The Fixed-Wing Is In: America's Cup Sailors Plan to Use Rigid Carbon-Fiber Airfoil on U.S. Entry: Scientific American: "The Fixed-Wing Is In:
The U.S. team for the America's Cup is replacing its boat's mast and cloth mainsail with a hard, fixed wing that is 80 percent larger than a Boeing 747 wing, not to mention difficult and dangerous to maneuver"
Gee, what ever happened to the fat kid hanging out on the trapeze? They still ought to make them power the hydraulics with coffee grinders. Stink boats in the America's cup. What is the world coming to.
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2 comments:
While at Seattle U in the 80's, studying fiber optics, 3-M sent us a 6 foot section of "Light Pipe" to use in a test project. It was a relatively hard thermoplastic and the inside of the pipe had many shallow , square grooves running parallel to each other the length of the pipe. Light traveled through such a pipe maintaing 30% higher preserved intensity [than a comparison to any other medium.]
Some engineer tested water passing through the pipe and found it too experienced less drag. Eventually, Dennis Conner's winning AC boat was coated with the light pipe material and blew the competition out of the water.
Crushing the competition with new tecnology is a real part of the America's Cup and no part of a boat has escaped radical design experiments. If the fixed wing is a major advantage, all the boats will have it, next race.
But people will no longer put photos of sloops on a crossing tack on their office walls. I had a chance to watch the J boat "demonstration race" in NY harbor in 1989 between the newly "restored" Endeavor and the reconfigured to racing trim Shamrock. Incredible experience.
I don't need any photos the memory is indelible.
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