R/c Offshore Concept Boat

skania won but it failed to equal the record set by (a volvo 60?, fixed keel?)nokia(den) in '99 01:19:48:02

Ed, because of the Cruisng Club of Australia(I think) rule the canting keels on the big boats were VERY limited in their function not being allowed to heel the boat more than 10 degrees in a static test.
Perhaps, as barriers to high performance come down in more and more venues, that rule will fade away also-and the record will be smashed by a full tilt canting keel boat…
On a model"ocean racer" no such limit is in place ,at least in Matt’s proposed new class…

Doug Lord
–High Technology Sailing/Racing

Doug,
Skandia only supposively 10 degrees of cant not because of the rules, but becuase of the hadicapping, the CYCA has layed down the upper limit for the hadicap as 1.61, but hopefully this will be lifted in 2006 when the 3 year limit ends… also, if the 2003 Sydney to Hobart had the same winds as when the record fell to the VOR 60, I’m sure it would have fallen by a lot, but to Grant Wharrington, the yachts owner, all he wanted to do was win line honours & if they beat the record that was just a added bonus.
Rob.

I think for the class Matthew proposes two types would tend to be the fastest. One would be a CBTF model similar to a scaled down Pyewackett except maybe narrower and definitely with a deeper keel. In addition the boat would use a flap on the canting keel strut to generate more RM in stronger conditions which is “free” because it adds zero weight and a small amount of drag for a big gain in power to carry sail.
Two, would be a similar boat but not using CBTF and having a retractable main hydrofoil and a rudder T-foil. This boat could uses a version of the flap idea but just at the bottom of the strut.
High potential speeds with both boats with the CBTF boat easier to engineer…

Doug Lord
–High Technology Sailing/Racing

I agree with you on that those would be the fastest kind of boats, but my concern still would be how much of a penalty a design like that would have to pay to go the distance. Its gonna take alot of batteries to keep a boat like that going for up to six hours, which is a big weight penalty for starters. I’m also unsure on how a very narrow boat would handle big waves, but, we’ll see sometime…

Luff 'em & leave 'em.

Matt, I think you have a good point: we’ll have to give serious thought to some kind of generation capability and compare that to the battery weight(lithium would be light) and using solar cells.
As a related aside-and I hate to break this because it will give some technophobes information they will misuse BUT: it recently came to my attention that Pyewackett and Morning Glory have to run their
160hp diesel in order to tack! At least to tack from a full cant positon-which is equivalent to lifting a fully laden 747 off the ground.
So since you’re the Chief Rulemaker can we use mini-diesel engines???

Doug Lord
–High Technology Sailing/Racing

Do what you like, theres no solid rules so far…
A generator sounds like an okay idea, but complicated to the nth degree, really I prefer the idea of keeping the power usage down somehow.

Luff 'em & leave 'em.

Just kidding(for now ) about the generator- just guessng but a 4000MAH Lithium ion battery would probably weigh less than 8 oz and would give a lot of time especially since this is an ocean racer and you won’t be moving the keel a lot or setting the spinnaker alot(you’ll keep it up;hoisting and dousing uses many times more current than just a steady state set) so there will be very, very little current drain.

Doug Lord
–High Technology Sailing/Racing