Go to 2:20

3, 2, 1, lift off - Yoo-hoo!

I think if I wanted a fast yacht I would like a fast car to suit!
But personally I really don't understand what the rush is about !

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southace said..
I think if I wanted a fast yacht I would like a fast car to suit!
But personally I really don't understand what the rush is about !

Adrenaline

but..por que?
if I wanna fly....

Awesome!! If I had the money, I would do it.

Looks great however when it goes pearshaped! They don't show the spills, just grainy long distance shots of them.

For me it looks terribly dangerous. These are the prototypes right? So what about when it goes pearshaped with bigger boats more crew and tons of splintering carbonfibre and sinkings. We've lost 1 elite sailor in SFAC another had a horrific leg injury from a foil and that's just what I remember there's probably more.

Too big big and too fast trying to chase the $.

If it was about innovation then there would be more time for design which while I'm here I'll point out that it leads to the worst part of the AC, unequal boats and budgets and very happy legal teams. Which is why the public don't show the $s. Classic catch 22.

As far as just the design goes I think it's fantastic but give them more time before they rush into competition.

Por que? Why?

Why did Earhard, Chichester, Gagarin did it?
Because they could.
What did Hilary say why he did it, "Because it was there!"
Why do Olympians do it?
Because " citius, altius, fortius"!
Because this is what makes us human.

Why dogs lick their balls?

BECAUSE THEY CAN!

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sirgallivant said..
Por que? Why?

Why did Earhard, Chichester, Gagarin did it?
Because they could.
What did Hilary say why he did it, "Because it was there!"
Why do Olympians do it?
Because " citius, altius, fortius"!
Because this is what makes us human.

Why dogs lick their balls?

BECAUSE THEY CAN!

thats no longer a boat. And I suspect the hull will have to endure increased impact when it hits the water again (or a rogue wave) not to mention the crew acting as a ragdoll if it were to suddenly halt its forward motion. So..??????
And just because you want to say veni, vidi, vici - it doesn't mean the egg was before the chicken.

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Seebreasy73 said..

sirgallivant said..
Por que? Why?

Why did Earhard, Chichester, Gagarin did it?
Because they could.
What did Hilary say why he did it, "Because it was there!"
Why do Olympians do it?
Because " citius, altius, fortius"!
Because this is what makes us human.

Why dogs lick their balls?

BECAUSE THEY CAN!

thats no longer a boat. And I suspect the hull will have to endure increased impact when it hits the water again (or a rogue wave) not to mention the crew acting as a ragdoll if it were to suddenly halt its forward motion. So..??????
And just because you want to say veni, vidi, vici - it doesn't mean the egg was before the chicken.

The crash I saw had ragdolls and a splintering flying mast sections. Someone's gonna get hurt.

I gave up watching these shenanigans when they stopped racing 12 metre boats. When you have a series where you have 6 races a day and the entire challenge could be sailed over a long weekend it just doesn't create the same spectacle.

Some time ago when I asked the forum how come some sailboats could go faster than the wind that was blowing
them along, it was explained to me about high and low pressures on the sails. It was a revelation to me and I understand
the physics of it, so i see no problem in pushing the principle to its optimum as a scientific endeavour . Let's just see how
fast it's possible to go using such natural energy. Yes.

It's weird how common place foiling has become, its rare now to go out without a Moth screaming past gybing on the foil.
For those of you who follow the pickleforks, the A class catamerans are having their worlds in Hervey Bay from November 11-23rd.
If you've never seen them, its awesome racing. 60 odd foilers and 40 traditional, will be great for Hervey Bay as a minimum.

Most photos I've seen show them on relatively flat water. Are they able to zip fast like that offshore in 30kt wind and 3/4m waves ?

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Karsten said..
Most photos I've seen show them on relatively flat water. Are they able to zip fast like that offshore in 30kt wind and 3/4m waves ?

Which boats do you mean? This is only the second prototype for AC testing that's hit the water - by the rules, they're not allowed to build the full size thing just yet. So there's been minimal videos/photos released.

In general though - **** yeh. There's some pretty good footage of the new production Figaro 3 which shows it in some pretty rough water.

Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss took his on the Vendee Globe . To be fair, one of the foils did break, but that was in the Southern Ocean, and he still managed to make it.

Then, of course, there's the incredcible l'Hydropetre . According to some threads on SA, it's sadly mouldering away in Tahiti at the moment.

A lot of this pioneering development in foiling seems to come from NZ and Australia. Paul Larsen and Team Vestas just released an anniversary video of their now infamous world sailing speed record in the Vestas Sailrocket 2, if you've never seen it please please watch the following vid.

What these guys did is a feat that would be hard pressed to find repeated in any sport in world history let alone Australia, they didn't just break the record , they smashed it by an order of magnitude.

I've swapped correspondence with Paul over the years, sadly I have never met the man, and you will not find a more affable and engaging bloke. He is a class act on all fronts. I don't even remember what trivial thing I did in that last successful attempt, ( and it was really trivial) but I woke up that day to an email from Paul. Despite being stuck on a sandbank with a million things to do and having just smashed multiple world records, he took the time to take a photo of him standing in front of SR2 with the scrappiest piece of manky cardboard you've ever pulled out of a rubbish bin with a scrawled in Nikko "Thank You". Hanging over this is his big ugly dial with his trademark million watt smile stretching from ear to ear.

There is so much they achieved, cracked the cavitation issue, boat hull inclined to TWD, the list is endless, you could write a book on their exploits. Watch at the start of the course at 5:40 where he hardens up into the run, the acceleration is just awesome. Hope you like it!

Edit: You'll note in the beginning before the run he's sliding sideways through the water? They stall the boat by oversheeting it hard, then ease to start moving. You'll hear him say "easing sheet" when he's ready to go. The boat reaction is cool, it's near instantaneous.

Edit edit: For reference, the drone was a RC aircraft, it's maximum speed was 110kph, and there's little ol' VSR2 sailing away at 128kph. He'd overtake you at a good clip on the highway .
Respect.

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samsturdy said..
Some time ago when I asked the forum how come some sailboats could go faster than the wind that was blowing
them along, it was explained to me about high and low pressures on the sails. It was a revelation to me and I understand
the physics of it, so i see no problem in pushing the principle to its optimum as a scientific endeavour . Let's just see how
fast it's possible to go using such natural energy. Yes.

the boat depicted is hydro-planning and has nothing to do with wind speed. I flew off dinghies before when the hull hit the water after getting airborn, no fun, and on a larger yacht having the chance to get impaled, because bigger area boat coming from air meeting water has a massive deadstop effect I can assure you. I don't like to be a ragdoll on my own boat especially when at advanced age my bones heal three or four times slower when young. We tend to forget that the human body is very fragile, and while I do like speeds (for heavens sake I sued to cycle downhill on a pushbike on a 2cm wide rubber in excess of 100 kmh some time ago) I think common sense should dictate how much you value your life to achieve an extra 3-5 knots.

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Karsten said..
Most photos I've seen show them on relatively flat water. Are they able to zip fast like that offshore in 30kt wind and 3/4m waves ?

Here is an article that gives you a bit of an idea, Single handed around the world - averaging 22kts in 16-17kts breeze. But yes, 4m waves is a different story, you wouldn't be foiling and by trying to keep the speed down.
www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16219/the-brazilian-job

HI Jev7337,
Thanks for the link. BTW, the lead photo in the article is priceless, thx! Pretty wild.

don't think I want one but I wouldn't mind having a ride moors to power the hydraulics just aint cricket