MULTIpedia #05 - 2025.05.30
THE 100% MULTIHULL NEWSLETTER
A BRIEF (PRE)HISTORY OF MULTIHULLS
If you are a fan, or worse an owner, of multihull, you have undoubtedly been told condescendingly that they are not “real boats.” You may have been turned away from your yacht club or pointedly ignored on your pontoon, making you feel like an outsider. However, multihulls have a much longer history than “lead transporters”. Christopher Columbus, Magellan, Cook, and their crews would undoubtedly have suffered much less if their contemporaries had not forgotten a few millennia of history. We know that catamarans were already in use in the 5th century BC by the “Paravas,” a community of fishermen on the southern coast of what is now the state of Tamil Nadu, India. At the same time, the ancient Tamil Chola dynasty used them to transport their troops and conquer regions of Southeast Asia, such as Burma, Indonesia, and Malaysia. It seems that between 3000 BC and 4000 BC, Austronesian navigators used double canoes to colonize Polynesia and settle in the largest group of islands on the planet.
To prove this, French navigator Eric de Bisschop became famous in the 1930s and 1950s for his transoceanic voyages, notably those aboard the double canoe Kaimiloa (1937-39). While the Kon-Tiki expedition in 1948 made Thor Heyerdahl famous around the world, Eric de Bisschop's pioneering voyage from Hawaii to France aboard the Kaimiloa fell into oblivion, due to the outbreak of World War II. James Wharram has kept alive the memory and exploits of the French pioneer of modern catamarans. With his highly acclaimed book “The Voyage of the Kaimiloa” he took up Eric de Bisschop's torch and, between 1954 and 1959, during two pioneering voyages across the Atlantic aboard a double canoe, confirmed that Eric de Bisschop's hypothesis was correct. The ancient stable double canoe of the Pacific had enabled ancient Pacific migrations to take place from west to east from Southeast Asia.
Conquering the world
The word “catamaran” itself comes from the Tamil word “kattumaram” which literally means “assembled logs”, or rather a raft. However, it was brought back to Europe by the 17th-century English explorer and adventurer William Dampier, who encountered this people in Southeast India during his first circumnavigation. He was the first to write about the boats he saw sailing. In his account of his 1697 voyage, “A New Voyage Round the World”, he wrote: “On the coast of Malabar they call them Catamarans. These are but one log, or two, sometimes of a sort of light wood ...so small, that they carry but one man, whose legs and breech are always in the water.”
While double canoes, praos, and trimarans originated thousands of years ago in Oceania, the first Western catamaran on record was built in England by William Petty in 1663. It was a merchant ship named St Simon & Jude designed to sail in shallow waters faster, with less wind and a smaller crew than its competitors. Unfortunately, human skepticism and conservatism shelved the idea for several centuries before VELA revived it.
Captain Nat
The first true racing catamaran was designed by one of the most brilliant naval architects in the history of yachting, the American Nathanael G. Herreshoff. At the end of the 19th century, the American from Bristol won the America's Cup six times—a record that has yet to be broken—but above all he invented the dinghy, the keelboat, and the modern catamaran. Initially, Nathanael Herreshoff wanted to improve the performance of a monohull. By making it wider and wider, then removing the central part of the hull, which had become useless, the “Wizard of Bristol” reinvented the multihull in 1877 in the form of a catamaran. The John Gilpin is 9.75m/32ft long and 5.28m/17ft32 wide, weighs only 1.5 tons (3,306 lbs) and has 85 sqm of sail area. Nathanaël Herreshoff named his first catamaran John Gilpin likely as a reference to the famous comic ballad “The Diverting History of John Gilpin” (1782) by William Cowper. In the poem, John Gilpin is an unwitting rider who is swept away at full speed by an uncontrollable horse, creating a very humorous image of speed and chaos. For the architect, this name symbolized speed, surprise, and innovation, all fitting qualities for his daring first catamaran.
It would be more than 150 years before another multihull would be seen in a shipyard. Representing Great Britain in kayaking at the 1952 Olympics, brothers Roland and Francis Prout began building their first catamaran using racing kayaks connected by a bamboo platform. They added a mainsail and jib from a dinghy. The result was so convincing that they decided to build a real model, the Shearwater I, which won all the local regattas in the Southeast of England. The interest generated by this catamaran led them to develop it into the Shearwater III, which was smaller (4.90 m by 2.30 m) and easier to tow. It became the world's first production catamaran, with more than 2,000 units built to date.
The 1970s saw the first attempts at habitable pleasure catamarans, mainly in Great Britain. These included Prout and his Snowgoose, as well as the Catalac and Star Twins. These pioneers were rather heavy, narrow (with a length/width ratio often over 2), had a lot of windage, inefficient underwater shape inherited from monohulls, and low aspect fixed keels with disastrous profiles. With their fairly symmetrical hulls and narrow bows, they were particularly prone to hobbyhorsing, and their minimal bridge deck clearance made impacts with the sea inevitable. Nevertheless, they had the merit of opening a path that others would follow.
