A multihull is a ship or boat with more than one hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull.
Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called yachts for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word jacht ("hunt"). With sailboats, the activity is called sailing, and with motorboats, it is called powerboating.
A catamaran is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stabilized craft, deriving its stability from its wide beam, rather than from a ballasted keel as with a monohull boat. Catamarans typically have less hull volume, smaller displacement, and shallower draft (draught) than monohulls of comparable length. The two hulls combined also often have a smaller hydrodynamic resistance than comparable monohulls, requiring less propulsive power from either sails or motors. The catamaran's wider stance on the water can reduce both heeling and wave-induced motion, as compared with a monohull, and can give reduced wakes.
Ericson Yachts, Inc. was a pioneering builder of fiberglass yachts. Ericson is now out of business, but its designs have been reproduced periodically by other manufacturers.
Pacific Seacraft Corporation is a Washington, North Carolina based sailboat manufacturer specializing in fiberglass monohull cruising boats. Pacific Seacraft is best known for producing the Crealock line of sailboats. These are heavy, overbuilt offshore cruising designs designed by William Crealock. Crealocks are distinctive due to their overhanging 'canoe' sterns and traditional lines. Their sailboats have been featured in both volumes of Ferenc Máté's The World's Best Sailboats, and Fortune Magazine twice selected Pacific Seacraft as a producer of America's 100 best products.
Robert H. Perry is a U.S. yacht designer based in Seattle, Washington. Among his designs are some of the most successful cruising yachts in modern cruising such as the Tayana 37 and Valiant 40. Through his career he has designed boats for many well recognized names in the yachting industry, such as Tayana, Cheoy Lee, Valiant, Baba, Ta Shing, Islander, Passport and Saga. Perry has taught yacht design at Evergreen State College.
A sailing yacht, is a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. A yacht may be a sail or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, so the term applies here to sailing vessels that have a cabin with amenities that accommodate overnight use. To be termed a "yacht", as opposed to a "boat", such a vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities. Sailboats that do not accommodate overnight use or are smaller than 30 feet (9.1 m) are not universally called yachts. Sailing yachts in excess of 130 feet (40 m) are generally considered to be superyachts.
The North 26 is a boat designed by Julian D Everitt in 1982, Cowes UK, designer of the very successful E boat. Big brother to the E-boat, intended for Yacht racing Inshore and in Junior Offshore Group races to rate under Channel now IRC measurement rule. Examples race the English Channel and have a wide flat sole plate that enables them to sit the mud in English ports with the keel retracted. This feature also enables safe beach sitting whilst cruising and use as a Trailer yacht.
William Ion Belton Crealock was a yacht designer and author. He was one of the world's leading yacht designers from the 1960s through the 1990s, and his yachts were owned by the famous and wealthy, including Walter Cronkite and William Hurt.
The Pacific Seacraft 31 is a bluewater cruising yacht produced since 1987 by Pacific Seacraft, now of Washington, North Carolina. Although of GRP construction, the yacht is traditionally built with a cutter rig, skeg-hung rudder and semi-long keel. The yacht is a cruising design, with a high displacement designed by Bill Crealock.
The Pacific Seacraft 40 is a bluewater cruising yacht produced since 1996 by Pacific Seacraft of Washington, North Carolina. Although of GRP construction, the yacht is traditionally built with a cutter rig, skeg-hung rudder, canoe stern and semi-long keel. The yacht is a cruising design, with a high displacement and the characteristic 'canoe' stern of Bill Crealock.
The Pacific Seacraft 44 is a bluewater cruising yacht produced since 1990 by Pacific Seacraft of Washington, North Carolina. Although of GRP construction, the yacht is traditionally built with a cutter rig, skeg-hung rudder, canoe stern and semi-long keel. The yacht is a cruising design, with a high displacement and the characteristic 'canoe' stern of Bill Crealock.
James Wharram is a multihull pioneer and designer of catamarans.
Alan Newbury Payne AM was a naval architect born in England but who worked in Australia. His yacht designs were readily built by both professionals and amateurs, and remain well represented in the ocean-going and coastal yacht fleet.
An ultra light displacement boat is a modern form of watercraft with limited displacement relative to the hull size.
The possibility of further speed increase [...] will always attract ardent believers in their speed virtues, just as they have done in the past. The ULDB are, however, very capricious creatures in terms of performance. They may deliver the goods, provided there is just a right kind of wind and from the right direction to sail 'full and by'. And since weather is also capricious, the ULDB and weather seldom suit each other. 'Light displacement craft', Davidson remarked, 'are not new in principle'. For many centuries there have been canoes, proas and the like in the South Pacific and other places, with similar displacement in proportion to the sail area and hull length. Racing dinghies, or dinghy-like modern offshore racers, so common today, are typical examples of the same principle. In all instances the combination of the major design features: displacement, sail area, length and stability [i.e. —] power to carry sails effectively, is radically different from the combination found in the traditional seaworthy and wholesome yachts.
The Dana 24 is an American sailboat that was designed by William Crealock as an ocean cruiser and first built in 1974.
The Crealock 37, also called the Pacific Seacraft 37, is an American sailboat that was designed by British naval architect W. I. B. Crealock as a cruiser and first built in 1978.
The South Coast 25 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Warren Metcalf as a cruiser and first built in 1969.
The Pacific Seacraft 25 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Henry Mohrschladt as a cruiser and first built in 1976.