Wind surfers and Kite sailors
29 April 2008
Wind surfers and Kite sailors are a big part of the speed-sailing picture. At the start of windsurfing (late 60's), sail-boards were essentially the slowest "sailboats" in the water. But by the 1980's they were the fastest. I attribute this primarily to two factors: 1) Sailboards are very inexpensive (for a sailboat). 2) They became very popular. Notice that I omitted technical merit as a main factor.
Because of their popularity and accessibility to anyone (price) the manufacturers made money and superior performance was seen as a way to sell more product. Top sailors were paid (pros) and some real talent got involved with R&D, which resulted in better equipment. A lot of sailors spending a lot of time sailing and raising their skill level, along with better equipment, resulted in a lot of speed.
Notice that in my second post I stated: "Stability of the craft is the single biggest barrier to high speed sailing." And yet a sailboard is the most unstable sailboat in the water. Looks like my statement is totally contradicted by the facts! (Any of you want to place bets as to whether I'll be able to get out of this? I always did like to live dangerously...)
Here goes: The most important factor in the speeds the windsurfers are posting is the skill of the sailor. It's true they do need good equipment but there are only a few that can run at record speeds. The sailor must balance the craft precisely and hold it at max power to do a really fast run. In this case the stability that I said was so essential is achieved by the skill of the sailor and when that stability falters? Wipe-out!
For those of you that think a "real" sailboat should hold the record, be aware that you are up against numbers, not only number of sailors but number of years that has gone into the development of that one type of craft.
Does this mean that I think the wind surfers will continue to dominate? No I do not; they can be easily beaten with the right technology. "Hey Bob, what's the right technology and how can you be so sure." To which I reply, "I already developed it." And you say, "Prove it." And I reply "Show me the money."
I've been working along for a number of years on a minus budget, but I've got all the major factors for a really fast sailboat resolved with my prototypes. I'm looking for commercial, as well as all-out speed interest. (End commercial)
I've seen data that show that at the low end of a windsurfers speed range (true wind under 20 knots) a windsurfer can run at close to 2X the true wind speed. The same data showed that as the velocity picked up the efficiency fell off. This makes sense of course and will be true for all sailboats, since the drag increases as the square of the velocity. Be aware that the skipper of a windsurfer is not aerodynamically shaped and compared to the size of the craft is a huge aero drag. The only solution to this is either sail in a foiled envelop or sail in more wind. I'm sure the only reason the windsurfers have been on top is they've been able to sail in strong winds.
Kite sailors have the same problem. I believe they are also unable to point as close to the wind as a windsurfer, which means they'll have to have more wind to make up the difference.
My view on this is that with the exception of Yellow Pages "brute force" has been dominating. I believe "finesse" can easily surpass brute force. "Stay tuned"
Bob