swath
n.— «It’s a really strange ship, it’s what’s called a swath. It’s a giant catamaran.…It’s only 60 metres long. It’s meant to be very stable. It typically works out of Hawaii and works out in the deep Pacific Ocean, but because it’s a nice stable platform it’s really good for this seabed mapping.» —“Special catamaran to help in reef research” ABC (North Queensland, Australia) Mar. 12, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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I understand that the term is authentic because you document that it was used, not because it was used _correctly_. But instead of “swath” the reporter should have written “SWATH,” an acronym for “Small Waterplane Area Twin-Hull.” The vessel in question, R/V Kilo Moana, is owned by the U. of Hawaii.
See, the problem is that “swath” has another meaning in the context of seabed mapping. It means the strip of ground that is imaged in one more-or-less linear pass of the vessel on the surface. It’s confusing enough when the SWATH sails along taking a picture of a swath–more so when both words are written the same.