Turbo sail - 100 knots?

Just read Yachting World article about breaking the speed sailing record. There's an Aussie guy who doesn't think 100 knots is out of the question. My question is:
Has anyone tried heating up the leach of the sail? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but surely it follows that if you heat the leach it will suck more air across the sail/wind creating more lift/thrust??

 

It is a fully

 

:!: It sounds like a wet dream to me.

 

Frosh - this should really get you going... What about super-cooling the luff while heating the leach? Mega-turbo!

 

100 knots now possible!

Hi Rob, If you can get crossbow; see it at http://www.dcss.org/speedsl/crossbow.html bring it to Northern Queensland where they have been having absolute monster cyclones. Build a 50 meter long aka out of prepreg carbon fibre and put two guys out there during the next big breeze (250km/hour) and you will get a record that will last for centuries!

 

Either that, or die trying!!

 

It is only a matter of time, I am sure that climbing Everest sounded just as crazy before they got around to doing it .....

 

But heroics aside, by creating your own air-flow with hot and cold portions of a sailwing... you could do 20 knots in a flat calm, rising to 100 knots in a 20-knot breeze. Not that I can prove a word of this.. just seeing if anyone else can seriously ruin my day-dream speed sailer

 

How would you get over the "hot air rises" issue and get it to flow along the sail ?

 

I'm going to wait until someone gets to 50 in a boat, then I'll worry about whether 100 is possible.
We all know that 100 knots under sail is possible - it is done frequently in ice-boats. Doing it with the drag and stability problems associated with soft water is the key....
Steve

 

Well put SailDesign. Any ideas on antonfourie's design question?

 

Rob,
Which design question of Anton's?
Steve

 

Steve, I guess what you are saying is that high speed sailing on water is mainly a question of hull design - the sailwing/foil is already proven beyond 100 knots.
I guess what I'm wondering is whether any kind of heating/cooling mechanism could improve the basic design of the wing?
Anton's question has already stretched my (non-existent) practical knowledge of wind design... but what's on the horizon for sailwing design?

 

You're right, Rob, the 100mph thing is pretty much a given.
As far as the heating/cooling thing goes, how do you feel about people using electric motors during a sailing race? To apply enough heat to do any useful work against the cooling effect of 100mph (assuming the concept works in the first place) you would have to use a shiite-load of power. Is that really being propelled by the wind?
Steve

 

PS - Rob - A jet engine basically heats up air that travels over a foil, thus creating thrust - but it ain't sailing...