Catamaran is a type of high speed marine vehicle that is designed to have two identical hulls. The slender hulls of a catamaran make the speed of the boat faster compared to a mono hull boat with similar displacement. Because the boat has bigger width, its deck area is larger and suitable for placing passengers rooms, or equipment for research or defense. In recent years, the design of sailing yachts uses catamaran form for the hull type. The following Youtube video shows how a catamaran yachts powered with engines on both sides of the hull move on the surface of the water.
Catamaran yachts are now designed and built by naval architecture firms to meet the demand of pleasure boats that have higher speed with greater stability and at the same time larger deck area for passengers or guests accommodation. Because of the wider deck area a big catamaran can have rooms as spacious and as luxurious as the Oasis of the Seas rooms. Oasis of the Seas have rooms in the superstructure are stacked on port and starboard sides of the cruise ship. Typical catamaran accommodation rooms are concentrated in the superstructure that is constructed on the "bridge" between the two hulls of the boat. Catamaran also has smaller draft which makes it capable of moving in high speed in shallow water. Boats with smaller draft are not installed with controllable pitch propellers but jet foil. With jet foil, water from the bow area under the hull is sucked into a tunnel where there is a propeller there. The propeller will accelerate and propel the water out of the hull creating a reaction thrust from the water that pushes the boat to move forward.
Catamaran with small draft is a very important capability that a pleasure boat must have in order to bring its passengers to lagoon or white sandy beaches whose water depth is sometimes less than five meters. The boat can be powered with large sail as catamaran sailboat or with internal combustion engine or both. The materials for building a small size catamaran range from wood to fiberglass. Sometimes aluminum is also used. All these materials are suitable for boats. For larger boats, steel is usually used.
Naval architects can use such software as Delftship or Maxsurf to develop hull forms of catamaran. The lastest Defltship free provides hull design features but only limited to symmetrical form. Designers who plan to design catamaran or other hull whose forms are not symmetrical must buy the professional edition. BIM software such as Archicad or Revit architecture can only be used for the interior design of the ship. Archicad does not have features where naval architect can use for calculating hydrostatic as well as resistance and propulsion properties of a ship.
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