HSV-2 Swift is a hybrid catamaran. She was privately owned and operated by Sealift Inc., and was originally built under the JHSV program as a proof of concept. As part of this program, she was directly leased for evaluation from her builders by the United States Navy Military Sealift Command from 2003 to 2013, primarily as a mine countermeasures and sea basing test platform. Later during her official naval career she was mostly used for fleet support and humanitarian partnership missions.
HSV-2 Swift
A forklift offloads supplies from Swift in Singapore, 30 January 2005
Swift in New Orleans following Katrina, 6 September 2005
Swift showing ramp detail, returning to Mayport after GFS deployment, 30 September 2007.
A catamaran is a watercraft with two parallel hulls of equal size. The distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts resistance to rolling and overturning. Catamarans typically have less hull volume, smaller displacement, and shallower draft (draught) than monohulls of comparable length. The two hulls combined also often have a smaller hydrodynamic resistance than comparable monohulls, requiring less propulsive power from either sails or motors. The catamaran's wider stance on the water can reduce both heeling and wave-induced motion, as compared with a monohull, and can give reduced wakes.
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A carved and painted voyaging catamaran with tanja sails of the Micronesian inhabitants of Hermit Islands, Bismarck Archipelago (c. 1914)
1827 depiction of Tahitian pahi war-canoes