Radical Yacht Design

[DanL]

I thought this was impressive.
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/future-yachts-concept-boats/12132-radical-new-sailboat-concept-twin-masted-swing-sail.html

[boater_dave]

Very cool. That would make a very interesting model yacht. Maybe aboout 60" long...
But a split mast has been around for a while. Remember Procyon (http://www.yachttraderonline.com/listing/1991-Windship-Procyon-34263572) ?

Dave

[RodACarr]

Even earlier than Procyon, in the early to mid 1970's, model yachtsmen in the USA experimented with bi-pod masts like Procyon's. Several tests of the concept were carried out in the 36/600 class and written up in the Quarterly Newsletter of the American Model Yachting Association. If anyone is interested in details, contact me off forum and I'll track down the article. It was an interesting design exploration, but I don't recall the proof of concept blowing the hatchcovers off the competition in actual racing.

Rod Carr
AMYA #002

[beneteau3]

Dan, you are a talented engineer - Maybe you could re-rig the Soling this way! Very interesting concept. After reading and thinking about it, the design seems pretty logical and amazingly practical. From a "green" standpoint, it would be nice to see some wind energy to replace some of the current ocean transport propulsion.

[boater_dave]

If I recall, the idea was to seperate the luff of the main from the turbulence of the mast. But you have to get past having the drag of two masts. Toss them all and get a kite.
Of course, the fancy boats may choose twin masts for asthetic considerations, not performance. But still, that's a lot of windage up high.

Dave

[Vince Hoffmann]

Interesting design. But I'm not too sure about the excess weight of the tubines on top of the mast.

[Earl Boebert]

Bipod masts were used in UK model yachts in the 1930s.

Cheers,

Earl

[Yellow Baron]

Wow, just WOW. :cool: The hull is quite a looker to!

Given a big enough yacht, you could land a heli on the aft deck now that the main boom would be out of the way!

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

That really looks great.

Now how to get the shifting booms, the spinnaker set and the moving keel bulb on a model...

:cool:

[thorsail]

Hi
I keep watching that video over and over - when the animation starts the
wind indicator appears , the leeward sail goes forward and the windward sail
goes aft - thats fine - but watch the keel bulb ! it goes to leeward - and it
seems the first heading shown is upwind . Doesn't it seem right that you would want to crank that bulb to windward ?
It seems the bulb drops upwind and on a beam reach , it comes up slightly
on the broad reach , then centers for downwind .

Anyway - if thats how it does work , then for R/C why not let the bulb
just "find it's own center " ie : make that keel structure a semi-circle instead
of that squared off dealie , and let the bulb run free on a track on the under
side of the half round "keel " ? upwind on either tack it would be to leeward
and hopefully downwind it would center itself under the hull amidships.......
As for moving the 2 sails for and aft , maybe a servo ON THE TOP of the
mast structure ? the servo turns and the leeward sail goes forward while the
windward sail goes aft.
As for the downwind/pole out stuff - i haven't a clue .

Allan

[boater_dave]

I saw that too. It may be an illusion, or that the video is just wrong, as the weight better go to windward or the rig will go to leward taking the boat with it.

Dave