BLUEMOMENT

Nick wrote:

What is a wig?

Wing in ground effect - essentially an aircraft that only flies in ground effect



see the WIG page

Is that the same as an Ekranoplan?
Invented by those pesky Russians

To come back to the original three year old question: Is it the way forward? Will racing yachts eventually end up like multihulled foiling moths with computers and hydraulics controlling the foils to keep the hulls 10 or 20 feet out of the water?

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0o_pc7UYaA[/youtube]

No is the simple answer.

The jump to go from displacement to semi displacement/planing is so big in power to weight ratio that very few boats are significantly faster than those of 25 years ago (extreme race boats aside: TP52's, Open 60's, Volvo 70's, Melges 32's etc). We are still governed by the hydrodynamic laws that make moving through the water at more than 1.4 x √(waterline length) very difficult.
What has changed is that more hull shapes allow surfing/semidisplacement sailing and that asymmetric sails/bowsprits can provide more power in an easier to control way. After you've added a fridge & compressor, heating system, pressurised hot & cold water, decent sized engine, decent sized water & fuel tanks, anchor & 50m chain, dinghy & outboard, battery bank, pilot books, charts, wine, decent crockery & glasses ... you're back to displacement sailing!

Still a few of the foil ferries operating in the Greek Islands - Soviet technology again. I suspect that operating costs are subsidised - out of my taxes in the end. Meanwhile what did the Americans have as an engineering icon.....the Harley Davidson.

Gardenshed wrote:No is the simple answer.

The jump to go from displacement to semi displacement/planing is so big in power to weight ratio that very few boats are significantly faster than those of 25 years ago (extreme race boats aside: TP52's, Open 60's, Volvo 70's, Melges 32's etc). We are still governed by the hydrodynamic laws that make moving through the water at more than 1.4 x √(waterline length) very difficult.
What has changed is that more hull shapes allow surfing/semidisplacement sailing and that asymmetric sails/bowsprits can provide more power in an easier to control way. After you've added a fridge & compressor, heating system, pressurised hot & cold water, decent sized engine, decent sized water & fuel tanks, anchor & 50m chain, dinghy & outboard, battery bank, pilot books, charts, wine, decent crockery & glasses ... you're back to displacement sailing!

Maybe I wasn't specific enough with my definition of racing yacht but I was really referring to stripped-out record breakers like IDEC rather than a chentleman's racer with all mod cons like Calissa (have I remembered aright?) frinstance.

I've no real doubt that with enough development money and time and computing power something like IDEC (7 tonnes IIRC) could rise up above the waves and be blazingly fast but I'm less sure if it would work in really huge seas as in a proper blow in the Southern Ocean.

I sound as if I know what I'm blethering on about but you all know me better than that I hope.

We had Carousel planing and she has a bog and cooker. It don't have to be a windsurfer to go quick.

Having said that, half a knot above hull speed in a Centaur gives me a big silly grin.

Zipping along in double figures for more than a very short while would be a bit more excitement than I would want.