Sailing through the air, America's Cup

[tevake]

The America's Cup sailing competition is pushing the design and materials developments in sailing to amazing new levels.

During the last series we could watch as the crews learned how to jibe and maintain the speed to stay foil bourn throughout the turn.

Now they are learning to complete a tacking maneuver and stay up on the foils. Truly amazing.

We are watching a breakout time in the world of sailing

Anyone else find this interesting?

Cheers Richard

https://www.facebook.com/OracleTeamUSA/videos/vb.166891610014560/1108222685881443/?type=2&theater

[Seahawk]

I love it. Thanks for the video link. Awesome stuff.

I own a company that dos very fine composite work from design, tooling and manufacture. The ability to make complex, very strong structures at minimal weight is really quite something. The composite industry is very dynamic and forward looking. My partner, a former F-14 RIO, is a recognized expert and sits on a number of industry panels

Also, all of our design are CAD and then verified in computation fluid dynamic software that allows us to optimize the shape in the computer prior to manufacture. For air foils (essentially what these high-end sail boats really are) we average 95% + predicted versus actual performance in the wind tunnel.

Completely difference from the old days.

[M.D. Holloway]

Miss the days of the 12 meters that looked like sloops. I lived in Newport in 83 - last year it was in Newport. Good times.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

Miss the days of the 12 meters that looked like sloops. I lived in Newport in 83 - last year it was in Newport. Good times.

As a one time Hobie cat owner I appreciate the speed and coolness of the new hi tech boats.

However I also miss the grace and beauty of the mono-hulls.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by tevake

The America's Cup sailing competition is pushing the design and materials developments in sailing to amazing new levels......

We are watching a breakout time in the world of sailing

Anyone else find this interesting?

The technology to build and skills required to "fly" those machines is truly mind boggling all right but I wonder how those "boats" would do in Fremantle type conditions i.e. 1987 ?? I seriously doubt there will ever be a return to actual sail boats in the Americas cup but to be honest I have lost interest over the years as it is hard for me relate the Americas cup as it is to actual sailing.... and yes, an old fogey I am...

[tevake]

I hear you about the beauty of the old classic monohull racers.
Fortunately the preservation of those timeless classics is now being done, making them available to go sailing aboard. There are a couple in Lahaina that do day sails.

Loved the great J-boats too, But that was then and this is now.

As Paul is referring to the use of composit materials is allowing huge leaps in structural design. This is opening the door for unimaginable creations to come into being and succeed.

A lot of folks in the sailing world also hold onto the traditional vision of what a racing boat should look like. This has held back the development of new design concept for decades. I'm so glad to see just what is possible without this roadblock to forward thinking.

The developments in the windsurfing world were great to be a part of. But it was puzzeling to see the larger sailing world stagnating in tradition.

Cheers Richard

[tevake]

Years back, we had Skip Novac ( a top tier international sailing master) stay with us on Kauai. He had just done a sail over from the mainland on board Commodor Explorer. This was a former round the world racing catamaran.. They had sailed over in company with the transpac race. As They had not been allowed to enter the race cause of the type of boat.

Well it was a year with good conditions, and the overall record of the route was lowered by a huge 12 plus hours over the previous record.
Commodor Explorer did the trip at the same time along side the racing fleet, arriving in over 12 less hours than the new record.

While the " new record". Was widely applauded, the good run by the cat was largely overlooked. Somehow this grates on me.

Cheers

[M.D. Holloway]

If it floats on water and is powered by the wind its a sail boat...anything should be considered.

[pwd72s]

Count me among those who miss the "Lead bottomed money gobblers"...

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

If it floats on water and is powered by the wind its a sail boat...anything should be considered.

A Duck?

[Won]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

I own a company that dos very fine composite work from design, tooling and manufacture.

Paul, can you share the name of the company?

A few people I knew from the UK composites industry were in the talks with Ben Ainslie Racing or BAR (not to be confused with an F1 team with similar name!) when they launched. Some of the big names in F1 like Newey and Whitmarsh are involved with the team and I think they really did a good job of putting together "the dream team", at least in the technical department.

Composite materials aside, I think designing these boats would be really fun, considering you have hydro, ground level and proper aerodynamics all working on the same boat depending on where you look at! It's cool to watch them "winch" the hydraulic pumps too.

[scottmandue]

I'm kinda surprised they haven't created two classes, an 'unlimited' and a mono hull.
Kinda like F1 and Champ car
I presume there isn't enough money to support two classes seeing as sailboat racing isn't a big sell on TV.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

If it floats on water and is powered by the wind its a sail boat...anything should be considered.

[SoCal911T]

I also miss the monohulls.

[tevake]

Haha, that's a great clip from western Oz.

Here are some highlights of the last cup race in S F.

Too many replays and of the big pearl dive, but look further.

Cheers Richard

[herr_oberst]

The stress on those foils has to be astonishingly high

[Jim Richards]

Amazing speed through those tacks. What a game changer that is.

[tevake]

Boy howdy ^^
In the last Am Cup. It was the teams that mastered the foil bourn jibe that made it to the end of the series.
They were learning to do that during the race series.

I found it interesting in the first clip that I posted that they said the Japanees team had figured out how stay on the foil on thru the tack.
But once they had done it, it only took others a few days to figure it out .

Tremendous forces focused on the foils and their cases.

As the performance came up in windsurfers, we found that the standard fin box installation that came from surfboards just weren't up to the loads involved.
And we ended up doing a lot of work on the fin foils trying to keep them happy at higher speeds.

In the onboard video from the last Am cup races the humming foils could be heard clearly as the boat speed pick up.
I'm thinking they will have sorted that out by now.

Sail design will have evolved for the closer apparent wind direction and loads too.

Cheers Richard

[SoCal911T]

Originally Posted by tevake

Haha, that's a great clip from western Oz.

It was actually off San Diego ('95 IIRC).

[tevake]

Right you are So Cal, that was off of San Diego.
My bad , Thanks