1 man mini boat

I have also come across a great option with the solar and plan to design the forward deck around the high efficiency 300w panel.
This will primarily provide power for the auxiliaries like uhf, stereo and lighting etc but will also be switchable to emergency charge the primary batteries if ever required.

Current supply from these house panels is sufficient to limp home on...

 

Not going to happen, your stubby little boat will be lucky to do 3 knots. A kayak would be quicker.

 

Can you explain how a completely submerged boat is floating?

 

This is not correct, wave resistance is not linear. It approximates a straight line below "hull speed" which in your case is about 2.5 knots.

 

The OP would be better off with a small catamaran, that way there is hope of getting a bit of extra speed, a boxy little monohull could see you going half a knot backwards against the tidal run.

 

The hull design allows it to remain buoyant when full of water. Read up on the rapid whale and you'll see how it works. Actually you're probably better off with the videos.... either way they're on the rapidwhale site.....

Fluid dynamics has numerous formulas for calculating drag coefficients. Hence the calculation in my post. Whilst you are correct that "wave resistance" is not linear, drag resistance IS.
No craft is immune to wave resistance meaning No craft can ever maintain their top speed 100% of the time. Calmer and sheltered waters result in significantly less wave resistance than open water and these waters (as well as estuaries and lakes which are even less affected). The smaller the craft, the lesser the surface area. The lesser the surface area, the less resistance is experienced and thus, the greater increased power increased performance.
Science is science.....
I understand that the speed quoted is a best case scenario and thought I was clear that I was happy with a 75-80% cruise speed (which is a reasonable expectation taking into account environmental factors such as wave resistance and wind)



By the looks of the responses I've been receiving, most of you can just ignore the fact that i'm going to do this and return to the normal programming.

For those actually interested, you are more than welcome to hang around and share your experiences and the long journey ahead.
I am taking the advice given on board and will probably start with a scale model before upscaling to full size.
I will happily share my build experience in the way of blog with videos.
Once done, and after some experience running around in it, I'll even do up an instructable.

 

Your "science" is wrong. The speed limitations of the type of thing you have in mind, are well known, and largely centre around wave-making resistance, which escalates drastically when the transverse wave train generated by forward movement, has a wavelength greater than the boats waterline length. And that will kick in at less than 3 knots for something this size. The formula used is 4-thirds the square root of the wavelength (feet), which gives the speed of the wave-train in knots. Slender hulled catamarans get around the problem by virtue of much lower wave-making resistance, and planing boats exceed the restriction by being relatively light and high powered, and generating lift that effectively leaves much less boat in the water. But they also have high resistance when going past the "hull speed" barrier.

 

As discussed in one of my posts previous, the plan was originally to use a cutting shaped bow and transitioning to a tunnel hull towards the rear.
This design would be akin to semi displacement and this reduces the effect of wave resistance.

Like I have previously said.... I'm not going into this half cocked.

I literally only came here looking for hull design and powerplant advice as I havent used these construction methods before but have now ended up discussing physics for several posts.

I get the point that you personally think this idea is not viable...... maybe you should get the point that this is a project that has not been done in an identical, nor similar, configuration and, so anything other than actually building it is pure theory.

If you are only interested in shooting others down then I suggest you move to another thread to do so.

The project I am working on is in the realm of 'practically not done before' and has a severe lack of data and information from any kind of similar projects, hence why I have spent months researching and resulted in coming here for specific information.

I have a thorough knowledge of fluid, aero and thermo dynamics and am confident that the only way to prove these theoretical calculations on this project that has not been done before, is to physically construct it and test it thoroughly.

The science is not wrong.... science is always right, it just depends on which factors affect the specific design the greatest as to which formulae is most applicable when it comes to drag reduction.

I'd suggest if you would like to prove that the theory is flawed, you get your hands dirty and build it yourself to do so.

I'm building it to find out and (as previously mentioned) am going to take my sweet time to build it so I know it is done right.

 

The physics of the situation are such that your speed aims are unobtainable, but you seem intent on learning the hard way.

 

The same comments were thrown the way of 2 brothers from Dayton Ohio who proved the world wrong with a prototype......

Until it's been done, nobody knows if it will work.
I'm doing it regardless so I can find out.......

Who knows..... I could end up inventing the world's most efficient semi-displacement hull.

The only thing that is for certain is that if you never try, you never know for sure....

 

The beauty of being an optimist is I learn from experiences.
Pessimists dont learn from experiences. Not that they are incapable of self education, moreso, they never allow themselves to have the experience in the first place....

 

the world laughed at Einstein, but it doesn't mean that people laughing at your idea makes you the new Einstein.

 

Anyways go ahead and report back, though my guess is when you find out I'm right, you will elect not to.

 

"As discussed in one of my posts previous, the plan was originally to use a cutting shaped bow and transitioning to a tunnel hull towards the rear.
This design would be akin to semi displacement and this reduces the effect of wave resistance."

Sockie, it is very simple and easy to create a hull shape like what you propose to have minimal resistance, and to do the desired speed.
However for a hull 5' long, the crew will have to be your pet Jack Russell, or maybe your 4 year old kid at the max - if you try to get into it, it will either capsize or sink (or both) - fairly quickly.
As it will be so slender that it won't have the displacement (or stability) to support you.
But I shall happily 'eat my hat' if you do manage to achieve the impossible with your new design.

 

This is not at all a relevant comparison. The Wright brothers built a new type of machine based on results from a wind tunnel, which they invented. You are recreating boat designs that have been shown to fail the expectations. This is misguided pride.