This is not a new design is it... surely.

[tim_ber]

I am sure that I saw a design years ago, could have read about it in an old book when I was into catamarans, whereby a boat moved through the water with catamaran hulls or pontoon-like structures under the water and struts extended up above the surface of the waves to support the boat.

Thereby the boat had a more gentle ride as the waves did not affect the hull. It was to give a stable platform for something, could have been scientific tests - my memory fails me a lot lately.

Bit like a sub misses a storm by submerging perhaps.

Anyway, Seaworks article, April edition talks about this:

http://www.maritimejournal.com/news...y/submersible-hull-catamaran-concept-unveiled

Patents pending etc. I am not imagining it am I.

An almost identical boat exists already doesn't it?

There is also that monohull ship that floods its aft compartments to become a vertical structure.

So I find the claims of: "only vessel to change its internal volume" etc etc a bit OTT and I simply do not like people that copy other people's ideas.

Does anyone know the previous vessel I mentioned? Google only brings up this 'new' one so far.

 

[tim_ber]

I don't think it was this, but it could have been an oil rig I read about; I can't remember for sure.
http://www.google.com/patents/EP0273474A1?cl=en

 

[tim_ber]

Wasn't this one either:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6912965.html

but this is a similar concept I think. Haven't read the page yet to see if the 'pontoons' are totally sumerged.

This may have been the vertical monohull one I remember:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcgLwMcIlks

 

[AntarcticPilot]

There is also that monohull ship that floods its aft compartments to become a vertical structure.

RV FLIP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_FLIP

 

[tim_ber]

RV FLIP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_FLIP

Yep, that was the monohull one. Very clever.

This site:

http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/ar/t4335.htm

has a similar design / concept to the 'new' proposed design, but I am sure it is not the one I saw years ago.

Maybe I saw the oil rig one and designed a catamaran based upon it, I doodle a lot, and it is all in my mind.

This new one "claims to be the only vessel which (sic) can change its internal volume.

Would have thought the Flip ship did that, doesn't it?

 

[prv]

You're quite right that the "buoyancy well below the surface, thin struts up to the superstructure" idea is not new. Can't remember the name for it now though.

Pete

 

[yoda]

SWATH = Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull, you will see them operating routinely in Plymouth taking the Staff of Flag Officer Sea Training out to ships in the sound.

Yoda

 

[Lakesailor]

This sort of thing? http://www.oilpubs.com/oso/article.asp?v1=398

 

[tim_ber]

This sort of thing? http://www.oilpubs.com/oso/article.asp?v1=398

Well, the date on that is 2004, so how these new people in the Seaworks article are applying for patents is interesting.

 

[boguing]

Swaths were certainly around in the early '80s.

 

[Lakesailor]

Well, the date on that is 2004, so how these new people in the Seaworks article are applying for patents is interesting.

Perhaps it's the jacking system they are patenting.

 

[tim_ber]

Perhaps it's the jacking system they are patenting.

Possibly. Good idea anyway.