The latest development of multi-hulls for the US Navy called the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has some interesting parallels to recreational boating.

The US Navy, after the end of the cold war, moved from preparing for open ocean confrontations with a major navy to rapid engagement near land to support operations against “asymmetric” opposition. We have seen some of this already in Somalia, where special forces in small helicopters stage reconnaissance as well as surgical strikes on enemy land convoys.

A white paper by the Secretary of the Navy in 1992 called “From the Sea” defined the scope of “littoral” combat:

Operating forward means operating in the littoral or “near land” areas of the world. As a general concept, we can define the littoral as comprising two segments of the battlespace:

* Seaward: The area from the open ocean to the shore which must be controlled to support operations ashore.
* Landward: The area inland from shore that can be supported and defended directly from the sea.

The littoral region is frequently characterized by confined and congested water and air space occupied by friends, adversaries, and neutrals–making identification profoundly difficult. This environment poses varying technical and tactical challenges to Naval Forces. It is an area where our adversaries can concentrate and layer their defenses. In an era when arms proliferation means some third world countries possess sophisticated weaponry, there is a wide range of potential challenges.

This explains how the LCS design had to depart from prior designs in the Navy. It sails extremely fast but also has to be maneuverable; it can complete a 45knt turn in only 4.6 ship lengths. A one ship length turn can be done at 7knts. It accelerates to 45knts in less than 2 minutes and stops from 30knts in two ship lengths. Even with these performance numbers it still carries sophisticated and heavy arms as well as attack helicopters and small rigid hull inflatables.

A hull design suited for shallow water, a small crew and an open space for modularity further distances it from old warships. Although it sails the open ocean the main value will be achieved navigating around harbors, major rivers and near shoreline.

What does this have to do with recreational boating? Multi-hulls are pushing along the same performance/cost and complexity formula. Why sail a million dollar 52-ft “sled” with ten crew or even a million dollar 40-ft “turbo” with seven when you can get twice the performance with a quarter-million dollar 30-ft trimaran and less than half the crew.

The polar chart below shows speed in 10knts of wind at various angles.

This video shows what performance (capability per dollar) can look like these days:

While a trimaran built for fun provides speed, a shallow draft and a wide berth in the main hull for storage like an LCS, it also has a major downside. Compared to a monohull if it capsizes the crew will be unable to right the boat again and continue sailing. That should not be too much of a problem as these boats, while seaworthy, are meant to be raced “littoraly” (near shore).