Very Strange Boat!!!

F

Fishhawk

New member
Finally got some pictures of a real wierd boat thats moored down the Bon Secour River from us. It's a catamaran (double hull) configuration. About 25' long. The bow of the thing "just ain't right". Do any of y'all know what it is?

http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_ ... _album.php

Dr. Bob?

Also added a couple pics of our new boathouse lot. I'm working on the permits now. Have a contractor all lined up.

Dan
 
Dan-

I've never seen one of those particular boats, but it seems to be a wave-piercing displacement type power catamaran, which means it's designed to cut through the water in a displacement mode, rather than on a planing mode, and the front hull extensions pierce waves rather than try to ride up and over them.

Wave -piercing displacement boats are another solution to the speed vs energy vs. weight vs. drag vs. ride performance problem faced by boat designers that is gaining more attention recently, as I understand it as a casual observer.

Hopefully, someone will be able to identify the specific boat you're viewing!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
(1) Catamaran? Check.
(2) Wave piercing hulls? Check.
(3) Looks only a mother could love? Check
(4) Easily accesable anchoring system? Hmmm.
(5) Greenhouse? I hope they have a reliable air conditioning system.



This could be an opportunity for a name the boat contest.
Adrienne said something about 'Butt Ugly', and she dosen't cuss, ever,
 
The US Navy and USMC have some new designs that I've seen (if I remember right) that use wave-piercing catamaran designs to land heavy loads of troops and moderate weight equipment ashore on beaches, etc.

Their speed makes them a much more elusive target than an old LST type landing craft.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
While the Gold Coast wave piercers may not look as 'nice' or conventional as a C-Dory, consider what they can do.

GUEST SHUTTLES
GC47WP - Lucia

Perfect boat for the guest shuttle job!
The twelfth wave-piercer to be built by Gold Coast Yachts and the first to be resin-infused out of our new split shell hull mold, Lucia was initially delivered to the Dominican Republic, but then was bought by a group in St. John, Virgin Islands. She is representative of the 47-49’ wave-piercers which can be set up as ferry, shuttle, and snorkel or dive boat. In most of those configurations she can carry 30 passengers with their luggage or their dive equipment. With the pair of 225 hp outboards, she can hit speeds as high as 27 knots and can cruise above 15 knots burning 5 gallons an hour per side of gasoline.
Click to expand...

Try carrying that load at those speeds in the ocean and get 1.5 mpg with any other boat! These boats are reportedly very smooth riding in heavy chop.
 
As Larry and Joe say--a wave piercing cat. Not sure of the designer. There are some advantages, and some disadvantages (aside from the looks). Some of the wave piercers have long narrow and low free board hulls in the stern as well--and may hang a single outboard on the center pod. One of my friends has one of these--claims that the concept of his perticular design was from Morelli and Melvin of New Port Beach CA.
 
Several high speed passenger cats have the wave piercing design. There is one in Boston called the Salacia...39 knots top speed, 146', and can carry 600 passengers.

The one you picture above is wild..it looks like it's missing the forward cabin :D
 
Dan,

Strange boat indeed! Here's a cat with wave piercing hulls. Hulls are 100' long and the back 15'-20' is hinged to let the props stay engaged to the water as the hull walks through the wave! The cabin is the pod suspended from the upper deck. I'll stick to the old fashioned TC, thank you.
weirdcat2.jpg
 
Research vessels sometimes do look a little weird as their design is dictated by function before practicality is figured in to the equation.

We encountered this Navy Stealth Research Vessel below while sailing on the Alameda Naval Air Station nook of S.F. Bay in 1993!

Looks like a prop from a Star Wars movie! (or an adaptation of a F-117A cockpit/front end).

The Coast Guard had it surrounded for security. It was fresh out of a closed in hanger in Redwood City, where it was built and initially tested for radar stealth qualities.

They had to take it out into the bay to do the final testing. Kind of a startling experience to look over your shoulder and see that thing bearing down on you!

seashadow2.jpg
Sea Shadow on S.F.Bay.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
I saw a whole bunch of catamarans and wave piercing catamarans in Australia when I was there in January. I rode on several and while they certainly didn't pitch, they seemed to roll quite a bit. Here's a picture of one of the boats that we were on for a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef...plenty of seasick passengers despite the design, and the conditions weren't that bad. I would have been able to make 10 knots in the C-Dory, but we were going around 35 knots in this thing. It's about 150 feet long and can carry 450 passengers.

1_G.jpg

2_G.jpg
 
Roger --

That boat that you show with a suspended cabin is not really a wave piercer. The hulls actually undulate but don't really pierce. I actually saw that boat cruising around the southern tip of Manhattan in 2008. It was the oddest sight imaginable. There is a web site for it that was pretty interesting and explained a good bit about the design but I can't find it now. As I recall, it had two 6 cyl Cummins for power.
 
Research vessels sometimes do look a little weird as their design is dictated by function before practicality is figured in to the equation.

We encountered this Navy Stealth Research Vessel below while sailing on the Alameda Naval Air Station nook of S.F. Bay in 1993!

Looks like a prop from a Star Wars movie! (or an adaptation of a F-117A cockpit/front end).

The Coast Guard had it surrounded for security. It was fresh out of a closed in hanger in Redwood City, where it was built and initially tested for radar stealth qualities.

They had to take it out into the bay to do the final testing. Kind of a startling experience to look over your shoulder and see that thing bearing down on you!

seashadow2.jpg
Sea Shadow on S.F.Bay.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
My wife and I also rode the Quicksilver to the pontoon on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia this past November. The ocean was pretty nasty that day. So bad that when we got to the reef I had to think twice before diving...but we did. Only one casualty that day despite the rough seas. The poor woman was very sick. Don't think she enjoyed the day.
 
The boat in question was a labor of love by Tom Odum in Panama City, FL. Tom retired from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in the mid-90s. He designed and built this boat in the late 90s and, if my memory is correct, it was launched in 2000. Trip to the launch at the highway 79 bridge at West Bay was a memorable event as a power line across Hwy 98 was taken out during the transit. The actual launch was uneventful. Tom was an avid offshore Gulf fisherman and this boat was his concept of the perfect boat for his fishing missions. I believe Tom sold the boat about 3 years ago. I know that Tom fished the boat quite a bit; but, never heard if it met his expectations. It is, however, a real attention getter and object of discussion.
 
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