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The Westamaran is a pioneer type of passenger transport high speed catamarans developed by Westermoen Hydrofoil in 1973. The craft was highly successful, and introduced a new era of passenger transport along the Norwegian coast and elsewhere.
On the Bergen to Stavanger route, there was already a high speed service by hydrofoil, introduced early in the 1960s. The initial Westamaran models were somewhat slower than the hydrofoils, but passenger comfort, both in terms of spaciousness but especially foul weather handling, was better in the Westamanarans, so they were better liked by the public.
The Westamaran had asymmetrical hulls, where the insides was essentially flat, forming a tunnel between the hulls that were rectangular in shape. The profiles were in fact quite like a Storm class torpedo boat cut in two, and the construction of the Westamaran built heavily on the experience gained from the Storm class.
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