A twentieth-century revival
The twin hull had a long history in the Pacific and a patchy one in Europe and America. The modern sailing catamaran emerged after the Second World War, when marine plywood, waterproof glues and later fibreglass made it possible to build light, wide, stiff boats at modest cost. Designers in Hawaii, Britain, Australia and the United States all contributed, often working independently.
In Hawaii, Woody Brown, working with Alfred Kumalae, built the catamaran Manu Kai in the late 1940s. Brown had a background in aircraft and glider design and drew on local double canoe traditions. Boats of this type were sailed offshore and demonstrated that a catamaran could be safe, fast and comfortable. Rudy Choy and others in Hawaii built further designs in the 1950s, including large cruising catamarans.
The Prout brothers
In Britain the key figures were Roland and Francis Prout, boatbuilders from Canvey Island in Essex. Beginning in the 1950s they developed a series of small sailing catamarans, notably the Shearwater class, which were light enough to be handled by a small crew and fast enough to impress racing sailors. They also made cruising catamarans, and the family business grew into a significant builder of production cruising multihulls.
British designers such as James Wharram, who pursued a different path based on Polynesian double canoes, also drew attention, though his boats were aimed at long-distance cruising rather than racing. Together these designers gave the catamaran a recognisable British scene by the 1960s.
Racing and the Olympic story
By the early 1960s catamarans were raced in several countries. A small-boat international contest for catamarans was known informally as the Little America’s Cup, created in 1961. British and American boats took part in early editions, and design progressed through successive rounds, with rigs, hull shapes and daggerboards or foils being refined. Exact winners in the early years are less important than the general pattern: the catamaran proved itself as a racing boat.
The Tornado, designed by Rodney March, became the first catamaran class used at the Olympic Games, starting in 1976 and remaining there for some decades. It was a sleek two-person boat with a trapeze. Later the Nacra 17, a mixed-crew catamaran, was introduced in the 2010s. Olympic selection has given multihull sailing a visible place in the international calendar, although the Olympic classes have changed from time to time.
Hobie Alter and the beach-launched boat
In the United States the most influential figure was Hobie Alter, a California surfboard builder who developed foam-core surfboards. Looking for a way to bring his skills to sailing, he turned to the catamaran. The Hobie Cat 14, introduced in the late 1960s, was followed in the early 1970s by the Hobie 16, which became one of the most widely sold sailing boats of its kind.
The design suited beach life. The hulls had curved bottoms, or rocker, so that the boat could be pushed through surf and launched from the sand without a slipway. The boat could be moved on a trolley and rigged quickly. Molded fibreglass hulls and a simple rig kept costs low, while the trampoline between the hulls gave a light, springy platform. Crews sat on the trampoline or hiked out on trapezes, and the boats were quick, exciting and, to many, accessible. Hobie catamarans soon had a strong following at beaches and holiday resorts in many countries, and class associations organised racing at local and world level.
A family of beach cats
Hobie was not alone. Other manufacturers and designers produced beach catamarans in a wide range of sizes, from small single-handers to larger boats for two or three people. These boats share common features: light construction, a trampoline in place of a solid deck, a tall mast, and a rig that is easy to put up. They filled a gap between traditional dinghies and large yachts, and the sport grew in coastal areas with steady winds.
The popularity of these boats showed that a catamaran did not have to be a specialist racing machine. Some people used them for casual sailing, and others for sport, and the same boats could be raced and cruised.
Strengths and limits
Beach catamarans are fast, mainly because of their light weight and low drag, and they are stable until pushed hard. They can also capsize, and a capsized catamaran is harder to right than a dinghy. Capsize was an accepted part of the sport rather than a defect in the concept.
Their appeal also depended on the shared attitudes of the postwar leisure boom, with more free time, cheaper cars and trailers, and new materials. The sailing catamaran grew less from a single invention than from timing, in which many sailors discovered at once that a light twin hull could offer thrills at a modest price.
Today small catamarans continue as a family of sporting boats, with some now fitted with foils, while the larger multihulls of the ocean-racing world pursue speed through different means.