Pretty amazing sailboat breaks incredible record.

I don't know how many of you on here are into sailing, but this is worth the read, even if you've never sailed before in your life.

Here's the article:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/01/ff-paul-larsen-sailrocket/

So in a nutshell it's been long believed that a sailboat couldn't exceed a speed of 50 knots on the water due to a phenomenon called cavitation where the keel reaches a speed at which the water literally vaporizes around it. The trailing bubbles behind the keel generate enough drag to prevent the boat from accelating past this speed. However very few sailboats even get close to this speed in the first place... Anyway... Paul Larsen the designer and pilot of this boat radically redesigned the hull, keel, sail....everything essentially to break past this hydrodynamic "sound barrier".

Check out the article, and the videos. It's really cool!

Here's a picture of the boat to piqué your interest

 

Here's a video of the thing. Most motor boats have trouble getting to the speed this thing can reach

http://youtu.be/sZVIj5TUSKE

 

That's fucking crazy

 

holy crap! He just took a traditional sail boat design...and said fuck you and built this thing! I wonder how he figured the advantage of having the "boat" that wide with the sail offset so much. Also how is the sail trimmed and tuned? All mechanics and motors and computer control?

 

Damn... that's really fast on a sail boat

 

Yeah, what's left of a traditional sailboat is pretty much all gone lol... It's all monitored by a computer because where he sits he can't see the sail, which is actually just a wing with control surfaces just like on an airplane. He offset the sail on the opposite side of the keel so the boat won't tip at all and it stays completely flat at speed. His first boat crashed so he redesigned the second one, here's a clip of that.

http://youtu.be/8Ow8QbXhZJU

Now that he's broken this speed barrier of 50 knots the possibility of better designed and faster boats reaching speeds over 100 knots is not too far off. Records are made to be broken after all!

His fastest run was 65.45 knots or 75.3 mph or 121.2 kph. I can't wait to see what his team and he does next.

 

Is this boat designed to travel in one direction? i.e. if the wind blows the other way, would the boat tip over?

 

That's impressive!

 

Holy crap that's fast!

 

Pretty much, they tow the boat way up wind with a zodiac and then let it rip. It could sail with the sail downwind, but not as fast, and if it gusts I believe the float supporting the boom would be pushed underwater. So it can really only practically sail on a port reach. But for a first step towards hyper sailboats I think he did alright haha

 

fucking. sick. That boat was hauling ass!

 

That looks like one hell of a ride! That's awesome.