Britain's America's Cup challenge

[JumbleDuck]

The team so far are:-
Jono Macbeth (NZL) – Sailing Team Manager and Sailor
Dirk Kramers (NED/USA) – Design and Engineering
Clay Oliver (USA) – Design and Performance Simulation
Rodrigo Azcueta (ARG) – Design and Computational Fluid Dynamics
Luc du Bois (SUI) – Instrumentation and Performance Analysis
Francisco Azevedo (POR) – 3D Modelling
Matteo Ledri (ITA) – Computational Fluid Dynamics
Johannes Mausolf (GER) – Performance Prediction and Software Development
Benjamin Muyl (FRA) – Design and Naval Architecture
Benjamin Vernieres (FRA) – 3D Modelling
Andy McLean (NZL)– Sailing and Design Team Liaison

Go Britain. Whoop whoop whoop.

 

[Seajet]

AndrewfromFal,

yes I remember there was a brief try with racing boats releasing ' slippery ' chemicals which was soon trod upon for good reason, I doubt the conservationists would be very impressed !

The sharkskin finish was a different ball game though, and I'd love to know if it worked as well as I think it should.

 

[AndrewfromFal]

AndrewfromFal,

yes I remember there was a brief try with racing boats releasing ' slippery ' chemicals which was soon trod upon for good reason, I doubt the conservationists would be very impressed !

The sharkskin finish was a different ball game though, and I'd love to know if it worked as well as I think it should.

It wasn't something that Conner elaborated on in his book about the 87 cup (which seemed to be more about settling scores and talking about how much better he was than all the other skippers, with the possible exception of Harold Cudmore); and AFAIK John Marshall never elaborated on it.

S&S '87 has, to my knowledge, never raced in a competitive regatta since then (last I heard she was being used as a tourist day tripper boat in the Caribbean), so it's hard to quantify the difference it made. - Agreed it would be good to know; and if it did improve performance, it would be interesting to see if it could have a more widespread application for cruising boats these days....given the relative cheapness of vinyl wrapping, I wonder if the two could be combined into a marketable product?

 

[Seajet]

That's just what I was thinking, having been involved on the periphery of aerodynamics with boundary layer drag etc. I have to say I'd put money on the sharkskin riblet finish having a positive effect, and if that's the case it ought to be a speed / fuel saving feature on anything from tankers to warships, though I can imagine difficulties when it comes to antifouling.

Maybe vinyl wraps of the stuff pre-coated or even impregnated with antifoul ???