Advances in sailboat technology
Jan. 16th, 2023 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWhat with the recent interest in the age of sail and stuff... I checked in on the America's Cup. I do not, as a general rule, follow high dollar prestige international yachting. However, I, as an American, know the name of precisely one yacht captain, Dennis Conner, because when I was in high school, he won the fucking America's Cup three times and it was A Thing and he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and stuff. (Like I do not follow bike racing but I know who Lance Armstrong is. Same kind of a thing.)
When I was in high school, the boats in the America's Cup looked like boats and they sailed IN THE WATER. You know, LIKE BOATS DO at speeds of about 8.3 knots on a reach. (A "reach" is pretty much the fastest point of sail on a traditional sailboat. It's "Best conditions for going fast", if you will.) This was considered "quite good" for a 12 meter yacht.
Things have changed since then.
On a whim, today I checked out some youtube of the 2021 America's Cup yacht race stuff. Modern America's Cup boats go around 40 knots in decent conditions and can reach speeds above 50 knots in good conditions. (For comparison, you need about 22 knots on a motorboat to waterski.) In the 2021 America's Cup, the Luna Rossa (challenger boat) achieved a mark of 53 knots.
What the hell happened? How did we get from 8.3 knots to 53 knots?
The boats learned to fly. Literally, that's what happened. The difference between the 1987 boat going 8.3 knots and the 2021 boat going 53 knots is ... flight.
First, the America's Cup yachts now rise up out of the water on hydrofoils. Without having the hull of the boat sitting in the water, getting drag from the water, the boat can go A LOT faster.
Second, by having kinda airplane-wing shaped sails (instead of sheets-of-canvas that are flat) that sorta rotate and stuff for better forward (it's "forward" and not "lift" because the "wing" is vertical instead of horizontal), these boats can go... FASTER THAN WIND SPEED, which seems kind of like magic.
Want some video? Here you go.
When I was in high school, the boats in the America's Cup looked like boats and they sailed IN THE WATER. You know, LIKE BOATS DO at speeds of about 8.3 knots on a reach. (A "reach" is pretty much the fastest point of sail on a traditional sailboat. It's "Best conditions for going fast", if you will.) This was considered "quite good" for a 12 meter yacht.
Things have changed since then.
On a whim, today I checked out some youtube of the 2021 America's Cup yacht race stuff. Modern America's Cup boats go around 40 knots in decent conditions and can reach speeds above 50 knots in good conditions. (For comparison, you need about 22 knots on a motorboat to waterski.) In the 2021 America's Cup, the Luna Rossa (challenger boat) achieved a mark of 53 knots.
What the hell happened? How did we get from 8.3 knots to 53 knots?
The boats learned to fly. Literally, that's what happened. The difference between the 1987 boat going 8.3 knots and the 2021 boat going 53 knots is ... flight.
First, the America's Cup yachts now rise up out of the water on hydrofoils. Without having the hull of the boat sitting in the water, getting drag from the water, the boat can go A LOT faster.
Second, by having kinda airplane-wing shaped sails (instead of sheets-of-canvas that are flat) that sorta rotate and stuff for better forward (it's "forward" and not "lift" because the "wing" is vertical instead of horizontal), these boats can go... FASTER THAN WIND SPEED, which seems kind of like magic.
Want some video? Here you go.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-17 03:44 am (UTC)I know it's about speed, and I have no ducks in that race, but I kind of wish it was still actual yachts.