Good posts -
A simple explaination may be it takes a certain amount of driving force or power along with designed planning hull area suffecient to raise the total weight of boat and crew and also overcomming the downward force on the sails themselves ,-up on the water surface overtaking its bow wave ,
Some flat hulled fishing boats accomplish this with as little as 5 h p outboard motors , but have props angled to help them ,-Verticle Sails exert a side and downward force at the C E on the sailplan ,-levered moreso typically 15 ft up .
We need a good planning cat design ,-with lightweight building techniques , powerfull sailplans w chutes the power or driving force is there but would need modification from conventional rigs.
The problem with attempts I,ve seen in hull design only is the changing heel angle of cats when sailed ,-attempts have been made to angle masts and sailplan to help creat verticle lift ,-via sailboard examples . The chutes really help here ,but we need much higher luff angles ,--per example of 18 planning skiffs set on longer poles -Also the problem of large compromise in lower wind speed ranges where this type of hull is much slower relative to existing design . -
As soon as the wind hit 15 or so ,popp the chute and ---gone ---speeds up to 40 -50 maybe ,--get your crash helmit on -padding ,-strap in and scary fun .
My understanding is even the big cats like 120 ft Platstation has a max speed per wave making displ. hull limits around 40 .
Some of the record sailing speed attempts are really interesting ,but on perfectly flat water in only one angle and direction in ideal conditions only ,-
Way back when-- built a very experimental 20 ft cat -12 ft beam with flat wide forward hull shape and angling mast -per forward set A frame support and mounting the mast base on a traveler , we had a huge spin also ,--it was fun but unbalanced and uncontrolable and needed much more refinment and work . It would also fall off plane when heeled too much ,--the need for more angled hulls which we see more of in todays designs ,-think 20 degrees or so dependant on beam .
-Hope we see one soon ,
maybe --someday --
have fun
Carl