Tigercat was a 1960s catamaran sailboat of the Eastern Multihull Sailing Association. [1] In 1961 it was defeated by John Fisk sailing Hellcats II of the Clapham Sands Sailing Club four races to one. [1]
A multihull is a boat or ship with more than one hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull. The most common multihulls are catamarans, and trimarans. There are other types, with four or more hulls, but such examples are very rare and tend to be specialised for particular functions.
Dennis Walter Conner is an American yachtsman. He is noted for winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and three wins in the America's Cup.
A catamaran is a watercraft with two parallel hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is required. 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.
A trimaran is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreation or racing; others are ferries or warships. They originated from the traditional double-outrigger hulls of the Austronesian cultures of Maritime Southeast Asia; particularly in the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia, where it remains the dominant hull design of traditional fishing boats. Double-outriggers are derived from the older catamaran and single-outrigger boat designs.
The Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) is a biennial offshore yacht race held in odd-numbered years starting off the Pt. Fermin buoy in San Pedro, California and ending off Diamond Head in Hawaii, a distance of around 2,225 nautical miles. In even-numbered years the Pacific Cup race starts out of San Francisco and is run by the Pacific Cup Yacht Club. Started in 1906 by Clarence W. Macfarlane and hosted by the Los Angeles Yacht Club, it is one of yachting's premier offshore races and attracts entrants from all over the world. The race is organized by the Transpacific Yacht Club.
The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) is an east-to-west yacht race across the North Atlantic. When inaugurated in 1960, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race; it is run from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island in the United States, and has generally been held on a four yearly basis.
Éric Marcel Guy Tabarly was a French naval officer and yachtsman. He developed a passion for offshore racing very early on and won several ocean races such as the Ostar in 1964 and 1976, ending English domination in this specialty. Several of his wins broke long standing records. He owed his successes to his exceptional mastery of sailing and of each one of his boats, to both physical and mental stamina and, in some cases, to technological improvements built into his boats. Through his victories, Tabarly inspired an entire generation of ocean racers and contributed to the development of nautical activities in France.
The International Catamaran Challenge Trophy is the formal name for the match racing series between two catamarans familiarly known the Little Americas Cup. While a championship series sailed between C Class catamarans does still exist, it is no longer known as the Little America's Cup.
Phil Morrison is a British boat designer and racer rendered notable by the success of his many designs in many classes since 1967 as well as his own distinguished yacht racing career.
Arthur Piver was a World War II pilot, an amateur sailor, author, printshop owner and renowned boatbuilder who lived in Mill Valley on San Francisco Bay and became "the father of the modern multihull."
ORMA 60 is a class of sailing trimarans administered by the Ocean Racing Multihull Association (ORMA) that created in 1996 by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) within the sport of sailing. The boats were built to a box rule that permitted 60 feet length and beam and a 100-foot mast.
Loïck Peyron is a French yachtsman, younger brother of the yachtsman Bruno Peyron.
VPLP design is a French-based naval architectural firm founded by Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, responsible for designing some of the world's most innovative racing boats. Their designs presently hold many of the World Speed Sailing records.
The AC72 is a class of wingsail catamarans built to a box rule, which governs the construction and operation of yachts competing in the 2013 Louis Vuitton and the America's Cup races. The class was subsequently replaced by the smaller AC50 class.
Manureva was a custom-built racing trimaran famous for being the first oceangoing multihull racing sailboat, opening the path to the supremacy in speed of this kind of boat over monohulls. She won the 1972 Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, skippered by Alain Colas, and was lost at sea with Colas during the first "Route du Rhum" transatlantic solo race in 1978.
Brian Thompson is a British yachtsman. He was the first Briton to twice break the speed record for sailing around the world, and the first to sail non-stop around the world four times. He is highly successful offshore racer on all types of high-performance yachts, from 21-foot Mini Transat racers to 140-foot Maxi Trimarans.
The Wētā 4.4 Trimaran is a 4.4 metre sailing dinghy conceived and developed in New Zealand from 2001-2006 by Roger and Chris Kitchen and others with original drawings by TC Design's Tim Clissold.
Lock Crowther was an Australian multihull sailboat designer. He grew up in Bairnsdale in the East Gippsland region of Victoria. Though his first name was Lachlan by birth, he insisted on being called Lock or Lockie.
Victor Tchetchet was a pioneering early modern multihull sailboat designer from Ukraine who is thought to have coined the term 'trimaran', though Éric de Bisschop built a trimaran in France earlier. He was also a landscape and portrait painter.
James Roderick Macalpine-Downie, known as Rod Macalpine-Downie, was an English multihull sailboat designer and sailor.
The first of these challenges took place in 1961 at Long Island NY. John Fisk sailing Hellcats II of the Clapham Sands Sailing Club managed to defeat the American defender Tigercat of the Eastern Multihull Sailing Association four races to one, finally winning an Americas Cup Challenge.