| BACKGROUND
The
HOLO 24 Power Cat utilizes the original MantaCat design that
has been proven in Hawaiian waters for nearly fourteen years, and in
the South Pacific for five plus years before that. The designer experimented
with many hull shapes to come up with a safe, efficient boat for fisherman
to use in the rough waters of the South and North Pacific. This was
long before the current wave of production cats that are now available
in the U.S. In fact this original design was the predecessor to many
of them, going through a series of changes and compromises for big business
marketing and production purposes. It is the opinion of many, that this
uncompromised original design still outperforms many of its later descendants
and spin offs. By building each HOLO 24 as a one off, I as the
builder, not only maintain the highest level of quality, but assure
that the "performance by design" is not compromised. Note - When the HOLO 24 designer, with his background in the
aerospace industries, started working on the early prototypes of this
design over twenty years ago in the South Pacific, he already had 10
years experience with the designing and building of sailing multihulls,
and had sailed his own trimaran over 30,000 miles in the North and South
Pacific.
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MULTIHULL BASICS In a monohull design, stability is always forcing a compromise with efficiency. The wide hull, neccessary for stability, bulldozes the water, creating a wave and making resistance. This results in the need for large power requirements to overcome this resistance (hull speed barrier) by climbing up and over the wave it is creating and achieve a planing aspect. In multihulls the overall stability of the boat is achieved by the fact that there is more than one hull. This allows the designer to work for maximum efficiency in hull shape without consideration of stability for each individual hull. Two slender hulls with fine entries slice through the water like butter knives as opposed to a spoon pushing the water. This results in considerably less power requirements and increased fuel efficiency, as well as superior handling and directional control. |
  
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The HOLO 24 was designed specifically for safe, comfortable, and efficient performance in rough waters, while carrying a moderate payload. The hull shape, length to beam ratio, tunnel height, overall weight, weight distribution, and size of motors all contribute to this overall performance of the boat. The longitudinally developed shape of the hull keeps the flow of the water close to the hull to avoid premature separation, and is designed to penetrate without excessive displacement forward. This allows the boat to carry through and maintain an equilibrium at higher speeds across the tops of the waves with directional control. The hulls are planing hulls, but really offer the best features of displacement hulls as well. At slower speeds the hulls slice through the water efficiently, with the transition onto a plane being smooth and flat since there is no hole to climb out of. The height of the wing deck or tunnel varies greatly in cat designs, generally being low to accomodate the "market's" desire for a flush deck. This is a definite compromise, which, in rough waters especially, will result in pounding between the hulls. The HOLO 24's wing deck is high for optimum performance, safety, and comfort in our rough Hawaiian waters. The light weight allows for the efficiency of smaller motors, yet enough speed. The light weight along with the hull shape also allows for a decent payload capacity without compromising performance too much. This is important since in general, multihulls are more sensitive to overloading than monohulls. All of these aspects are interconnected, and the balance of them result in the outstanding overall performance of the boat. Careful attention to these design specifications, is of primary concern in the custom construction of each HOLO 24. |
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