Scalloped wing surfaces for sailboat foils

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Scalloped wing surfaces for sailboat foils

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Milton Thrasher Amateur boat builder Registered: May 2004 Location: Sarasota, FL Posts: 96	The whale through millions of years have developed scalloped leading edges on their flippers. It has been shown in wind tunnel tests that scalloped edges produce vortices that break up laminar flow so that lift is better and turning faster for scalloped edges versus straight or curved edges.
	· Date: August-6-2004 · Views: 9383 · Filesize: 13.6kb ·
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	Rating: 10.00
	Keywords: Sailboat foils fins rudders

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yipster

Senior Member

Registered: October 2002
Location: netherlands
Posts: 2,337

August-7-2004 2:37pm

Rating: 10

tatata, what do you know! very interesting

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charliega
Junior Member

Registered: August 2004
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Posts: 1

August-14-2004 9:51am

I saw an article on this in Scientific American. I wondered myself about how this could be incorporated into a daggerboard or rudder design. I am in the process of restoring an old, small, sailboat.

asathor

Senior Member

Registered: October 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 153

October-6-2004 3:15pm

And it WORKs very well!

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May the wind blow briskly in your sails!

marcpiery

Registered: October 2007
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 2

October-22-2007 3:39am

The problem is that you find these scalloped fins on slow swimming whales, such as the Humpback. Faster swimming whales such as Blues, Sperms, and Porpoises all have a curved leading edge on their fins. Also, look to the bill fish for high speeds under water, especially the Sailfish, which has been clocked at 68mph. These high speed fish and cetaceans also tend to tuck most fins for high speeds and deploy them when slow.

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