High-Speed Sailing

Vessel Name: Sailien
Vessel Make/Model: Experimental/custom
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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.

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

Hydroptere

02 May 2008
Think I'll discuss Hydroptere a bit.

http://www.hydroptere.com/_en/

Hydroptere is an outstanding craft with great performance as you can see on its video. However it is limited in its speed. Yes, I think it has the potential to go 50 knots, given the right conditions.

"Hey Bob, a sailboat that goes 50 knots is limited in its speed?!!" Oops, I sailed off into fantasy land - or did I? I think we have a lot of potential speed ahead of us; the secret is to optimize the craft.

If you watch some of the videos that Hydroptere has posted you will notice that at times Hydroptere "flies" the windward hydrofoil. At that point Hydroptere is maxed out; if they get any more power they will flip the boat. All you small cat sailors know all about this, in fact essentially all sailors know this; too much power heels or flips the boat -- you sheet-out (de-power) to maintain control.

As I said in my second post, weight has been used since the beginning of sailing to try to keep the boat upright. Using weight to balance the craft is limiting our speed. To go faster we will have to "deep-six" all ballast and any dependence on any form of ballast. We will have to balance the forces so they can't destabilize the craft. Trifoiler did just that with an elegant solution but as I said in my third post it's a dead-end for speeds above 40 knots. We need a better solution.

Bernard Smith showed us the solution but didn't quite perfect it. I believe I've "perfected" the basic set-up and that greater speeds are possible. How much greater - I don't know.

Sailrocket has the right approach but has yet to master steering control. Can they break 50 the way they're set up? Possibly, they will if they can put the power to it and still keep it under control. We'll see.

Bob
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