High-Speed Sailing

Vessel Name: Sailien
Vessel Make/Model: Experimental/custom
Recent Blog Posts
28 September 2013

The America’s Cup

I watched, with interest, the videos of the 34th America’s Cup. At last we have fast sailboats engaged in a competition that is fun to watch. The virtual images (such as course boundaries, distance grid lines, separation between boats, etc.) overlaid on the real images really helps to keep the race [...]

31 August 2013

100 Knots for Hydroptere?

The latest news from Hydroptere is that they have plans for a 100 knot sailboat. This was posted on 26 Aug 2013, so look for that date at this address. http://hydroptere.com/en/the-news/last-news/

17 November 2012

Aptly named Sailrocket, blasts off!

While yet to be ratified, Sailrocket posted an average speed over 500 meters of 59 knots. I will not be surprised if they increase their record into the 60 knot range during this record attempt.

02 January 2012

More drag for VSR2?

I want to start by pointing out that the whole VSR2 team has done a stellar job and has demonstrated conclusively that the forces that drive a sailboat can be aligned for roll stability without using ballast and without using any down-force. (Trifoiler achieved roll stability by using down-force, but [...]

18 December 2011

My analysis of Sailrocket

I copied a diagram of VSR2 (wing doesn’t show well) and added in the major force arrows that apply. Be aware that these arrows are not correct in terms of scale (length) and some of their locations are guesses, however I believe I’m correct enough for us to learn something about what VSR2 has been [...]

23 October 2011

60 is within reach, what’s next?

I have been watching Sailrocket’s progress with great interest and there’s no question they have a winner. I fully expect to see them reach 60kt in the near future. Sailrocket has now demonstrated what I first learned with my models and again with my full-sized prototypes, that if you get the forces [...]

"Hooking" the Water

11 May 2008
I want to point out that I'm not suggesting that any one type of sailboat is better than any other. Sailors have their preferences for what suits their reason to be sailing. And while I said that a craft with the driving forces properly aligned is the future of sailing, it will not eliminate other designs, but will add to them.

Earlier I talked about the windward hydrofoil "hooking" the water. I borrowed this term from Bernard Smith because it seems to get the idea across. I want to elaborate on this idea a bit more. If we took a land yacht, ran it alongside a railroad track and "hooked" a wheel over the "T" of one rail so it couldn't slip off, we would be able to put any amount of power to the airfoil. The wheels would not slip sideways and the craft would not flip. We could do the same thing with an iceboat by making a long under-cut grove in the ice that a special runner would lock into. None of this is practical but used to illustrate the idea.

When I talk about "hooking" the water, that's the idea and the advantage we can gain by properly setting up the craft. In the water we have the unique advantage over land or ice because we can make our own properly shaped "groove" as we go. The problem is that the water is dense and provides the greatest amount of drag at higher speeds. However if WotRocket (or anyone working with super cavitation) comes up with the right foil designs, we can cut down the water drag penalty dramatically.

I hope I'm getting the idea across adequately and you can see why I think there is a lot of speed ahead of us. Also why I say it's essential to set the boat up to balance the forces properly.

Bob
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