Pontoon (boat) boat without much warning, particularly a top-heavy boat. Common boat designs are a catamaran with two hulls, or a trimaran with three hulls. Boats with three hulls are sometimes called "tri-toons." Small inflatable pontoon boats are one or two person, catamaran type boats, designed for leisure and fishing. Their pontoons are made out of abrasion resistant PVC and nylon with aluminum, steel and/or plastic frames for support. In today’s setting, more and more people prefer to use frameless pontoon boats. They are powered with paddles, oars and often with electric trolling motors using deep cycle lead batteries. Commonly they are
Trimaran by Austal. The DARPA is experimenting with the trimaran design, and in 2012 awarded SAIC a contract to perform Phases 2 through 4 of the ACTUV Program. The contract is expected to be completed by August 2015. According to American usage, there are three terms that describe the main components of catamarans and trimarans, namely: “vaka”, “aka” and “ama”. These terms come from the Malay and Polynesian language group terms for parts of the outrigger canoe (The above terminologies reflects only American usage. In the UK the main hull of a trimaran is called simply the "main hull" or "centre