Sail shaped hull

[Fanie]

Can one design a hull that would utilize it's shape to enhance sailing area instead of being a wind drag... it could probably be done by shaping the outer hull the same curve as the sail would have...

It may have a weird shape, but if the freeboard area has the right shape it may have the enhacement of an extra sail area and may be effective when reaching. That said the boat could then sail in a direction without any actual sail.

If this could be implemented sucessfully windiness of a hull could be an enhancement instead of a problem...

Could there be any merrit in this ?

[alan white]

The Portugese Man O'War sails, I think, in that way, though in what direction relative to the wind, I don't know.
Whatever direction it is, I think it goes that way because it can't steer in other directions.
So while you've got an idea there, you're going to need some good sea room and a loose itinerary.

Alan

[Fanie]

Remember when it was impossible to fly ?

If some thought and insight is put into this it may well become a reality. We are limited by the boxes we have and what others put us in...

We are floating our boats on the biggest energy source we have and we're not using it. Go figure

[alan white]

I do remember when it was impossible to fly. Everyone had to stay in cardboard boxes all the time or else. I know what you mean!

Seriously, I don't mean to dissuade anyone from thinking about ideas that promote the utilization of the wind.
I myself am building, as we speak, an ultralight hybrid vehicle which I hope to drive 350 miles on a gallon of gas, so I know how important it is to follow one's dreams regardless of what has come before.
What you proposed is an end result, a boat with a hull that's powered by the wind. Maybe one day someone will make it work. Are you going to work on the idea? Good luck. I hope you discover how to do it.



Alan

[Fanie]

I myself am building, as we speak, an ultralight hybrid vehicle which I hope to drive 350 miles on a gallon of gas, so I know how important it is to follow one's dreams regardless of what has come before

That is very easily achievable !

As a matter of fact, if you think differently about it you can be able to travel indefenately
without using one drop of gass up at all, which means you fill your gass up once and it lasts forever.

Impossible you say... quite do-able I say. Have it run off solar and battery power

[Fanie]

As for the wind propelled hull, one would have to think differently and not be bound by the 'rules' of looks and acceptance we currently design within. If you can loosen yourself from everything that exist and design if from anew as if nothing else exists ...

[alan white]

If there's a way, that is how to achieve it.

Alan

[rwatson]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least no one quoted the standard old cliche 'out of the box thinking'. Nothing was invented as if nothing else existed. Its a neurological impossibility!!

Now - if you want to discuss the engineering realities of one part of a machine that has to contend with being fastened to incompressable rigid protrusions, as well as being propelled through liquids weighing 1000 kilos per cubic metre while also being subjected to carbon based lifeforms weighing some 100 kilos jumping all over its surface, while the other part of the machine has to contend with a gas weighing only 1 Kilo per cubic metre, but at much higher velocities, (whose pressure rises geometrically with its velocity) that is manhandled with primitive tools wielded by the same carbon based life forms ...... then I'm your man.

Call me simple, but I thought both parts of the machine did a pretty good job of coping with their respective specialities after 200 years of R&D.

But then ..... what is this reality thing anyway ?????

[alan white]

Yes, that all makes sense.
Regarding reality, meaning physics, I am certain that we invent that as we go along, and the future has to fall in line. Of course, that means what we invent has to reach back from the future and define the present, meaning the present is now defining the past. Otherwise the future couldn't form a path to its door.
Meaning the past has to fall in line, constantly changing. And therefore, discussion alone can mess with an idea because we write our physics down.
Writing causes memories to lock, disturbing the universe. Higher and higher energies are required to maintain a physics that refuses to adjust.
The whole thing becomes unstable. Religion and science are the same in this aspect. They have created this instability, all based on the mistaken notion that there is a single reality instead of one for every being.
The instability is natural, however. It's the universe inventing itself rather than stop moving for lack of a sensible place to go.

Alan