https://boats-from-usa.com/sites/default/files/boats/not-specified/56181/not-specified-model-16-618723.jpg

http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000tc2nSgLRYR0/s/750/600/sea-sled1.jpg

Below has links to articles about this type boat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hickman_Sea_Sled

They were of course banned from being considered as PT boats during WWII. The guy was Canadian. There’s several advances that I know of that have been stopped because of politics or someone who just didn’t like someone else. Here’s another that was tested and tested better than other designs but politically it was a no starter because one of the backers plotted against Roosevelt the Burnelli plane.

http://www.aircrash.org/burnelli/index.htm

That’s why I’m suspicious of experts telling us that the only options are the ones we have now. There’s just massive amounts of stuff that’s sub optimal. Someone chooses some technological path that in many cases in not related to the actual capabilities or trade offs of the technology but for political or status reasons. Then everyone just follows along.

My first rule in boating: “Don’t let the boat sink.”

You know you could build a big flat deck on two hulls and have them pivot. The one hull would go forward and one back making it narrower at the waterline. I wouldn’t do this but it could be done. My ideas about building boats are so different from what I’ve heard anyone else come up with, I hesitate to make it public.

But, looking at images does not seem to be even a “semi-catamaran”