Multihull

Motor catamaran - 2 hulls, a wavepiercing element in the middle

Hull designs

Multihulls ( English multimedia ) are boats that not only one, but several parallel to each other standing hulls have. As a large structural width of the boat is achieved in this way, ballast can be dispensed with in order to achieve tilt stability . Due to the resulting weight advantage, the hulls can be kept very narrow, which results in an enormous speed potential.

One differentiates:

• Catamarans : two symmetrical hulls, sails very upright and fast, often huge space.
• Trimarans : one main hull, on the right and left a narrow boom hull: sails very quickly, but not quite as upright as a catamaran, space below deck is considerably less than with catamarans and monohull yachts.
• Proas or outrigger canoes : Asymmetrical construction: two hulls, one larger than the other. A distinction is made between Atlantic Proa and Polynesian Proa, depending on whether the mast and the sail are on the windward or leeward side. The boat is sailed in such a way that the same hull is always on the windward side and the other on the leeward side . In contrast to conventional boats, the turn / jibe is therefore not achieved by going through the wind with the bow or the stern , but rather by swapping the front and back with one another: after the turn, the boat drives the other way around.

Boats with more than three hulls ( tetramaran , pentamaran ) are very rare.