New Long Thin, Hyper-Efficient Trawler

Governments are ordering some new ultra long and thin trimarans it seems - here is a new 43 meter boat coming down the pipe. Seems like the design might make an interesting starting point for a line of long range passagemakers...

The Ocean Eagle 43 is an innovative OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel) that has been designed to offer a cost effective and reliable vessel for governments and research agencies to operate for extended periods at sea.

Ocean Eagle 43 trimaran will have a range of over 3,000 nautical miles and a top speed of 30 knots whilst burning around one-fifth of the fuel of an equivalent single hull OPV.

Built in lightweight composites and powered by four 500hp engines, the 75 tonne vessel can be operated by eight crew or less offering a much lower cost of ownership, both in build and operation, than an equivalent single-hull ship without compromising the operational performance and ability to carry out effective patrols.






A response to the changing needs of modern navies with greatly reduced acquisition and operations budgets, the Ocean Eagle 43 is a light ocean patrol vessel (OPV) that makes use of modern electronics for multiple missions — many of low intensity but high economic import, such as anti-piracy and surveillance of fishery, oil and gas and other maritime resources. Constructed of composites by Chantier Naval H2X (La Ciotat, France) for shipbuilder CMN (Paris and Cherbourg, France), the new 43.6m OPV benefits from CMN’s 68 years of surface-combatant craft experience and construction of hundreds of advanced vessel designs for 38 navies around the world. Part of the Ocean Eagle’s versatility comes from its sleek and fast trimaran hull, which also offers a beam (width) that can accommodate a landing platform for unmanned aerial vehicles. A renowned shipyard in its own right, H2X’s methods contribute to the trimaran’s favorable performance-to-price ratio and have earned its builder the record for the largest hull ever infused with epoxy resin in one shot.

Designing for efficiency

Conceived by legendary naval architect Nigel Irens, the Ocean Eagle 43 is a descendent of his multi-hull designs, which dominated international sailboat racing for decades. ...

“It’s taken many years for the world to warm up to this design for an efficient surveillance vessel,” notes Irens, “but it is a perfect application for a trimaran.” The long, slender main hull and diminutive outer hulls (called amas) provide exceptional stability but weigh less and experience less drag than other hull forms of comparable displacement, including twin-hulled catamarans. “The trimaran offers the greatest range … due to its very low wetted surface area,” he explains. “What you get is a top speed of 30 knots for Ocean Eagle, but more importantly, a very economical 20-knot cruise for a 4,828 km range.”

Delivering versatility

The first three Ocean Eagle 43s will be delivered to Mozambique in 2015. CMN has been so pleased with the design concept that it introduced a mine-hunter version of the Ocean Eagle 43 in Le Bourget, France, at the 24th International Naval, Defence & Maritime Exhibition (Euronaval, Oct. 27-31, 2014). The company says it now offers an “ideal” solution for navies seeking simple, modular and versatile platforms, which can be assigned not only to surveillance and minehunting, but a variety of other patrol missions.



Check out some great images of the finished boat here at the CMN Web site:

Single Page - CMN Group

http://cmn-group.com/products-and-services/military-vessels/tsm/

https://vod.infomaniak.com/redirect/cmn_vod/militaire-15063/mp4-12/eagle42nosound.mp4



Details on Nigel Iren's website:
http://www.nigelirens.com/2014/ocean-eagle-43-delivered-to-cmn-cherbourg

Video here:

Source:

Dark knights: Sleek trimarans surveil the seas : CompositesWorld

Details here in PDF format:

http://cmn-group.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Ocean-Eagle-43.pdf

Interesting posting on "Disruptive Yacht Design" - seems the focus is on longer, thinner designs:

Disruptive Yacht Design [part 1]



Disruptive Yacht Design (Part 1) - SWIZZLE MEDIA

See post #160. Palmer Johnson is about to bring a practical, commercial power trimaran to market...probably later this year.

LRC58Fan said:

Interesting posting on "Disruptive Yacht Design" - seems the focus is on longer, thinner designs:

Disruptive Yacht Design [part 1]

Disruptive Yacht Design (Part 1) - SWIZZLE MEDIA

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Didn't we already see one of these boats with the Sea Shepards, that could not even handle moderate seas?

And then these numbers are totally pulled out of someone's you know what.

Three times more efficient? Where in
a bath tub?

Designers who actually sell boats, and not ideas, go to all sorts of lengths to make their boats 10% more efficient.

But they ignore a design that would give 300%.

Or is it that they do understand that one can not suspend the laws of physics.

Thanks for the chuckles.

Wxx3 said:

Didn't we already see one of these boats with the Sea Shepards, that could not even handle moderate seas?

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I'm thinking you're talking about either the Earthrace boat, or the Cable and Wireless boat - both of which were used by SeaShepards for a while - and both of which set the world records for fastest circumnavigation by a powerboat (at different times - I think the Earthrace record may still stand).

