Hydroplane. One step.

 

- There are only a few small aluminum boats featuring single step hulls. The concept is making in-roads with fiberglass construction being more amenable to be molded in quantity. Nevertheless, I wanted to see a CFD'sstudy for a 24' simple, single-step hull. Numeca International, already mentioned in a previous post, provided the results.  sales@numeca.be

- Being a hydroplane she presents 2 angles of attack with 2 planing areas. The image below shows her riding on points amidships and aft to get a moment of equilibrium. Speed, as shown, is 34.5 knots.

Recent interest, May 2014 led to preliminaries for a 28' version. This longer boat might end up having 

another step built-in.

The Other Side of the Ice. The book.

Year 2009

12 METRE North American Championship.

- I am a little late now, but a couple of weekends ago, some of the heavies of the past America's Cup and Twelve Meter came to Newport. Ted Turner in the Classic Division, Dennis Conner and Tom Whidden in the Grand Prix Division. Victory 83, owned by Dennis Williams won the Modern division. Alan Hanover won the Traditional division. I have fond memories of sailing the Twelves aboard Constellation, Sovereign, and Kurrewa. Thanks to the A.F.C.A and Baron Bich, I was able to complete the French National Service, designed for A. Mauric, sailed as often as possible, and pursued studies at the E.N.S.M. with an emphasis on Tank testing. Good, solid two years.

Newport International Boat Show.

The season is launched at Newport. I understand that the show is bigger than last year. My own impressions strolling through it even before it was open, is that on the power boat side, the majority of the boats have adopted an Italian look. That on the sailboat side the appearance is more "modern" than ever, with high freeboard, chiseled lines and wide stern without forgetting double wheels.

The other show, the Brokerage Boat Show at the Shipyard is much more interesting in my view. The boats come in all sizes and shapes and if there is one thing in common is that how well maintained they all are. Of course, because you are trying to sell you have to show best  but besides that, American owners have a tendency to really care about their boats.



Rolex Cup, Sardinia

Due to light air, only 4 out of 7 races were run. Coming on top is Bella Mente, the new J/V 72, Mini Maxi.
My daughter Dominique is part of the shore crew when the boat is racing and she sent the pictures.
Having presently a commission to design a Mega Yacht, there is a challenge there, but it would be interesting to design racing boats again.

La Malbaie. Pointe au Pic.

I was in Canada over this Labor Day  

weekend. To visit old family and related friends.

Where there is water, there are boats and I wanted to see them. Just North, at a place called Point a L'aigle, there is a small harbor on the Saint Lawrence, a shelter really for the wind is blowing hard and the tide is substantial. The access is adventurous as the docks are moving in strange ways. The photo was taking another day, a calm day and many boats were out sailing. The interesting thing was to see all kind of production, all kind of representation of what has been built a few years ago. Feeling, Hunter, Cand C, Beneteau, Nonsuch, Janneau, Tanzer, Nauticat, J Boat etc. One of each it seems, a microcosme of the fiberglass boat building frenzy of only a few years ago.

Not far North from Pointe au Pic, there is this delicious spot named Port au Persil. Site of a cascading fall where the ancient explorers of this New world resupplied their vessels with fresh water.

L' Aileron.

                                                   Question. What is the theory?

The hydrodynamic resistance of a foil is greatly reduced when presented transversally to the forward motion of a boat. A high aspect ratio (span-chord) of a lifting surface, such as presented on the renderings, can be useful to get on a plane by increasing the lift-to-drag ratio at low cost in terms of resistance.

The lifting surface adds to the righting moment, and the foil buoyancy resists the heeling moment.
Placed aft, on the cockpit sole and sliding to the side of the hull like a dagger board, the aileron presents no particular complication.
The shape of the stern is designed to control the angle of attack of the foil to produce the least resistance when slicing through waves, while the weight of the swing keel controls the angle of incidence being forced by the foil action.
PS: I see a serious application with powerboats to control squatting down in one hand, and to promote planing on the other.