Subject: Re: : Re: : Re: [harryproa] Rob's cheap wing sails
From: "Rick Willoughby rickwill@bigpond.net.au [harryproa]" <harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au>
Date: 6/13/2018, 1:33 AM
To: "harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au" <harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au>
Reply-to:
harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au

 

The fact that the wing masts provided lift was not the surprise.  What surprised them was that they would not feather naturally if left free and I can assure you the bearings on Ozone were as frictionless as the best roller bearings could achieve.


The problem with any new idea is that it can take years of development to get something to work as intended.  I have provided a single observation why a rigid wing sail is not commonly used on sailing boats and why boats are different to aeroplanes.  There are likely 10 more good reasons that the developers of these wings are trying to sort through.

You have dismissed the fact that a soft sail can be reduced to zero area leaving only the windage of the mast and standing rigging while a rigid wing has to stay upright in the strongest gale.  The wing could have huge variations in wind velocity over its span creating unintended bending stresses.  The forces could be an order of magnitude above what is required to carry a soft sail at the limit of the rig design.  

There is also a good deal of misunderstanding about the differences between a wing and soft sail.  Most of what is stated on this link is tripe:
https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/sailing-the-sea-with-composite-wings

The current developments in performance boats like A-class cats and the high performance cat on the linked video demonstrate the ability to get high aspect sails to hold their shape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To2yjKkozZM

This video gives a good idea how well sails can perform.  It also gives an indication of the time it takes to get from concept to something that performs near expectations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP_9rFbvY_Q
Few people have the luxury to dedicate their life to a single idea.

On 13 Jun 2018, at 2:35 pm, '.' eruttan@yahoo.com [harryproa] <harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:

What I find odd is that people seemed surprised that wing masts make lift when naked. It is a wing, right? And it does crap like this if you in wind velocity over its don’t pay attention.

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Posted by: Rick Willoughby <rickwill@bigpond.net.au>
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