I did hear about some issues with the uncomfortable motion of the trimaran design of the Cable and Wireless boat. I talked with, and rode with, the Earthrace boat and Pete Bethune when they were in San Francisco on their first effort at the world record. They didn't mention any significant issues other than mechanical.

Obviously - these boats are not for most people, or even most circumnavigators. But they do look interesting:



"The Ady Gil, formerly known as Earthrace, is a 24m tri-hull wave piercer with a 1080hp Cummins Mercruiser engine that can tackle waves of up to 15m and submarine up to 7m underwater. The range of the vessel is outstanding, but of course depends on speed. At 6 knots she can travel 24,000 kilometers on only one tank of biodiesel. That equates to more than halfway around the globe."

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/ady-gil-earthrace-trimaran-whaling/13443/

And the Cable and Wireless boat designed by Nigel Irens:



Originally named Cable and Wireless Adventurer she was built for the purpose of circumnavigating the world in less than 80 days. This was successfully accomplished in July 1998 in 74 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes, traveling more than 22,600 nautical miles (41,855 km). This achievement set a new Guinness World Record for a powered vessel.

Source: MV Brigitte Bardot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I took this shot of the all carbon fibre, long skinny trimaran hull Palmer Johnson Super Sport as I passed through Sturgeon Bay last summer. This isn't some half baked specialty vehicle...it's the future. Sounds like a PJ ad, but I believe these guys have the flick. Use state of the art technology and materials to advance the efficiency equation. No reason this can't be done in the smaller boat manufacturing community...other than cost.

My personal experience with the sea worthiness of a tri vs. multiple motor boats. About 20 years ago when I lived on the Eastern shore of Maryland I owned a modified Dragonfly 26 foot light fast tri with a for the time advanced sloop rig. One day when sailing out of my tertiary creek home port I entered Broad creek where the wind was ripping straight down into the shallowing creek. There was a fair fleet of mixed motor boats up to say 45ft trawlers and SD and some planning types trying to buck the short nasty waves. The bows and sterns were alternately bucking well out of the water with the engines racing. Needless to say they all slowed down and took a beating. I merely pointed my boat into the wind on as tight a tack as possible and jumped from one wave crest to another at 9+ K and zoomed through the whole fleet leaving them well behind. This was not an isolated incidence when it came to the seaworthiness of that little tri. A similar boat had worn the round the Island race in England with nasty seas a given. I would also point out that the high powered open ocean speed boats are often the cat configuration. So I for one would not poo poo the potential of multihulls to deal with difficult sea conditions it may all depend on which multi and which crew.

LRCFan58, you quote an article about Ady Gil in the present tense. Simple fact checking would reveal otherwise. It sank.

BruceK said:

LRCFan58, you quote an article about Ady Gil in the present tense. Simple fact checking would reveal otherwise. It sank.

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In all fairness to the Ady Gil the boat seemed to do pretty well, it was the those moron Sea Shepard idiots that sunk her.
Hollywood

I have to agree with Richard on the "efficiency" issue. The Ady Gil claims a 12,000 mile range at 6 knots carrying 2,640 gallons of fuel. The boat displaced 13 tons. Allowing for a 10% fuel reserve, that works out to about 5 MPG. And that is running 2 540 HP Cummins at what, maybe 8-900 RPMs? Compare to our 58', twin 154 HP JDs, right at 50 tons, it can deliver about 3.3-3.5 MPG at 6 knots. Given the difference in size, weight and hull type, I don't see a real efficiency gain there.

Admittedly, there is a gain at the top end. The Ady Gil claimed 32 knot top end using 1,080 HP. A 75'' sportfisher topping out around 32 knotw would carry 2,000 to 2,400 HP. So definitely some "efficiency" gain in that range. But is any gain really worth the greatly decreased interior volume and attendant comforts? It does not seem that cruising would be nearly as pleasurable nor as comfortable.

hollywood8118 said:

In all fairness to the Ady Gil the boat seemed to do pretty well, it was the those moron Sea Shepard idiots that sunk her.
Hollywood

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Yes, but i was not referring to her being sunk, as that could happen to any peace loving, whale loving, cat loving boat.

Having watched all the episodes of Whale Wars, they got the Adie Gil to enable them to get quickly to the whalers.

It did not work out that way.

I am referring to the episodes in which they would NOT use any speed at all because it took such a pounding in seas that were not that great.

Continuing on the theme of long and thin ocean boats - here is another just-announced ship from the navy (although certainly not a type of boat that anyone would buy).

It seems that the Navy is interested in seaworthiness and range-efficiency. It also seems like these long/thin designs are becoming much more common and accepted across the different categories of boats.




"In 2010, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced that they were building a 132-foot autonomous boat to track quiet, diesel-powered submarines.