The Roaring ‘80s
The French were inspired by a few legendary racing multihulls such as Éric Tabarly's Pen Duick 4 and Mike Birch's Olympus Photo, winner of the first Route du Rhum in 1978. Kicking off an incredibly prolific decade in terms of new multihull designs, the first to launch was Fountaine Pajot with the Louisiane 37 in 1982. The same year saw the creation of Seawind in Australia. In 1984, the Lagoon brand appeared for the first time within Jeanneau-JTA, and Corsair Marine was founded in San Diego (USA) by John Walton to build and market the Corsair F-27, a trailerable trimaran designed by Ian Farrier. The same year Edel Strat launched its first catamaran, the Edel Cat 26, and the Outremer and Catana shipyards were founded. In 1985, Bénéteau launched the Blue 2 based on a Philippe Briand design, and 1985 also saw the creation of Jeantot Marine, manufacturer of the Privilège. Robertson & Caine, the South African builder of the Leopard, followed in 1991, then Nautitech in 1994, to name just the main builders.
And that was just the beginning!
To be continued...
Sources:
Catamarans “Study of recreational multihulls” - Paul Adam (Ed Amphora)
Eric de Bisschop et James Wharram – Pionniers du Catamaran - www.wharram.com
Irish Boatbuilding Tradition In Arklow Is A Spider’s Web - Afloat Magazine
Voiles & Voiliers - Les catas magiques du «Sorcier de Bristol» - by F. Chevalier
National Maritime Museum Cornwall - BC16 – Shearwater catamaran “Yellow Bird”
SPOTTED
Wednesday, May 21, La Baule (France) - Entering the bay of your childhood at 23.7 knots, the central hull barely skimming the water. What incredible sensations these Ocean Fifty trimarans provide... unforgettable! Thank you to the entire Inter Invest sailing team for this ride, especially Matthieu Perraut, Sébastien Rogues, Jean-Baptiste Gellée, not to mention Sarah Pitkowski and Juliette Gorin from the 15Love agency.
FAME
Another hero of multihull heritage has been brought to our attention, the former Orma 60 Fujicolor II (1990). The magnificent Nigel Irens design built for Mike Birch and later skippered by Loick Peyron is for sale (€250,000) at Cathyacht. Now christened Yasasin, she is an excellent candidate for the next Route du Rhum vintage category, having won (among other trophies) the solo transatlantic race twice, in 1992 (C-Star) and 1996 (Europe 1 Star), as well as the Tour of Europe and the Fastnet Race (in real time) in 1999.
TRANSPARENCY
South African manufacturer Knysna Yachts is launching its new flagship, the Knysna 550. Hull #002 is scheduled to be launched next July. The shipyard is showing rare transparency by announcing the next available slots and even corresponding sales prices on its website. Hull#003 is at USD 1.75 Mo, Hull#004 and #005 at USD 1.855 Mo and hull #006 at USD1.975 Mo
ONE THIRD
11 multihulls out of 31 yachts in total have left the Caribbean (St Marteen) or USA to Marina de Lagos in southern Portugal on the ARC Europe 2025. The two fleets will be meeting in Bermuda, and then will cruise the Azores
SPEEDING
The SP80 prototype has officially reached a speed of 58.261 Knots (108 km/h). This new top speed makes SP80 the second fastest sailboat ever recorded, behind Vestas Sailrocket II and its 68.01-knot. Next step for the Swiss team is to beat Paul Larsen’s world record.
RACING
Multihull racing is now quite easy to follow, with four perfectly organized professional circuits. Their schedules for the current season are now complete and available to the public:
ULTIM - Program 2025-2028
OCEAN FIFTY - Calendar 2025
SAILGP - 2025 races
ETF26 - 2025 Series
SHOW
With the number of multihulls on display increasing, the Grand Pavois La Rochelle boat show is offering a new multihull marina in 2025 (23-28 Sept.) expecting 40 vessels on display, from blue water yachts to coastal cruisers
CARGO
The team behind Vela, the sailing cargo trimaran designed by François Gabart, reveals the seven reasons that led to the choice of a trimaran. According to Loic C., an expert in active mobility and mobility transition, Vela has the highest decarbonization rate of all current projects or existing ships, which he summarizes in this infographic (in French).
WATTS
The Catana Group Aveiro factory in Portugal is now powered by solar energy. 1818 solar panels of 550W each have been installed, making a total of 800,000W. The estimated production varies from 80,000 kWh in February to 160,000 kWh in August. Ironically, this factory is currently dedicated to the production of power catamarans.
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Splendid job ! I love it ….