Flying Canting Keel-Extraordinary Innovation!

This great picture really illustrates the fact that these boats really need steady wind conditions. One unanticipated gust and as the boat heels righting moment is reduced dramatically as the keel elevates more. I know there must be a crew member charged with doing nothing else that optimizing the keel rotational position, but this boat will react just the opposite to traditional fixed keel boats where righting moment increases as the boat heels.

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CutOnce

 

This boat as designed as a lake racer-don't think they can count on steady winds in that venue. They carry 8 crew(about 1400lb) and the boat has fairly wide racks so when they need some degree of quick response it's the crew thats going to do it-like a dinghy. With the keel out at max the RM is not going to change with the first 10 degrees of movement so keel speed is certainly a factor. I'd like to see a video and have more details of the boat.

click-

 

Stravaganza

Here is some video of the boat sailing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3YYZ06x2o

 

And another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeWQIyQlnws#t=815

 

Thanks for posting that Doug. That video makes me appreciate Hugh Welbourn's approach even more.

That boat above looks complicated, twitchy and not fast enough to make up for being that complicated and twitchy. Interesting though.

 

Stravaganza

The thing I don't like is that when the keel gets within 20-30 degrees of max cant it really doesn't move the weight very much.

 

I'm not crazy about the keel canting mechanism dictating the hull shape. That has to be a big compromise. Oh well. They tried something.

 

Apparently the "flying canter" Q fell over again. Bummer for 'Ralph', he's always been a good bloke, but the concept doesn't seem to work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FuJJXaTl98&feature=youtu.be

The old Rumboat (Farr 36) used to have a stacked crew (several windsurfer worlds, a couple of Olympic team memberships, 2nd in the Tornado worlds and I think an 18 Footer Worlds win, and 4th in the Mirror worlds) and one would assume that the talent level is just as high on this boat, so it's probably not normal operator error.

 

I know it's an old post, but Garda is famous for its steady winds. Even when light, they are incomparably steadier than the winds of many well known sailing locations.

I can't find recent results for Stravaganza but there are some references to her suffering in her first season and having a major refit at the end of it. She won one race but from what I can see, her only mono opposition was the Asso 99s and while they are very sweet little boats no one would consider them opposition for a new Libera A. I wonder what happened to her?

On the subject of radical Liberas, it was interesting to see how two of the three Libera As struggled in the very light winds at the windward mark of this year's Centomiglia. Meanwhile the efficient little Asso 99s looked beautiful and lots of fun, and the Tornado was one of the most impressive of them all once the wind picked up on the run home. Even on the lakes, small efficient boats often look nicer to me than overly complex monsters.

The Libera class really seems to be struggling for numbers these days. Few people want to race development classes these days, probably because they are now so impractical and expensive. It's very sad, but that's what happens when you ignore the fact that real people have to sail real boats.

 

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If that was Q, then more power to them! At least they have the guts to try new stuff and keep at it-all while the crazies shout from the sidelines:"It won't work!"

 

Since it obviously does NOT work as claimed, those who expressed doubts cannot be called 'crazies'.

 

Sure they can: they started saying it wouldn't work before it was sailed. You or the crazies have no idea what happened the other day but are content to say"it didn't work". That makes no sense considering the effort being expended to make it work well. Developing new stuff is not easy-it is hard and requires a commitment to try and try. Failure is not the end-it is the beginning because it shows another problem that will be solved-one at a time, time after time.

 

Flying keel in proa

Look at this drawings proa with canting keel and reefing soft sails.