Sailing Towards 100 Knots!
By Bob Spagnoletti
on Thursday June 25th, 2009
Going,Going...............................,
Whoops!
The motivation to sail at high
speed has changed over the years; originally it was getting your cargo to
market as quickly as possible, now it is predominantly for sport.
Today, the accessibility of high-tech materials has made it possible to
experiment with different concepts, leading to new and more adrenaline
pumping forms of sailing. So how fast can a sailing craft go? What will it
look like?
Bob's talk outlined the physics of fast sailing and speculate on the ultimate speed. How do windsurfers, kite boards and hydrofoil boats measure up? What has been achieved so far? What can go wrong?
Bob Spagnoletti is a keen windsurfer and one of the organisers of Weymouth Speed Week, an event dedicated to exploring experimental form of fast sailing. He has studied the aero-hydro dynamics of sailing extensively and built experimental windsurfers. During the week he is a design engineer for Vtesse Networks.