Wave cancellation multihull ship

A wave cancellation multihull ship, comprising:

• three surface-piercing slender hulls, each of said hulls having a leading edge, a trailing edge and a slender tapered element extending between said leading and trailing edges for providing buoyancy;
• an above-the-water cross structure rigidly connected to said surface-piercing slender hulls wherein said hulls are held in substantially parallel, transversely spaced alignment;
• said surface-piercing slender hulls comprising a center hull and two identical outer hulls disposed symmetrically on opposite sides of said center hull wherein the distance between the centerlines of said outer hulls being equal to at least 20 percent of the length of said center hull;
• said center hull and said outer hulls having slender, tapered vertical cross sectional underwater shapes wherein no sharp discontinuities are present:
• said center hull and said outer hulls having small waterplane areas with the minimum underwater waterplane area being located approximately at the waterline and with the maximum underwater waterplane area being located substantially at the maximum draft of each of said hulls;
• said center hull having a deeper draft than said outer hulls and said center hull having a length equal to approximately twice the length of said outer hulls and further wherein said center hull provides approximately 80 percent of the overall static buoyant force of the ship and each of said outer hulls provides approximately 10 percent of the overall static buoyant force of the ship;
• said center hull having a maximum underwater width equal to approximately 5 percent of the length of said center hull;
• said outer hulls having a maximum underwater width equal to approximately 3.5 percent of the length of said outer hulls;
• and
• said center hull and said outer hulls being longitudinally positioned relative to each other such that the leading edge of each of said outer hulls is approximately 50 percent of the center hull length aft of the leading edge of said center hull whereby favorable wave interference between the wave systems of said center hull and said outer hulls occurs such that the wavemaking resistance is minimized.

A method for minimizing the resistance of multihull vessels comprising the steps of:

• providing buoyancy by means of a small waterplane area central hull and at least two small waterplane area outer hulls disposed symmetrically on opposite sides of said central hull wherein at least 50 percent of the static buoyant force is provided by the slender, tapered vertical cross sectional underwater shape of said central hull and wherein the remaining static buoyant force is provided by the slender, tapered vertical cross sectional underwater shape of each of said outer hulls;
• transversely aligning said central hull and said outer hulls in substantially parallel, rigid, transversely spaced alignment wherein the distance between the centerlines of said outer hulls is equal to at least 20 percent of the length of said central hull;
• and
• longitudinally positioning said central hull and said outer hulls relative to each other wherein the leading edge of each of said outer hulls is aft of the leading edge of said central hull whereby favorable wave interference between the wave systems of said central hull and said outer hulls occurs such that the wavemaking resistance is minimized.