Offshore Cat Design

[S2art]

Having looked at some old photos of some IIIC Cats that raced back in the 80's and 90's, it got me thinking. How different in design/ technology are the latest cats i.e Twisters or Argos compared to the Cougars and Lorne Campball/ Gordan Wright or Midas ones. Could you take for example "the specialist" cougar design make it in composite and have a competative race boat? It would interesting to hear what the current batch of designers say about it.

[Guy41]

In the the 1980s designers of class 3C racing catamarans were faced with exactly the same criteria and restrictions as of today. How to make the boat as competitive as possible within the framework of the rules.

I use the word competitive rather than fast, as for a boat to win a championship it needs to be able to perform consistently in varying conditions (particularly in waters around the British Isles). It is relatively easy to make a catamaran go faster than a (“conventional “ step-less) monohull of similar size and power and this I believe encouraged catamaran design from the late 80s and 90s to sacrifice all round ability for the sake of top end speed in calm conditions. This also went a long way to encourage the myth that catamarans are good in the calm and monohulls are better in the rough.

This need for speed made the sport more dangerous and created the ridiculous spectacle of large “offshore” catamarans that can reach 200MPH, canopies in just about all classes and a politically correct “banning” of catamarans from marathon and endurance events.

Weight restrictions (which I do not think improve boat design) and heavier engines have changed certain design criteria during the past 10 years, but in general today’s catamarans are built predominantly for top end speed.
In the 1980s the different shapes sizes and weights of catamarans did produce some better all-round boats. Some of which could indeed be adapted to fit competitively with todays class rules.

Rather than “copying “ a particular design - you should look at what particular features and characteristics made that design work well and incorporate these features into the current rules and based around the currently available and allowable engines.

The ex Nurse Brothers Cougar “The Specialist” was a very good hull and something of a similar style could be a competitive boat today.
However to “copy” the shape construct in plastic composite and fit current 3C ( heavier and more powerful) engine would not necessarily work.

There is also nothing wrong with building a catamaran in wood epoxy- especially if it is a one-off, with single curvature panels. Exotic textiles can be laminated for stiffness (particularly in way of longitudinals) and weight , strength and repair-ability could all be better than an all-plastic boat.

I would welcome a return of more seaworthy multihulls there are plenty of examples out there (check out posts on here regarding the Ringcat 22 for example)- and although not all fit into todays racing classes – features from boats fof the 1980s can still offer something.