Rafael and Heidi Francke update us on their latest mega-trailerable multihull - this time a proa. Congratulations on a quick build and a successful first sail. -Editor
Here we go again. This time it is NOT a folding catamaran like Cat2Fold. There is a change in wind direction. It is a Pacific proa.
Last year we were playing with the idea of a “folding” (actually “demountable”) power catamaran. The playing got serious to the point of…
Gold Coast Yachts of St. Croix, USVI, have launched the new Bieker 53 performance cruising catamaran. The polarizing aesthetics aside, we are very interested in this build. The curved boards are a moderate use of hydrofoil tech that is extremely promising. Unlike the fully flying Gunboat G4, FUJIN’s foils do not lift the hulls completely free of the water’s surface. The boards augment righting moment and pitch stability, making the…
Advanced Aerodynamic Vessels of Nantes, France, aims to improve the speeds of passenger vessels by harnessing the flow of apparent wind. The catamaran employs planing stepped hulls similar to a seaplane, but the resemblance to a flying machine doesn’t stop there. The central bridgedeck is carefully shaped into a wing that creates aerodynamic lift and reduces both displacement and drag:
The operational speed of today’s small workboats…
The Race to Alaska is proving to be just as tough on boats and sailors as expected. Uncharacteristically strong winds (up to 20 knots dead on the nose) and the resulting brutal chop are discovering every weak link in the fleet, causing gear failure, DNF’s, even a dismasting. Two of the early race favorites, the 24’ carbon fiber catamaran of Team Turn Point Design, and the Paul Bieker designed proa of Team Pure and Wild, called it quits…
The R2AK starting gun goes off in less than two days: June 4, at 5:00 am. Among the fleet of 56 boats due to depart Port Townsend on Thursday morning, nearly 50% are multihulls. Point Hudson is beginning to resemble Plymouth during the OSTAR and St. Malo during the Route du Rhum! The harbor is filling up with the coolest multihulls we’ve ever seen, many purpose built for the race. Not to say that there aren’t very interesting monos as…
