Speed Dream 27 Prototype

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by Doug Lord, Sep 20, 2011.

  1. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
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    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Vlad Murnikov just wrote to say they've found a builder and awarded a contract for the 27. He authorized me to publish this announcement and description of the 27-a very unique design with a whole lot of speed potential:


    SpeedDream started as an idea, a simple notion that with some creative thinking applied, that a purpose built monohull might be able to reach, and in some cases exceed the speeds enjoyed by a similar size multihull. Well that notion has turned into an obsession to not only build a record setting monohull but to change the way we look at boats and their relationship to speed.

    In the two years since first announcing the concept behind SpeedDream we have been surprised by many things so we were delighted when, after a global search for a builder, we discovered the very best place to build the boat was right here in our own back yard. We had received inquiries from as far away as China and made our own overtures to South Africa and Russia, but it was Lyman Morse, an enduring Maine Boatbuilder that impressed us the most and so it’s with great pleasure that we awarded them the build contract.

    Lyman Morse has been building boats continuously since the company was first formed in 1978 and the roster of new builds and restorations show an eclectic mix of old Maine craftsmanship to the latest high-tech all-carbon technology. They are currently building a 63-foot Bruce Farr design for a solo non-stop circumnavigation and will slot the SpeedDream prototype in alongside with an estimated launch date of early next spring. Their modern, high-tech facility coupled with extremely competent boat builders along with a smattering of Yankee knowhow makes Lyman Morse by far the best place to build this kind of boat. We encourage anyone looking for a full-service boatyard or new construction facility to follow our lead and give them a call.

    While the 27-foot version of SpeedDream100 is essentially a prototype to test the performance of some of the innovative features including the extreme canting keel that flies clear of the water when the boat heels over, it has evolved into something much more than a one-off prototype. Computer models suggest that the boat will sail at speeds easily approaching 30 knots and will be relatively simple to sail and easy to handle. With this in mind and in the spirit of free thinking, the plan now is to launch a completely new One Design class that will take over where the Melges and Mumms left off. Taking nothing away from these extremely successful classes, we think that there is room for a moderately priced, ultra high performance keelboat that places the emphasis squarely on speed rather than on tactical prowess.

    There are some challenges that come with a boat that routinely sails well over 20 knots. Short tacking, for example, might be difficult. It will take around 35 seconds for the keel to cant from one side of the boat to the other, so a quick tacking duel up the windward leg is out of the question. So some new thinking was applied, and with an eye toward the ski industry where slalom racing is extremely popular, a new SpeedDream SpeedWay was conceived. Instead of racing a traditional triangle with a hired gun at the helm, two SpeedDream27’s will enter the start zone. Their task, based entirely on speed and skill and not the vagaries of wind and shifts, will be to get their boat around the course as fast as possible. Short, intense, speed-timed races, and many of them over the course of a day, will turn up a winner that knows how to maximize the full potential of their SpeedDream27. In fact we plan to not only borrow from skiing, but also from the highly successful Extreme Sailing Series as well as Nascar to create a whole new experience for sailors who are out for the sheer thrill of the ride.

    The SpeedDream prototype will be launched early 2012 and will be tested in the warm, relatively flat waters of Florida. Thereafter the boat will be available for demo-sails. We believe that the best way to get intimate with the new SpeedDream27 is by taking one out for a spin. In the next few months we will roll out some creative ideas on how we plan to establish the class, ideas that include Shared Ownership as well as the creation of SpeedDream agents that will provide an “arrive and drive” experience for sailors seeking to leverage their ever-shrinking leisure time. Find out more at
    www.speeddream27.com
     

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  2. garydierking
    Joined: Sep 2004
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    garydierking Senior Member

    Why doesn't he just call it what it is....a proa.
     
  3. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
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    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Speed Dream 27

    =================
    Gee Gary--a proa? With a single hull? With a canting keel? And a lifting foil to leeward? That tacks? I don't think so.....
     
  4. Hussong

    Hussong Previous Member

    It's a proa, or tacking outrigger, wannabe in a desperate search to be something like a multihull. Nothing more and nothing less.

