EDITOR’S LETTER
The look of a yacht is what gets talked about most often, but what happens under the water is just as varied and interesting.
When i was a kid, i went to the store and bought sneakers. I didn’t get sets of running shoes, basketball shoes, cross-training shoes or walking shoes. Just sneakers. And I was a die-hard Chuck Taylor fan. I had a pair of sneakers. ¶ These days, I have those cross-training shoes, boat sneakers, fishing sneakers, boat shoes, flip-flops, closed-toe boat sandals and more. I still have only the same two feet, but footwear has evolved to suit those hyperniches. If you are an enthusiast of those hyperniches, you find a need and a place for all the available offerings. ¶ I see a similar marketplace evolution when I look at hull designs these days. Growing up, I heard about the monohull and, once in a while, the catamaran. Within the monohull, you had the displacement, semi-displacement, deep-V and planing forms, depending on your vessel’s performance characteristics and overall mission. Some hulls may have even had prop tunnels. If you were thinking long-distance cruising, then you were a displacement fan. Sheer speed? A planing hull was your deal. A number of us fell somewhere in the middle.
Then came steps, These elever critters helped to put air under the hull, reducing hydrodynamic resistance and adding lift.
¶ Then hull steps got popular. These clever critters helped to put air under the hull, reducing hydrodynamic resistance and adding lift. They also helped boats to run more efficiently, flatter, burning less fuel while optimizing speed. Some boats now have single steps; others have two. ¶ In similar fashion, I’ve seen larger yachts with channels set into the form to direct air that helps reduce drag and enhance performance. ¶ The catamaran hull form has made big gains in acclaim too. Its form is stable, makes for relatively easy boathandling and helps to create a yacht with significantly more internal volume than its length overall would otherwise suggest. And even within this segment, there are catamarans with asymmetrical hull shapes, dividing the niche even further. ¶ Then there are foil craft. The term foil (and foiling) really came into vogue thanks to the America’s Cup, but we now have some recreational vessels that sit above the water and seemingly fly across it rather than run over it. ¶ Having spent time running boats with most of these hull forms and features, I can say they all serve their purposes well. The bigger issue for boat fanatics like me is settling on just one boat and style. It’s not like we can just cram an extra boat into the closet shoe rack.