Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-15
Swift New Cotomorons Tuned
To Take British ChoI|enqe Prize
BY CHARLES COvELL
Outdoor Editor

SAILING Marina on Daingerfield
Island and you may find a
graceful, twin-hulled, Polyne-
sian-looking craft working out
ON. the nearby Potomac.
The craft is a catamaran,
Of course, but 1t is somewhat
different from the cats" that
have been racing in these parts
for several years. First Of all,
it is larger, with 800 squrae
feet Of sail perched over two
slim, blue, 21-foot fiberglaSs
pontoons set wide apart.
The most astonishing thing,
though. is the catamaran's
speed. Built to plane in an g.
mile breeze, it can be coast
ing along, then, given any rea-
sonable puff of wind, spring
ahead like one Of the planes
leaving nearby National Air
port.
e Fastest In These Parts
The craft is by all odds the
fastest thing under sail in
these waters and, If the dreams
Of its builders are fully real
lied, perhaps in the world. In
fact, its co-designer, 1t. Col.
Charles E. .Cornwell, q Marine
aviator, of 418 Westgrove bou-
levard. Alexandria, calls it "just
like flying
The catamaran is owned by
Philip LeBoutellier, jr., Of To-
ledo. Ohio, assistant Defense
Secretary in the Eisenhower
administration. An experienced
sailor who once won the Fasnet
Cup off the Isle of Wight in
his sloop, Stormy Weather, Le-
Boutellier hopes to wrest from
the British the International
Catamaran Challenge prize.
LeBoutellier had the cata-
maran, Tremolino, a ma me
borrowed from Joseph Conrad, .
built in Ohio from plans sub i
mitted by Col. Cornwell and r
Harold Boericke, Washington i
naval architect who formerly
did advanced research work for n
the Navy. v
One Of Two New "Cats"
Actually, Tremolino is one Of G
two new catamarans built at z
the same time and shipped to E
Col. Cornwell. They are iden- c
tical except for slight varia- S,
tons in hull design.
The Marine airman, whose
interest in speed on the water
dates back to surf-boarding
days, will tune them both for
the North American Cata-
maran championships to be
sponsored August 1921 by
Beverly Yacht Club in Buzz
yards Bay, Mass.
The championships will be
followed by trials to select a
challenger for the international
series to take place in late
September at Poole, England.
Whichever boat does best in
the tuneups will 60 to the
races. ......
The catamarans are the start
OF q new class, the CO, estab-
hshed this year by the Inter-
national Yacht Racing Union.
C-3 is merely an abbreviation I
Of C-300. meaning that they
carry 300 square feet of sail.
AS with all class boats, the I
C-3s must meet certain speci- I
fications. Nevertheless, there 1
are notifications that can be /;
made that can greatly affect '
their speed. In fact, they can @
determine whether a boat is a c
"clunker," one that squats in \
the water like a duck or planes /
gracefully as it should like a q
gull.
One glance at Tremolino
shows her twin hulls to be
narrow and graceful. Beyond .
that, her exact dimensions are Z
a secret. Spars are aluminium !
and rigging Of stainless steel. !
Skipper and crew sit or lie on
canvas stretched tightly over
the framework that connects !
the hulls. The trampoline-type
cockpit allows a wide beam
without adding weight.
Col. Cornwell, stationed here
3h years. got acquainted with
Boericke through his interest
in hydrafoils which lift a boat
out of the water and thus
minimize hull friction. On a
sailboat, the colonel thinks they
would work on catamarans but
nothing else.
This is the teams third eff
fort to design a prize-winning
cat" The first was built here
in 1860 and only gave the de-
Signers ideas for futrue de-
velopment. The spruce mast
had to be replaced with
aluminium and the bow pushed
to much water.
The second, also built here,
was named Simba Sue and
sailed in the trials held last
year off Long Island. Her skip
per was Coast Guard 1t. Walter
Hall, an experienced catamaran
sailor, but she finished fourth
and last. Her hulls had too
much rocker, Col. Cornwell de-
cided.
-Et. Hall also will sail which,