100km/h Sailboat Sets Speed Record 103
fustakrakich writes with news that a boat powered only by its sails has reached speeds of 100km/h for the first time. The team also claims to have reached 109km/h over a 500m course. The craft took the speed record back from kite surfers, who have somewhat smaller sails but a massive weight advantage over boats.
"Sailrocket 2 set the record last week, and the speed 54.08 knots (100.1 km/h) the craft achieved has been recognized by the World Sailing Speed Record Council as the new mark in Class B for vessels traversing a 500 meter course. The speed is higher than any other vessel recorded in the Council’s lists and is the only recorded speed over 100 km/h."
Gizmag has a more detailed article about Sailrocket 2's exploits, and says in an update that the craft achieved speeds of 121km/h today (65.37 knots).
Dangerous (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting fact — There's an 85% fatality rate [wikipedia.org] for the speed record for any boat. This sport is extremely dangerous.
The sailing speed record is 80% slower than the overall boat record, so the sailing record is a little safer. Nonetheless, one of the SailRocket crashes led to the pilot having a broken helmet [yachtpals.com].
Re:The actual boat (Score:4, Interesting)
>Looks more like a hydroplane than a hydrofoil.
After going to the website itself for the boat, the boat has one large foil 3/4 of the way toward the stern and the bow has a pod with a rudder. The pod on the stern is there only for low speed flotation as it is clearly completely out of the water at full speed in the video.
If you look at picture #5, you can see the foil.
http://www.sailrocket.com/node/298 [sailrocket.com]
If you go here: http://www.sailrocket.com/sites/default/files/VSR2-force-alignment.jpg [sailrocket.com]
You can see the foil is bent where a significant portion is parallel to the sail to help counteract the lifting force of the sail and sideways force of the wind itself.
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BMO