WP 500

The recent America’s Cup has proven what is the potential of fast acceleration with a trimaran hull “piercing bow,” that is designed to penetrate the wave and not to float on the waves. Beyond the result the difference in behavior between Oracle and Alinghi was bright watching the races. The Swiss catamaran advanced pitching and with constant changes of direction the American trimaran seemed to move on tracks while maintaining a trim at a constant angle of heel. Of course this is not enough to explain the overwhelming victory of Oracle and many other factors come out, but there is no doubt that the choice of bow-piercing trimaran has been winning. Three years ago, before hearing about the multihull America’s Cup, we had designed and built in a course of boat building a trimaran of 5 m of this type, we also tested with satisfaction. As we considered it a very experimental project, we had shelved the project without developing it in detail. Perhaps the designers of Oracle have seen it somewhere and they get inspired but we can not prove it and however we would never been against Ellison’s lawyers, we would have any chance. However, the success of Oracle encourages us to propose the project to our clients. This is of course a very special boat, fast and exciting but very wet and not really easy to use or build.

The central hull is made with the strip planking technique, which fits very well to the long and narrow shape. The side floats are in stressed plywood, a relatively simple technique that achieves a good balance between rigidity and weight. The crossbeams in aluminum pipes are bent and it might be a challenge for an amateur boatbuilder. However it seems the simpler, faster and cheaper system. Alternatively, it could also be in laminated wood but we didn't develop it.

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