Sailing: The mythical 50 knot barrier

(This post have also been posted under Boat Design & Sailboats).

I have been doing a field study (in terms of hydro and aerodynamics) on G-Class vessels for ocean records, and are about to cover the mythical 50 knot barrier over 500 meters.

Do some of you know of an "A-Z book" that addresses this problem in specific? I want to get an overview of existing articles which I can start of with before digging into the depths to understand why nobody have been able to overcome the relativly low average speed compared to the fastest motorized vessels?

Perhaps some of you also have been philosophizing about this for a while, and even been experiencing with it? I would be happy to listen to your thoughts, and I've also noticed that several of you are widely read and have the knowlegde to hopefully contribute to this post.

All technical perspectives and thoughts about the theme to "demystify" the topic is very welcome.

Thank you,
OAB

 

Hi,

I am new to this forum, and I joined because I was just exploring the same issue. The land and ice sailing records are well over 100 mph, it seems to me that, based on my calculations (I am an engineer) it should be possible to do perhaps 60 knots on relatively smooth water. Considering that the all-time 500 m record on the water is held by a sail board, which is not particularly stream lined nor is the sail epically efficient, it seems it should be possible to go faster in craft designed for that particular purpose.

I was toying with the idea of building something for the 10 sq meter category with that in mind. Since the record is held by that size craft, and I figure I could build a sailing machine that size in my garage pretty inexpensively. I thought it would be a fun design and construction challenge, even if not successful at beating the record. At the very least it would be a kick in the rear to go zipping around on the water in a pocket sized sail powered speedster.

It appears to me there are too issues that has kept it so low. One is that for some reason no one is using a better sail (or "airfoil") designed for the task of getting the most thrust out of that size sail, and the other is control on the water appears to suffer as the speeds go up. Control is certainly possible since powered boats go much faster (even pulling water skiers!). Perhaps no one has looked at it properly, or no one with the required knowledge is interested.

 

Petros: Can I ask you to copy and paste your answer under the same post in the "sailboats" section? I've received answers there already, so to keep this dialogue in one place I hope you can copy and past this under the tread there, and I will discuss it further with you there.

Thank you very much

OAB