34th America's Cup: multihulls!

Race Commentators

Perhaps they could employ this comentator on a few of the races.

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/compulsory-viewing-funniest-sailing-video-ever-44374.html#post575845

 

DeltaWing Race Car for Le Mans

I thought you might enjoy this bit of auto racing luck, or unluck as you might have it

DeltaWing Race Car for Le Mans

LE MANS, FRANCE — To move with the times and maintain auto racing’s relevance, the 24 Hours of Le Mans organizers this year created a “Garage 56,” for a team with the most brilliant and effective environmental car outside the technical regulations.

The winning entry was a consortium that created the DeltaWing car, which, at 475 kilograms, or about 1,050 pounds, is half the weight of the other Le Mans prototypes, has half the horsepower and half the aerodynamic drag. The design will greatly reduce tire wear and the car will consume nearly half the fuel of a typical Le Mans entry. The front tires, made specially for it by Michelin, are only 10 centimeters, or four inches, wide.

There are 55 cars in the race, but this 56th car will not be considered for a class victory, and its speed will be limited so it cannot compete with the highest class. But it will be driven by three Le Mans veterans: Marino Franchitti, Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama.

The car is a joint venture involving the American Le Mans Series founder, Don Panoz; the DeltaWing project originator, Ben Bowlby; the Highcroft Racing team; and the U.S. racing team owner Chip Ganassi and the former driver Dan Gurney, as well as Nissan, which will provide the four-cylinder, 1,600-cc, 300-horsepower engine.

“At the time this was announced, I think a lot of people thought it was science fiction,” said Darren Cox, the general manager for Nissan in Europe. “We didn’t even have a rule book to look at. It was just, ‘How could you do this: Start with a blank sheet of paper and find the fastest way to go around a race circuit?’ And this is the answer.”

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...some pics and more links HERE

...sorry for the digression, but I thought the 'out on a limb theme' might be an appropriate subject matter

 

AC 45's on SF Bay

Again today the breeze was in and we spent much of our practice sailing with Artemis in wind that built from 18 knots through until the mid to high 20's. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to the stronger wind conditions and it makes for some exciting sailing.

Today the current was either coming in or slack for the majority of the session which resulted in much flatter water than the previous days. By the end as the breeze built so did the chop and is where life gets interesting in the 45. The boats love to put their bow into the wave in front downwind and with this you get a sudden deceleration and the boat loads up.

This is where the fun begins as you hope there is enough buoyancy in the bow to recover before the boat loads up more and continues into a pitch pole. The harder you push generally the safer you are so you are constantly reminding yourself not to back off. It really is a different form of sailing!

Dean Barker, Emirates Team NZ skipper reports from SF BAY

 

34th AC

Coutts apparently hit the committee boat -and I missed it! Anybody know what happened?

 

He hit the committee boat.

If you want to see it you can watch the youtube broadcast right now..or an hour from now..or two hours from now...

 

A vid from crew.org.nz shows the Captain Coutts Crash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chphVFuBzlM&feature=player_embedded&list=PL59BD5480A8795C5F#!

 

34th AC

Thanks , Corley!

 

The damages appears quite low for the crash (that comittee boat is strong ! ), but maybe some structural stuff on the cat ...
Quite amazing, missed the live video yesterday but looked the day before, I like the format a lot.

 

34th AC

From Scuttlebutt Europe today:

Oracle Team USA to Launch AC72 This Week

San Francisco, California, USA: ORACLE TEAM USA has started the countdown to launching its first AC72 wingsailed catamaran this week.

A Media Day is planned for Friday 31 August, the first scheduled sailing day for the boat that will play a central role in the San Francisco team's bid to win the America's Cup again next year.

Today, the giant 12 story high wing was lifted at Pier 80 in a successful test of the new ground handling systems.

"This was one tick in a very long check-list of essential steps before the boat can go into the water," said Mark Turner, shore manager.

Upgrading from the identical one-design AC45s used during last week's America's Cup World Series event in San Francisco is going to be no small order; the AC72 is more complex, more powerful and entirely custom designed and built by ORACLE TEAM USA.

"Compared to the AC45, the AC72 is twice as long, five times as powerful and 100 times more complex," explained Dirk Kramers, one of the 25 strong design team who has worked for two years on the team's first boats. "It will also be 25% faster, capable of speeds over 40 knots (45 mph)."

Constructed entirely from carbon fiber, the AC72 hulls were built at the team's base in Pier 80, San Francisco. The cross beams connecting the two hulls, wingsail, appendages (rudders and lifting daggerboards) and other key structures were made in New Zealand by Core Builders Composites.

The next step for the team is to lift and fit the 130-foot wingsail onto the hull. Once preliminary checks on shore are complete, the boat then touches Bay water for the very first time. -- Tim Jeffery

www.oracleracing.com

 

34th AC----Oracle

This is it:

click-

 

These AC72 cats are setting a new fashion that will perhaps trickle down to the sheepies - and that is, the beams are true airfoil shaped, not dopey, draggy, chopped off half things. Jeez! And about time.

 

34th AC

Look at how the Oracle bottom just aft of the bow and forward of the first support curves-or is it an optical delusion?

click- the sketch shows an exaggerated example of what I'm talking about:

 

Gooday Gary - Doug - Corley - Cav & anyone else interested.

Gary - Great to see anyhting happen that will get multihull developement advanced - in the public eye - brought to the attention of the masses & financed to enable forward progress - as to me - it is a snow ball (Cav - that's for you & Gary) the more it moves (forward) the bigger it gets - until it developes its own perpetual motion - which will lead us all forward rather sooner than later.

Doug - I sometimes have a tad of difficulty with the - hoopla & extravagant fan-fare that the US always goes on with - as in the - words & pictures used to describe the - yet to happen - launching of th ASA - AC 72 - just do it & get on with it - after all there are already 2 other countries with boats in the water.

Far more interesting - in the big picture to world sailing - & advancement to sailing as a whole - are the pictures of AC 72 'K1' fully air-borne - on foils, which isn't getting all that much attention. Not expected nor required but a bigger event - overall, me thinks ! !

Just imagine - saying to anyone - 10 years ago or maybe even 2 years ago (or 4 days - even) - that a 72' long multihull would with the power generated by a wing-mast & the wind - in very moderate conditions - would get the whole vessel up out of the water - for 100's if not 1000's of mtrs. Gawd - they would have put us in a - very small padded cell - for sure - but here we are for all to see - just that happening - a million WOW's wouldn't express my excitement & pleasure ! ! ! Would love to know how strong the wind was blowing when the pictures were being taken of it 'air-borne' - I can't see the wind being over 15 kts ???

One never knows - if I don't fall off my perch - I'll be here long enough to go cruising on foils & that for sure would be a 'blast'. Ciao, james

 

If you check the keel rocker, it is close to straight, if not straight - but there appears to be a hollow entrance at the turn in the bilge.

 

If I had to bet real money right now I would bet against a hollow in the keel line.

However, there is no rig load in the boat in that photo. Ever see a trailer that carries steel when it is not loaded? The bed is pre-stressed upward, and when loaded is nice and flat.

If you are going to load the mast in compression through the crossbeam and pull upward with the headstay through the seagull-striker you are trying to bend the hull into a rocker resembling a Hobie 16. So a little pre-stress opposite that might be in order.

I guess there is a possibility that this is a technique being used in the composite structure of this boat. Maybe the CORE guys learned something about that during the last cycle. Remember how much the windward ama of 17 distorted when the runner was applied?