page_title: Multihull
section_title: Multihull history
hierarchical_section_title: Multihull / Multihull history
caption_attribution_description: English: Priests traveling across Kealakekua bay for first contact rituals. Each helmet is a gourd, with foliage and tapa strip decoration. A feather surrounded akua is in the arms of the priest at the center of the engraving. It is not known what the purpose of the ritual surrounding first contact with Westerners was.
context_page_description: A multihull is a ship or boat with more than one hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull.
  Multihull ships can be classified by the number of hulls, by their arrangement and by their shapes and sizes.
context_section_description: The first multihull vessels were Austronesian canoes. The builders hollowed out logs to make canoes and stabilized them by attaching outriggers to prevent them from capsizing. This led in due course to the proa, catamaran, and trimaran.
  In Polynesian terminology the catamaran is a pair of Vaka held together by Aka, whereas the trimaran is a central Vaka, with Ama on each side, attached by Aka. Catamarans and trimarans share the same terminology.
  Ama − The ama is the outrigger hull, attached to add stability.
  Aka − The aka connects the vaka to the ama. In Hawaiian, this is called the iako (crossarm).
  Vaka − The vaka is the main canoe-like hull.
  Modern pioneers of multihull design include James Wharram (UK), Derek Kelsall (UK), Tom Lack (UK), Lock Crowther (Aust), Hedly Nicol (Aust), Malcolm Tennant (NZ), Jim Brown (USA), Arthur Piver (USA), Chris White (US), Ian Farrier (NZ), LOMOcean (NZ), and Dick Newick (USA).
caption: A Polynesian catamaran
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