Congratulations to Tom Speer!

Tom Speer has been a frequent contributor on this forum and is one of the top people associated with THE WING on USA. Way to go ,Tom-congratulations and best of luck in Race2!

 

Yes I agree whole heartedly. If you need a formula then Tom has one Clever bugger

How can we get any feedback on their proceedings there Doug. Thanks for the post.

 

Tom congrats from me too and like to read more on that

somewhere back in 2007 he also wrote something about a canting rig like oracle has now but cant find that post back
did find our thoughts from 2007 on the AC back, now among 9 mainflaps and garage door winches i peticulairy like that canting rig
on tv here i did not see any AC coverage yet so check movies on the net, if you see good AC boats info links post them

 

Congratulations from me too!

Great victory!

 

Hip hip hooray

 

Way to go Tom and Team USA-Yee Ha!

 

I still want to know where can one see anything... ?

 

good question, by sheer luck i just saw the complete second race covered by eurosport2
with 2 out of 3 races won by oracle the cup is back the usa, maybe AC in SF next
ok small design envellope boats but amazing speeds of over 30 knts in less than 8 knt winds
oracles wing was convincing and used C boards, alinghi's S boards now where straight boards
dont think a tri does or if it was waterballast or what but why sailed oracle much straighter?
really, see the lot on tv or i-net, big impressive race to watch
when is the third race?

 

http://www.americascup.com/en/regate/regarder-la-course/

 

Thanks for the kind words. However, web speculation about my contributions to USA 17 has been greatly exaggerated. I was far from being one of the top people associated with the wing design. I have been a part-time consultant to BOR, contracted to the tune of 10 - 20 hr/mo. I designed the cross section shapes for the wing, but that's about all. And even then, I didn't really do any better than the sections Prof. Mark Drela has designed for the C-class wings. BOR had some unique requirements, such as the desire to have large areas of flat panels to reduce cost of construction (yes, even at BOR cost is a significant consideration). As a result, the main element is about 40% flat panels and the flap is 80% flat. I also designed the cross section for Mast3, the one that was intended to be the race mast for the soft sail rig. So my contribution was pretty modest, mostly done in the evenings when I was attending my niece's wedding in San Antonio!

Here are the guys you should be talking about. Mike Drummond, Design Director, whose deft leadership guided the design of USA 17. Mike is an aeronautical engineer who combines sharp technical expertise with the ability to really listen to all the members of his team and is open to making radical changes when there's a solid case to be made for them.

Joseph Ozanne, who creates the VPPs for BOR and was the leader of the wing team. Joseph did the sizing of the wing and is the one that generated all the information as to how the wing ought to be trimmed. Joseph was also the design team interface with the sailors, working a lot with the wing trimmer, Dirk "Cheese" deRidder and sailing on the boat during tests.

Mario Caponnetto designed the planform shape and worked with Joseph on the target trim values for the camber, twist, and wing angle. The wing was extensively optimized using a lifting line spreadsheet Mario wrote. Mario also did the 2D Navier Stokes calculations.

3D Navier Stokes CFD was done by Richard Korpus and Claudio Cairoli of Applied Fluid Technologies. Their CFD data were the basis of the performance predictions for the boat with the wing.

Dave Hubbard, grand old man of wingsails, was another consultant that had a major input to sizing the wing and Dave designed the control system for the wing. The whole wing is really a direct descendant of Dave's past wing designs from Patient Lady to Stars & Stripes 88 to Cogito. Contrary to much speculation, the wing does not have a not computerized fly-by-wire control system. Cables from the control arms you can see sticking out from the flaps run down the wing to a master control quadrant in the bottom flap. There, three hydraulic cylinders control camber, twist, and mid-span camber adjustment. Dave has some very ingenious methods for minimizing stretch in the cables to keep the flaps from twisting off.

The structural design of the wing was done by a team led by Scott Ferguson. Scott also did the structural design of the masts for the soft sail rigs. Scott is a very accomplished sailor in his own right, being a former collegiate All American and more recently winning the 2008 Laser Master's USA Nationals. Scott is also involved with designing rigs for the Volvo 70's.

Eduardo Aldaz Carroll and Jose Luis Vela created the electronic instrumentation and did the programming that allowed the sailors to control the wing baed on PDAs strapped to their wrists.

Paul Bieker, a Seattle NA, was responsible for logistics design, including the rigging that got the wing onto the boat and stepped. To me, that was where a lot of the real innovation in the wing design was done. To be able to raise and lower the wing on the water like it was a trailerable trimaran was really amazing, as well as the coordinated use of two cranes to move it between shore and boat.

Speaking of logistics, Shore Team Leader Scott Sanford absolutely worked miracles in organizing and directing an operation as complex, and subject to change, as any military campaign.

The wing was built in Anacortes by Core Builders, under the direction of BOR's co-boat building leads, Tim Smythe and Mark "Tugboat" Turner.

There are lots of other people that had critical roles in the hydraulics, rigging, structures, etc. Being a part-timer, I don't know them as well as I should in order to give them the credit they deserve.

One of the real joys about working with BOR was the quiet competence, respect, and family atmosphere of the team. Everyone, from the support staff to the senior management, is extremely friendly and dedicated to doing their job in a way that makes everyone else's job easier. What you saw on the water is a direct reflection of how the whole team works. And I have to give a lot of credit for that to CEO Russell Coutts, who knows everyone on the team personally and really sets the tone with regard to respect, honesty, and integrity, as well as other senior leaders like Design Team Co-Coordinator Ian "Fresh" Burns, COO Steven Barclay, and sailing team lead and Tactician John Kostecki.

 

Hello Tom,

Why don't you just take the flowers and stop blaming every one else. None of those names posted here for us, for all we know they can't even read.

So many words and where's the pictures ??? If the post wasn't so long I'd swear you're hiding something.

First post without a formula

 

thanks Tom well done and those names are plenty to read up on

one thing, Doug posted a pic of BOR showing the mast canted
i take it a tri heals a little more than a cat and that affects the bird like flaps again i guess
just the canting up could explain the speed diffrence but start doubting if it was canting and the wing did it all
pic doug posted is the only one i saw showing that cant, can you link it here again Doug?

 

=================
Sure, I'm posting the two photos illustrating the difference in rake with the jib and w/o the jib as well:
--edit-additional pix added of rake with jib
(click on images)
pix from BMW-Oracle site-one illustrates mast canted, three illustrate difference in rake with and without jib

 

Doug,

Please get some new photos if you are looking to illustrate mast rake relationships. Representative geometry between these two, very different, images is misleading.

One is shot from a bow oblique position with the Solent being hoisted, while the daggerboard and rudder of the windward hull are still touching the water. The other shot is slightly aft of a full side view with the windward ama well clear and flying.

These representations can be very misleading as to actual change in mast rake, if any, in fact, may be present.

Other than that... canting and rake represent two different axes of movement.

 

Doug, Chris, looked at the recording i made from tv of the second race again
and nowhere that BOR canting was named or could it be seen

think Cris has a point and we make a mistake, eventho that first pic is very confusing
boats sail away and not into the pic where rake could be mistaken for cant