The Twilight Zone

[littlenige]

Is it the Caspian Sea Monster? No!!! It´s..........................a bit weird actually.

[verytricky]

Looks like it wants to be a hydrofoil type device?

[Troels L]

Strange looking piece of kit..

Any more pics ?

[littlenige]

´fraid not - was an attachment from a friend of mine. I know diddly squat about it.

[Matt]

Looks like an evolution of the SWATH concept (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull).

The bulbous bits are full submerged and provide most of the buoyancy. Perhaps ballasted to control buoyancy.
The thinner legs are the bit the actually breaks the water surface.
The advantage of this is that in a seaway, as the wave rises and falls up the "thin" legs, the change in volume of displaced water is small, so the boat is less affected by waves.
The fins on the bulbs will further damp things, and might even be adjustable I guess.

No idea what the 4 legs idea is about though, but I guess it's mostly about further minimising the waterplane area.

Adam will probably point out an obvious oversight and tell me I'm talking bollix - I'm a bit rusty on all that stuff these days.

[Adam]

Originally posted by Matt
Looks like an evolution of the SWATH concept (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull).

The bulbous bits are full submerged and provide most of the buoyancy. Perhaps ballasted to control buoyancy.
The thinner legs are the bit the actually breaks the water surface.
The advantage of this is that in a seaway, as the wave rises and falls up the "thin" legs, the change in volume of displaced water is small, so the boat is less affected by surface waves.
The fins on the bulbs will further damp things, and might even be adjustable I guess.

No idea what the 4 legs idea is about though, but I guess it's mostly about further minimising the waterplane area.

Adam will probably point out an obvious oversight and tell me I'm talking bollix - I'm a bit rusty on all that stuff these days.

Pretty much spot on - only ever worked on one such craft - a large ferry built by FBM at Cowes. Approx 30M loa.
Excellent rough weather ability as she far less effected waves, she was built for the run from Portugal to Madeira. Also had a pretty good turn of speed - but probably could not match a conventional catamaran hull form.

Howver must have been very expensive to build and did have a few structural diffuculties to sort out. Oh a shaft length / arrangement that was unbelieveable - as engines were in main hulls / raft and props were from the sugmerged hulls