Now, I flatter myself that I know a thing or two about yacht design, what with being a designer and having done a lot of sailing and being involved in commissioning two new yachts, so I'm fairly confident that as a real-life yacht this concept is not going to fly (you'll notice how flat the water is in all his renderings)... so I'm clicking through the presentation going 'Nope... nah, don't buy that... not a chance...'... and then I come to pictures like this and I go all gooey.
I just wish I could draw like that, to be honest.
7 comments:
Just thinking about the maths of it, I'd like to see some figures, but I guess if you can get a top theoretical hull speed of maybe, twelve, thirteen knots?- then it might be doable. And if this thing can get off the water then there's hope: So I guess it might be doable. Of course, the lack of an actual keel in Mr Freidling's design would seem a slight oversight... not a vessel I'd volunteer to cross an ocean in :) Shame, really.
Would the vertical-ish section of the foil act as a keel? (...he asks, knowing sod all about boats)
Well, maybe. The keel has two functions - one is to prevent the boat moving sideways when the wind comes across it, and the second is to act as a weight underneath the boat keeping the whole thing upright. The fins would certainly do the first job; I supposed they could do the second if they were heavy enough. Or you stuck a big bulb at the bottom of them.
I hadn't really looked at the v-shaped configuration he's proposing to use, to be honest, but even so, I'd guess that the thing has an angle of vanishing stability (the point where it stops trying to right itself and turns turtle) of maybe eighty degrees? That's not so good; most single hulled yachts can manage 120ish. Fine for normal sailing, but you'd think hard before trusting it in any serious weather. And that's assuming the hull doesn't hit the water, at which point you've got a much lower speed (so less lift), and a much higher force on the sails (because the apparent angle of the wind will shift away from the front and towards the side as the boat slows down, giving less forward power and more sideways force).
Most existing sailing hydrofoils get round the problem being having more than one hull (you'll notice the Hydrowhatsit in the picture is actually a trimaran - one central hull and two wee outriggers) - multihulls get their stability from having two floating bits.
Still it's a cute concept. And of course I might be wrong.
Looks cool. But not quite a scool as the hydrofoil surfboards. Now those are cool!
It is wonderfully elegant and makes me really miss sailing.
? What's stopping you?
Just to clarify: a hydrofoil sailboat doesn't need a weighted keel. Vertical foils create sideways forces to control direction of movement, horizontal foils create vertical forces to balance the sail force and keep the boat upright, as well as lifting the weight of the boat out of the water. A properly designed and trimmed hydrofoil sailboat will not heel at all.
Post a Comment