fast boats

[Gena]

hi
i have heard of a sailing boat that can go faster then the wind
do you know if its true?
if it is what is the name of it
or where can i find it

[SailDesign]

There are a great many sailing boats that can go faster than the wind.
Yes, I know it is true.

[bobber]

i really should have taken more interest in sail boat design!!
How do you get a sailing boat to go faster than the wind? am i really being stupid here? ive never really been into sailing craft, and never really looked into them, other than at university, and didnt really get into them much then.
i know wheni did my RYA course, one of them cant remember which, we did go out on a boat, which for the life of me i cant remember its name, but i know that was damn fast considering it wasnt really that windy, it was a catamaran design, quite small, seated about 3 i think, guy said you could ski behind it, which i could believe, but ive forgotten what its called, ill remember when im not thinking of it.

[SEANT]

A sailboat's speed can exceed that of the wind but never in the same direction as the wind. The optimum heading for speed usually approaches a direction perpendicular to the wind - where the boat speed doesn't subtract form the available wind speed.

Sean

[tspeer]

I've personally clocked landyachts sailing 5 times the wind speed!

It's all a matter of being able to produce high side force with low drag, in both the "hull" and the sail(s). Same as tiddly-winks.

[Overdraft]

Here's a recent report on a newly launched design:

"Probably not a risk at all, and certainly interesting to look at, these are the first shots of the brand new 90' Dubois Genuine Risk owned by Randall Pittman. With an extensive design program behind it, canting keel and all the other assorted benefits of a high dollar program, Early reports have GR exceeding polars, hitting 16.6 in 14 knots of wind, and 19.9 jib reaching in 18 knots. Iit will be particularly interesting to see how the boat stacks up against the MaxZ 86's."

Note that the thing the reporters considered worthy of comment was that it beat it's calculated polars... it was unremarkable that boatspeed exceeded the true wind speed. Happens all the time! btw, here's a link to the pics... http://www.sailinganarchy.com/

[Jeff H]

It is not especially unusual for a reasonably modern design to exceed the true windspeed at comparatively low windspeeds on a close reach. Of course the reason that this is possible is that the aparent wind is so much greater than the true wind. I can give you an example from my own boat (A Farr 11.6, which is a 20 year old 38 foot performance cruiser). My boat (which I am using because I am familiar with it but not because it is particularly exceptional in any real sense) will sail at roughly just over 8 knots cracked off at around 50 degrees to the true wind in something just over 7 knots of true wind. The reason that it can do this is because of the apparent wind, which appears to be roughly 22 degrees off the bow and which appears to be be around 13 1/2 knots.

This is much easier to do this in flat water. Getting up to that speed takes pretty good crew work and helmsmanship. It also takes a fair amount of time top reach that speed from a dead stop and at stop the sails need to be powered up and eased for the 7 knot true wind at a 50 degree angle. As the boat comes up to speed the sails are steadily trimmed flatter for the higher apparent windspeeds and flatter angles of attack.

Respectfully,
Jeff