Hey Wouter if your going to go back to the true roots of catamaran designs then you have to go back and give full credit to the polynesians who were succesfully crossing oceans in a multitude of multihulled designs hundreds of years ago, in fact the first "Hobie14" that Hobie Alta "designed was in Hawii, and it was a direct copie of an old polynesian design that can still be seen sailing around polynesia now. The only differences are that he made, as at that time he was into surfing and shaping, was that he made it out of fibreglass. aluminum, and dacron/polyester cloth (with the intention of "going surfing on it - not sailing"). Of course he upset the inherent stability of the original craft by stepping a much higher and larger sail area than the, basic lanteen style rig that the originals had/have. But then you have to realy go back to where the polonesians got the ideas from and that dates back much much further to THEIR origins. They originated somewhere around the red sea from where the true origins of the "kaffamoran" (as its original name was/is) stem from. So just who today can even try to "lay claim" for the inovation of the catamaran? I think any one later than the east indian Dutch, the portugese, or the british (at the time of Captain Cook) can only say that they have made "changes to an age old principle? ( It's just my opinion, but, I have always considered that the Prout brothers set the true adaptation of good, stable, efficient, catamaran design, back at least 20 years with the commercial success of their hull and rig designs and particularly with their mast stepping positions that made them incorectly increase excessively the forward bouancy of their bows. I will always get arguments with that and also that I rate "Warram" even lower on the scale). How's them apples chappies???
Darryl J Barrett