The world’s waters could soon be crowded with robot ships that almost never hit land.

It will be able to transit by itself across thousands of kilometers of ocean and it can deploy for months at a time. It can go out, find a diesel-electric submarine and just ping on it,” said Urban.

Leidos conducted the tests on a 42-foot surrogate boat while they finish construction of the ACTUV prototype vessel, the Sea Hunter, which is expected to launch this fall.

Read the full story here:

The Military’s Robotic Ghost Ship Passes Critical Test - Defense One

More details here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACTUV

More details here:

When underway a slender boat should not need the Amas to stay upright, but in heavy seas stability gear might make the ride better .

Driven fins or a flywheel would be choices.

The hassle with Amas is they make the boat respond like a flat bottomed barge , very rapid motion as the extra hulls respond to the water surface.

As the Amas are quite light and on a long lever arm , the weight would be minor , so the snap motion fairly quick.

Cruising Tri will have far more substantial amas and weight in them so ride better in cross seas.

Headly Nicol 45 x 24 Voyager in Carib for about a decade.

A

FF said:

When underway a slender boat should not need the Amas to stay upright, but in heavy seas stability gear might make the ride better .

Driven fins or a flywheel would be choices.

The hassle with Amas is they make the boat respond like a flat bottomed barge , very rapid motion as the extra hulls respond to the water surface.

As the Amas are quite light and on a long lever arm , the weight would be minor , so the snap motion fairly quick.

Cruising Tri will have far more substantial amas and weight in them so ride better in cross seas.

Headly Nicol 45 x 24 Voyager in Carib for about a decade.

A

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I think the compromise of a tri is the huge design strength built into the ama's to deal with the enormous forces exerted on them when they become buried and submerged in a big wave stopping the boat dead in the water.

On a Cat with two hulls this makes sense as the buoyancy in the hulls stops this happening; on a tri with one hull and two tiny 'floats' it's hard to justify the extra weight of the engineering, and of course the 'corkscrew' motion that the design produces in rough weather.

seeing as this is an autonomous vessel I think the accepted parameters for how it rides are drastically different than what we would consider for crewed vessels.

Well now, isn't that slick? Damn robots ... even ASW types are being replaced!

Yes... robots. "The world’s waters could soon be crowded with robot ships that almost never hit land. "

I do wonder about the issues associated with having 132ft robot boats flying along at 30mph in the ocean. Somehow I think that will end badly for some smaller sailboats without AIS, and cruising at night.

Drone boats...how can we shoot them down?

.. even ASW types are being replaced!

My old Neptunes ( SP2h/ P2V7) have switched from dropping Sono Buoys to

Water Bombing !

At least there still flying!

Another new long, thin design - this is the larger yacht segment of the market:




While the layout on board is a revolutionary take on the status quo, Stiletto has a lot to offer outside of this. She holds a hybrid propulsion system which is optimised for various operating conditions, perfectly matching her hybrid hull shape which is designed for low resistance and a slender underwater hull shape.

Stiletto’s reduction of harmful exhaust emissions, wasted energy re-use, and silent operational capabilities, as well as the low overall propulsion power required in comparison to conventional motor yachts, makes this concept one of the more optimised, greener and radical conceptualisations to emerge this year.

More info here:

Oceanco Unveils Superyacht Concept Stiletto.. | superyachts.com

Concept. Marketing hype. No idea what's under the water line. Above the water it looks like a rip off of what Palmer Johnson has been building for years. PJ has moved on to the trimaran leaving these wannabe's in their (minimal) wake.

skidgear said:

Concept. Marketing hype. No idea what's under the water line. Above the water it looks like a rip off of what Palmer Johnson has been building for years. PJ has moved on to the trimaran leaving these wannabe's in their (minimal) wake.

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Like so many of these concept boats that never see the light of day.

Call 'em what you want - Dream boat, Concept Boat, Wannabe or Make Believe. They all succeed in one area...separating investors and first buyers from their money while someone else chases their pipe dream of building wealth by building boats.

FlyWright said:

Like so many of these concept boats that never see the light of day.

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Except there are photos of it under construction.

And here is a picture of a new flying boat.

Already built.

Wxx3 said:

And here is a picture of a new flying boat.

Already built.


View attachment 39064

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Is that the Costa Concordia?

New Indepth article on the Dashew FPB series, including the latest release - IceBerg:





Download the entire article here:

Lean Machine - Dashew's FPB series - from Boat International

Tad must bristle with such an article. Passagemaker lite predated these Dashew boats by a few years.

LRC58Fan said:

New Indepth article on the Dashew FPB series, including the latest release - IceBerg:

Lean Machine - Dashew's FPB series - from Boat International

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That is a very unfortunate enclosed flybridge. YIKES!

What are the things that look like shoe laces on the props?

FPB = Foogly Power Boat

Somehow this one seems to be fooglier than the others.