    If you took an Audi R18 TDI, gave it reduced traction control and ungodly amounts of downforce, along with reduction in horsepower and weight... you'd have the penultimate F1 ride in your hands. Such is the Speed Dream and all that goes with it. This boat is late to the game and shall suffer the penalties that go with such an effort. So much fiddly nonsense in order to hypothetically achieve the results of what is already available with a nicely designed multihull.

    Such a sad, sad effort to twist technology. Where are you Vlad, that you have to bend the space/time continuum to achieve that which has already been achieved many times already and shall be proven many times in the future?

    That Doug finds this compelling, after his chomping at the Dr. Sam, Osprey multihull bit, is more than interesting, to say the least. What clothes do you wear, Mr. Lord?
     
  5. Gary Baigent
    Joined: Jul 2005
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    Location: auckland nz

    Gary Baigent Senior Member

    Have to admit, Doug, that it is just an extremist version of an Open 60 - plus more complexity. Having said that, it is still very interesting in its extremism and I will enjoy seeing how the 27 foot version works.
     
  6. MalSmith
    Joined: May 2004
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    Location: Australia

    MalSmith Ignorant boat designer

    It's a proa, but with added features to make it slower, uglier and more difficult to sail.
     
  7. water addict
    Joined: Jun 2004
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    Location: maryland

    water addict Naval Architect

    How does that boom work? It looks like the goosneck is inside the cabin house.

    It's ok to try new things. If the designer wants to play with new concepts and see if they work, and can find the funding, have at it. The funky looking forward foil thing has me puzzled though. Would be interesting to see how it works.

    I'm not a real fan of canting keels. It's just a negative catamaran. Put weight to windward, or buoyancy to leeward, just changing signs in the righting moment equation. To me, the simpler solution is the cat or tri hull. But to each his own.
     
  8. Vlad M
    Joined: Mar 2010
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    Location: Boston, MA

    Vlad M Senior Member

    I haven't visited this forum for quite a while, and nothing seems to change here...
    Same old grumbling, same nonsense...
    Do you really think, Hussong, that because multihulls are fast, at least fast enough for you, we just have to stop thinking about alternatives that could be even faster?
    You might not like innovation, but it will always go forward, regardless...
    So, wise up and try to embrace progress - if you can.
     
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  9. Vlad M
    Joined: Mar 2010
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    Location: Boston, MA

    Vlad M Senior Member

    You right, it's always weight to windward and buoyancy to leeward - regardless whether it's multihull or mono.
    Maximum RM is reached when you take the weight out of water and leverage it to windward as far as possible.
    It has been done routinely for catamarans flying a hull and I'm just trying now to explore a possibility of a monohull flying a keel.
    What I don't understand is why this upsets so much some of the "regulars" here?
    As for simplicity - you happen to to prefer the windward ballast in form of one or two extra hulls hanging in the air, connected with a cumbersome system of overstressed beams and wires.
    I happen to find a small and simple flying keel to be a more elegant solution.
    To each his own.
     
  10. Vlad M
    Joined: Mar 2010
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    Location: Boston, MA

    Vlad M Senior Member

    Hey mate, what a ridiculous post... When you've got nothing to say, it's better to keep quiet - this is a design forum after all, not a bazaar...
     
  11. Hussong

    Hussong Previous Member

    Wow, Vlad, how nice to have you tethered here, if only for awhile.

    Perhaps this is the time to remind you that the odds of producing a successful, cutting edge vehicle of any kind are astronomically low. So low, in fact, that they routinely fail in reaching their design goals and then they quietly slip beneath the waves. (more below)

    For a number of years, there was a facinating design contest out of England called Concept Boat. Each and every year, they opened the channels to designers of the, well, let's call it the 'cutting edge". There was a theme involved and they took in large numbers of designs to see who had best executed the theme. The archives are still sorta available through Gizmag, as the website for the contest itself has quietly, slipped out of view.

    Needless to say, the vast majority of these concepts were unbuildable and not necessarily well thought-out, even if they could be built. That the contest, itself, has run its course, is more than ironic.

    Then, of course, there are the enormous archives residing in the USPTO showing boat concept after concept in the search for patent fame and fortune. I guess I don't have to remind you that, let's pick a suitable number, less than 1% are ever put on the water and out of those, even fewer actually do what they have been claimed to do, much less become a raging success..

