Hi Jörn

I was so intrigued by the catamaran disign that I looked the vessel up on the Internet and came up with this information that folk may be interedted in - i.e. my immediate thought was why a catamaran?

This courtesy of http://www.ibiblio.org/maritime/Scheepvaartnieuws/Pdf/scheepvaartnieuws/2005/oktober/220-07-10-2005a.pdf

"The reason for the pilot service to change to this kind of vessels is that these vessels can work longer whenthe waves are building up due to
the weather, the present pilot cutters are forced to stop with transferring pilots when the waves are reaching heights of about 2,5 mtr, because they can not launch their small boat anymore to transfer the pilot to the vessel, the new Swath
vessels, which are already in use for some time with the German pilot service in the Elbe area, can operate up to wave heights of 3,5 mtr, and these vessel will go alongside the vessel directly to transfer the pilots and not using
small boats anymore."

Regards

Steve Ellwood