Contents Multihulls World SP23 -

Innovation... Where You’d Least Expect It!

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Published on 24/10/2024

By Emmanuel van Deth

Issue: SP23

Published: Dec. / Jan. 2024

Discover this issue

Many boaters - and sailors at the top of that list - find it hard to imagine “switching” to motorboating, as if stepping aboard a vessel without mast or sails were the ultimate denial. But we don’t really know, especially as dealers are adamant that those going sail power (and power sail, for that matter) are far more numerous than you’d think. Electric drivetrains, whose development we have been following for many years - in particular via our Forever Green special issues - further blurs the image of motorboats becoming as clean as sailboats... And to exacerbate things, multihulls are at the heart of these innovations. Thanks to their lower drag, they require less energy to propel. And their nacelle, which is much wider than that of a monohull, can accommodate a larger surface area of photovoltaic panels. But that’s not all: foils, imagined in 1976 by legendary French sailor Eric Tabarly, who transformed a Tornado hull, are now appearing under our powercats! Here again, mass-produced power monohulls do not have an advantage: any type of foils would protrude from their sides (causing problems for maneuvering in port), and structural strength would pose major headaches for design teams. Nothing of the sort aboard the Four Winns TH36, the Aquila 42 and so many others: two blades between the hulls and there you have it! These innovations, as pleasing as they are unexpected, provide greater comfort at sea and fuel savings of 20%. So we’re a long way from the caricatured “vroom-vroom” image that some would like to attach to two- or three-hull motorboating, and we’re the first to rejoice and be proud to present this fifth Power Buyer’s Guide!

PS: As promised in the previous edition, MW198, the QRCodes presented from this issue onwards now include all the content (video, test, technical data, articles, etc) of a single model: feel free to scan them on the print version or click on the icons if you’re reading the digital version!

Happy reading - and viewing!

Emmanuel van Deth
Editor in Chief