design, Spear combines efficiency, comfort, and expansive open spaces to create an unparallel cruising experience,” Lateral said in a statement.

Fingers crossed we see Spear hit the seas.

Rachel Cormack is a digital editor at Robb Report. She cut her teeth writing for HuffPost, Concrete Playground, and several other online publications in Australia, before moving to New York at the…

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