A modern concept full hull model of the 'St Simon & Jude' (1663), a passenger and cargo carrying sailing catamaran. Model is decked and rigged, with sails set. This pioneering vessel was designed by Sir William Petty and launched on 28th October 1662, the feast day of the saints Simon and Jude. It was the first catamaran of the western world and consisted of two cylindrical hulls measuring 20 feet in length by 2 feet in diameter, connected by a bridge deck 10 feet wide.

Sir William Petty is considered to be one of the first scientific naval architects and founder member of the Royal Society. He developed this vessel to prove his theories and experiments into the resistance to motion and floating bodies across water. He was one of the first individuals to use scale models towed across a tank of water to develop hull shapes and hydrodynamic theory.