Man has yet to devise anything quite as efficient and beautiful as a sailboat. It is the sailing vessels that went forth; crossing great oceans to discover the new lands, cultures and resources that the globe has to offer. These ancient mariners launched the age of discovery and their ships rigged with square sails blew down wind and around the world.
In Europe and later in the Americas, the sailing craft were all mono-hulls and little, if anything, was known about the twin hulled boats of India and Polynesia. In the 1600s on the coast of India, twin hulled craft were observed that the natives called “kattu maram”, and in the South Pacific, the Polynesians used craft fashioned with outriggers to travel to distant islands.
Today the catamaran is widely accepted as a craft with superior speed, a high loading capacity and as a comfortable vessel to sail and live aboard. Catamarans run from 12 feet to over 100, they are built of fiberglass, aluminum and wood and are used for sport, racing, coastal cruising and open ocean voyaging.
There are literally hundreds of designs available for the sailor to choose from and catamaran sailing opens up a different world.
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