High-Speed Sailing

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 [...]

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/

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 [...]

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 [...]

Crashes

07 June 2008

Well gang, I am dismayed to have to report that Sailrocket has suffered a bit of a setback. Apparently they encountered a control problem, leading to hardware failure, resulting in a crash. I know this is a blow to the team and I wish them well. Learn more here:

http://sailrocket.blogspot.com/

In spite of setbacks, Sailrocket has continued to improve its performance and there is no question that more speed lies ahead for them. I admire team leader/skipper Paul Larson for his persistence and positive attitude even when encountering mishaps. That's what it takes to be successful in any field.

I will admit I have had some experience with breakage and crashes of my prototypes. At times an inventor's life can look pretty bleak, since pioneering new territory will result in failures. However, the challenge is to conquer the unknown and failures are as much a part of the learning process as successes.

This brings us back to my 2nd post in which I stated that stability is the biggest barrier to high-speed sailing. Have I been successful in making that point? This is why I stated that I thought Wotrocket was solving the wrong problem by going to super-cavitating foils before solving the stability problem.

There are two ongoing approaches to high-speed sailing: one is to refine existing successful sailboat configurations and the other is to develop a new configuration. Wotrocket, Macquarie Innovation and Hydroptere are exotic refinements of well established multi-hull configurations (Wotrocket and Macquarie Innovation are based on the proa). Sailrocket, Wind Jet, my own designs and some others, are pioneering new configurations in attempts to improve performance with a superior design. Ultimately we will win and become the new design standard in sailboats.

Speaking of crashes, the all-time record holders for the most number of crashes are undoubtedly the wind surfers. They have crashed and continue to crash their way to the current record and will never cease to crash - that's part of windsurfing, a feature of the design and part of the fun.

Bob

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