    Back down on earth, the cutting edginess of the Schock 40, which was the first production boat to be built using the CBTF system, turned-out to be a memorable flop... and it came from a very highly regarded boat building company out of Newport Beach, CA. Another chap turned-out this boat called the MX-Ray and it became a small footnote in the vast collection of single-handed dinghies and then was seen no more.

    In short, Vlad, this ride with the devil thing that you are currently manifesting, is fraught with failure at every turn and yet, there you are, giving us a comfy lecture as to how lame we are when we scoff at the need to produce that which has long ago been settled through other technology.

    There's lots and lots of complicated, whiz-bang stuff going on there with this new ride of yours and while I wish you the best of luck, we all know what happens to vehicles that are festooned with too much stuff upon which they are dependent as all get out.
     
  12. FMS
    Joined: Jul 2011
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    FMS Senior Member

    The difficulty of designing something new and actually better in some way than everything that came before is what makes it interesting.
     
  13. CT 249
    Joined: Dec 2004
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    CT 249 Senior Member

    Vlad, the "hostility" could be being created by the fact that great claims are being made and some people reasonably feel that they are a bit over the top.

    For example, to claim that the 27 "will be, quite simply, the fastest sailboat of its size anywhere on the planet" and that it will "achieve speeds that will reach, and often exceed, 30 knots" can easily be seen as..well, let's say a big call, considering that it remains a design - and everyone from Watson to Olin Stephens to Farr to top skiff designers like Murray, Bethwaite and Brown have found out that performance predictions don't always work out.

    As another example, the claims that the Speedway is "a revolutionary race course" and "a whole new approach to racing" can be seen as an exaggeration, since it's basically a simplified configuration of an event that was used for years at championships in the most popular sailing class in history (the original Windsurfer). The dual slalom concept was later dropped for practicality reasons - as soon as you get a reasonable number of entrants, they inevitably spend the vast amount of their time waiting for others to complete the course so that they can start. That can often be cold, boring, expensive and tiring.

    Whatever the practicality and appeal of the course, it's hard to say that a re-design of a course sailed by the world's most popular class back in the '70s is entirely new and revolutionary.

    By the way, one of Mal Smith's designs dominated one of the world's most popular development classes, making the designs of Bruce Farr, Iain Murray and Bethwaite obsolete in the process. He knows how to create winning designs that can beat some of the best in the business. His boats came in quietly, with no predictions of great performance, and I don't think anyone ever criticised anything he said, because he let the wins do the talking for him.

    If you are going to imply that your boat, concept and course design is so much better than everyone else's, surely you must expect that some people will take issue with the claims?
     
  14. sharpii2
    Joined: May 2004
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    Location: Michigan, USA

    sharpii2 Senior Member

    I see big problems with this extreme of a canting ballast strut.

    1.) There seems to be very little leverage to cant it which means very high stresses on not only the upper end of the strut hull attachment point as well. Perhaps a cage structure can be built to handle the hull attachment point, but that still leaves the loads on the upper end of the strut,
    2.) A more efficient lobster pot harvesting device is hard to imagine. Not only do you have the long skinny lifting foils on either side, but you also have the long keel strut to do its worst while its in the water. Perhaps, for a fee, you can help some lobster men wipe out the competition, and
    3.) the long ballast strut requires deep water to sail in. Great Beam, in the case of super multihulls is a definite handicap, especially for docking, but I think great draft is even more of one.

    This experiment may well work out technically, but may fall quite flat, when it comes to practicality and usability issues.

    Even if it works as advertised, I doubt very many people will want copies. Sort of like a jet engine in an automobile (believe it or not, it has been tried).
     

  15. Hussong

    Hussong Previous Member

    Schock 40 http://www.wdschock.com/boats/schock40/s40_intro_b.php

    "Racing is about winning, and racing designers are pushed into poor, or very marginal, design practices in order to remain competitive."

    -Mike Johns


    The list is much, much longer than this simple representation with the most recent, big time catastrophe being Rambler, (ex-Speedboat) which tossed its fin and bulb in the most recent Fastnet scenario.

    All in the pursuit of the speed advantages long enjoyed by multihulls.
     

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