Gary, could you please post the link in the tinyurl link? For whatever reason, I can't get tinyurls.

I was in Auckland just after Conner lost the Cup to the Kiwis. I was walking around the port area and saw both Black Magic and the humungous challenger on the hard. The failed challenge boat made Black Magic look like a Sabot.

They were both close to the YC where the Cup was kept. I looked in the front door and it was sitting in a case just inside. That didn't last long because some nutter took a hammer to it.

When I was looking for the pic I read something about it being in Key West availible for charter. I didn't pay attention to date so that may have been a while ago. That would be the soft sail version.

other forum thread about mast head floats

Shame it was not the same shape or even anything like the boat that was challenged in.

It did turn the AC in to what it is now, so I suppose it was progress. [/quote]

Fay (I think that was his name) got what he deserved.

1. Perhaps a mast-top winglet system would actually work in wave-piercing cats like A-class cats: Since pitching is not helpful to this concept, the wave-piercers seem to do it less.
2. Has anyone actually tried measuring pitching in wave piercers vs lets say- Marstrom conventional hull shapes?
This could be done from a digital video tape or a CD: at 1 second intervals, measure angle of mast rake for each boat. They should be sailing parallel to another to weather in appreciable waves for several minutes.
Put data on Excel sheet, (or by some magic maths which I do not possess)---determine which pitches less, and how much less!

SS soft sail and wing together

SnS soft sail

SnS wing sail as it sits today...... I downloaded these pics from an advertisement advertising it for sail..... Cannot remeber the site now.

Boat was used for chartered crusies and the boat is very run down..... The wing is riddled with spiders on the inside.

2nd

3rd

can't imagine that its too good for the boat to sit there with the hard wing up.

Imagine if a squall came down through there from the wrong direction... ouch!

Winglets are vertical extensions of wingtips that improve an aircraft's fuel efficiency and cruising range. Designed as small airfoils, winglets reduce the aerodynamic drag associated with vortices that develop at the wingtips as the airplane moves through the air. By reducing wingtip drag, fuel consumption goes down and range is extended.

Aircraft of all types and sizes are flying with winglets -- from single-seat hang gliders and ultralights to global jumbo jets. Some aircraft are designed and manufactured with sleek upturned winglets that blend smoothly into the outer wing sections. Add-on winglets are also custom made for many types of aircraft.

Since the 1970s, when the price of aviation fuel began spiraling upward, airlines and aircraft manufacturers have looked at many ways to improve the operating efficiency of their aircraft. Winglets have become one of the industry's most visible fuel-saving technologies and their use continues to expand.
Winglets increase an aircraft's operating efficiency by reducing what is called induced drag at the tips of the wings. An aircraft's wing is shaped to generate negative pressure on the upper surface and positive pressure on the lower surface as the aircraft moves forward. This unequal pressure creates lift across the upper surface and the aircraft is able to leave the ground and fly.
Unequal pressure, however, also causes air at each wingtip to flow outward along the lower surface, around the tip, and inboard along the upper surface producing a whirlwind of air called a wingtip vortex. The effect of these vortices is increased drag and reduced lift that results in less flight efficiency and higher fuel costs.

Winglets, which are airfoils operating just like a sailboat tacking upwind, produce a forward thrust inside the circulation field of the vortices and reduce their strength. Weaker vortices mean less drag at the wingtips and lift is restored. Improved wing efficiency translates to more payload, reduced fuel consumption, and a longer cruising range that can allow an air carrier to expand routes and destinations.

To produce as much forward thrust as possible, the winglet's airfoil is designed with the same attention as the airfoil of the wings themselves. Performance improvements generated by winglets, however, depend on factors such as the basic design of the aircraft, engine efficiency, and even the weather in which an aircraft is operating.

The shapes and sizes of winglets, and the angles at which they are mounted with respect to the main wings, differ between the many types and sizes of aircraft produced but they all represent improved efficiency. Throughout the aviation industry, winglets are responsible for increased mileage rates of as much as 7%.
Aircraft manufacturers and makers of add-on winglets have also reported improved cruising speeds, time-to-climb rates, and higher operating altitudes.
The use of winglets throughout the aviation industry in the U.S. and overseas is constantly growing. Winglets now appear on powerless hang gliders soaring above mountain ridges and from seaside cliffs. Sailplane builders around the world have included blended winglets to their designs and the sleek, graceful gliders are silently soaring farther than ever Corporate-size Learjet's were the first commercial aircraft to use winglets. Now, several decades later, winglets are incorporated into the designs of many other business jets such as Gulfstreams and the Global Express: a new aircraft built by Lear's parent company, Bombardier.

Retrofitting winglets to existing business jets is also a fast-growing market within the aviation industry itself. Many winglet marketing firms report their products help increase aircraft roll rates and lower approach and takeoff speeds.

Winglets are now quite common on large jetliners and many tower as high as six feet. The first big jetliner to carry the innovation into the air was the MD-11, originally designed and built by McDonnell-Douglas and now part of the Boeing aerospace family. Other Boeing aircraft flying with winglets are the 747-400F, the version currently being built, Boeing BBJ business jets which are custom-built 737s, and the C-17 military transport. Boeing is also offering winglet options on new advanced models of the 737 series of passenger jets.

Most prominent foreign carrier of winglets are the many models of the 300 series of jetliners designed and built by Airbus Industries. The future A380 Airbus, a huge intercontinental double-deck jetliner now under development, will also utilize winglet technology.

The first homebuilts with winglets on the general aviation market were the Vari-Eze and Long-Eze models designed by Burt Rutan, a pioneer in aircraft design innovations. Now, the majority of homebuilt aircraft coming out of shops, garages, and hangars around the world display winglets of varying shapes and sizes.

I had an e-mail discussion a while back with Dave Ellis. I had asked him his opinion about the possibility of masthead floats being designed so they actually give lift, and the possibilities of having fixed or articulating masthead winglets (which he refers to as end plates). Here is one of his responses, and I found it very interesting:

Thank you very much for all the info. Great stuff. I like the idea of using something more 'aerodynamic' than the traditional hobie bob 'football' at the masthead.

Michael

Not only for airplanes. Big butt Fans has added wing tip vortex's to the large overhead fans used in industry to cool factories. These fans operate at lower speeds, generate more air flow. Apparently the engineers have tested with software, wind tunnels, and independent testing.

www.BigAssFans.com

I have used endplates on my RC boat they seem to greatly improve the sail's power, even if the head is twisting off a bit. I even made up a big carbon one (650mm) for my taipan but have never got a chance to rig it up yet.

Picture please?

The concept of an automatic inflation chicken float attached to a square top main and shaped as a winglet has been discussed a couple of years ago in this forum.

The idea was to improve safety and the challenge remains the same: how to maintain or improve performance through the winglet shape, given the losses due to more weight in a bad place (high).

If my memory doesn't fail, the chosen inflation system was a paintball gas cartridge and the winglet-float would be attached to the sail instead of the mast to facilitate maintenance.

Luiz

This is why the genoas on racing mono hulls are so annoyingly low. The deck acts like a winglet to separate the pressures until the trailing edge.

Matt