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 [...]

The Wild Variable

13 May 2008
Andrew Daff posted some good comments, pointing out that there is a lot more talent in the windsurf and kite board groups than I had suggested. He also showed some numbers demonstrating that they are still in the finesse range. This is good as it means they'll be going even faster!

The wild variable in all this is the wind. Properly, I guess, that falls into the field of luck or act of god. Now I purposely didn't capitalize "god" because I didn't want to leave any "minor" deities out. I've been told that the kahunas in Hawaii used to call up the surf and I'm sure that means they could call up the wind as well. But no matter how you look at it, the wind is the biggest variable, so any of you that know how to influence the elements, you know what to do.

The best solution is of course to be the most efficient, to be able to sail under the greatest wind range and to have the best control. That would put you ahead of anyone else, under equal conditions, but it wouldn't eliminate someone topping you if they got stronger winds.

Bob
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