'Beautiful Catamaran' - An Oxymoron?

[Laidback]

Every time I see Lagoon windows it puts me off cats ---

Until I see one of Schionning's designs

[Laidback]

Lagoon vs Schionning

[Aussiesuede]

Originally Posted by Laidback

Every time I see these of Lagoon windows it puts me off cats ---

Until I see one of Schionning's designs

I agree. I think Lagoons are about as hideous as the houseboats we use to rent at Lake Havasu back in university.

[Laidback]

This Schionning @ 45ft is seldom seen from the front or the sides

[Octopus]

Originally Posted by beiland

Romantically stated, but oh so true, “it is simply her sheer … sheer beauty that is. She enters the harbor like a beautiful woman entering a room. Her sheer is the line we try to get right when we doodle boats.” So many of today’s boats lack this beauty, and correspondingly, some of the essence of yesteryear’s yachting.

Hi Brian

Thanks for reopening this thread with such a sensitive post. This is just the sort of thing I wanted this thread to explore. How can we match the sheer beauty of boats of yesteryear monohulls in a modern multihull? Or is it impossible?

Looking at you photos, I think you have certainly picked out some spectacular catamarans with some beautiful lines. However, I would not describe any of them as beautiful boats. Much of their so-called-beauty is not beauty at all, but is opulence, conspicuous wealth and splendour that we misconstrue as beauty owing to our own feelings of envy. All the catamarans you show have one thing in common - they are all big. Are you saying that to be beautiful a catamarans have to be big? If so, what hope is there for impoverished mortals like myself? Am I condemmed to only catch sight of glimpses of beauty in a passing super yacht?

Looking at your website, which I found very interesting, I found one grain of comfort. The Dynarig is such an intrinsically beautiful rig that perhaps on a multihull it could seize attention from the intrinsically ugly twin hull configuration. The Maltese Falcon is one of the most beautiful boats built in the last fifty years and only because it has an outstandingly beautiful rig placed on a distastefully opulent super yacht.

I suppose what I've been hoping for in a beautiful catamaran is a design that somehow mirrors the beauty found in nature. Perhaps one that conceals the ugly practicality of twin hulls beneath the beautiful lines of a swan, for example.



Chris

[Laidback]

Cris,
Hope that the continuance of this fruitless comparison between apples and oranges is not because someone passed a critical comment regarding a lagoon?
The picture of this classic ketch does give credit to the notion that there are really beautiful mono-hulls out there.

[ldrhawke]

How can you say this is not a thing of beauty in a sailing vessel, inside and out?

It's a sculptured piece of art !

[Intentional Drifter]

I think this Chris White design is simply beautiful:

[beiland]

Originally Posted by Laidback

Every time I see these of Lagoon windows it puts me off cats ---

I know where you are coming from. I disliked this window treatment very much myself for the longest time, and still do from an exterior point of view. But spend some time living on one of these vessels at anchor and you will really come to appreciate it both from a visability and a solar gain pt of view.... Just a neccesary evil in many cases.

However if they sacraficed a bit of interior room in the saloon and shaped the front of the deck house into a 'fat V' rather than a square front they might gain some aerodynamically. Note the 'pointed shape' of the deckhouse on Indigo, and my 65 design. This lines up with the apparent wind a bit better

[beiland]

Originally Posted by Intentional Drifter

I think this Chris White design is simply beautiful:

I think that was his 43 design that was to be a production vessel...Voyger or something like that? This one looks like it had a cockpit dodger added to it.

One of the problems with this design is it attempted to limit sizable deckhouse glazing, but as a result the visibility out either side of the vessel from inside the deckhouse was extremely poor. More than a few found it 'claustrophobic'

[beiland]

Originally Posted by ldrhawke

How can you say this is not a thing of beauty in a sailing vessel, inside and out?

Clean interior...but no warmth

[beiland]

Originally Posted by Octopus

Hi Brian

Thanks for reopening this thread with such a sensitive post. This is just the sort of thing I wanted this thread to explore. How can we match the sheer beauty of boats of yesteryear monohulls in a modern multihull? Or is it impossible?

Multihulls are already 'square' objects, and if you put plumb bows on them they become more square. And it you draw the sheer line with a straight edge as many are done, they become more square.

And simply adding curvy lines onto a square object will not make it any better...wittness the many variations of large power yachts these days that seek to be individual by endless varieties of curvy windows and lines. Most will not have any saving grace in the end...just like so many floating clorox bottles

Looking at you photos, I think you have certainly picked out some spectacular catamarans with some beautiful lines. However, I would not describe any of them as beautiful boats. Much of their so-called-beauty is not beauty at all, but is opulence, conspicuous wealth and splendour that we misconstrue as beauty owing to our own feelings of envy. All the catamarans you show have one thing in common - they are all big. Are you saying that to be beautiful a catamarans have to be big? If so, what hope is there for impoverished mortals like myself? Am I condemmed to only catch sight of glimpses of beauty in a passing super yacht?

Regrettably it has been true for eons that longer vessels look better..sorry about that.

You might note that I've not changed thoes photos in that section scince I put the website up in 2001, so they are a little dated compared to some newer designs. But most there have a lasting quality I think.

Looking at your website, which I found very interesting, I found one grain of comfort. The Dynarig is such an intrinsically beautiful rig that perhaps on a multihull it could seize attention from the intrinsically ugly twin hull configuration. The Maltese Falcon is one of the most beautiful boats built in the last fifty years and only because it has an outstandingly beautiful rig placed on a distastefully opulent super yacht.

Have heart it just might become a reality. I've had a few real interesting inquiries recently.

I'll close with this Crowther design that I still believe has one of the most beautiful hull designs... Investigator

[Intentional Drifter]

"One of the problems with this design is it attempted to limit sizable deckhouse glazing, but as a result the visibility out either side of the vessel from inside the deckhouse was extremely poor. More than a few found it 'claustrophobic'."

I know the owner of Surprise and have been on the boat a number of times. It is indeed the "Voyager" design. Surprise's owner believes that only two were made. Personally, I didn't find it claustrophobic.

ID

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Laidback

Every time I see these of Lagoon windows it puts me off cats ---

Until I see one of Schionning's designs

I hated the Lagoon windows as well, but the further I get into my build the more disappointed I am that I made to decision to style like this



Instead of this



Which is actually a Malcolm Tennant design, rendered by the above company.

The windows on the Tennant will be so much cooler in the tropics, and I still haven't discounted taking the saw to the front of mine for a re-build.

Nothing a circular saw, sledgehammer and another 50 litres of epoxy and a bit of glass wont fix right?

[imagine2frolic]

Maybe it's my Polynesian blood. I find most multis attractive. A few butt ugly, and some downright gorgeous. I don't know how some one can spend so much money on something that is not pleasing to their eye?

Obviously the other attributes of the boat convinced you to buy. I find myself looking over my shoulder often to get another glance at Imagine as I dinghy away, or walk away from the dock. It may not be the apple of any one else's eye, but I enjoy looking at her......i2f