May 2012
1 post
A quick update
I’ve been working on and off toward a comparison program for evaluating three high speed sailboat configurations: aeroballast-type like Radboat, “force-aligned” type like Vestas Sailrocket 2, and pod-type like Macquarie Innovation. I hesitate to post the results just yet, as I haven’t torture tested the data nor consulted all the literature.
As always, I continue to follow...
April 2011
1 post
July 2010
2 posts
Performance analysis
On another note I have been working on the performance analysis of the Radboat sail design in an attempt to determine optimum balance and wind conditions for maximum speed. Hopefully have some stuff to post about that soon.
New website
My apologies if anyone has visited the site recently only to find that it has been taken down. My last hosting plan expired before I had a chance to upload all of the old content here at Blogger. It will still take me a couple more days for the domain to fully redirect where it needs to go, if it all works as intended. Update: Seems to all work as planned. Still working to get all the old content...
February 2010
1 post
America’s Cup
For any of you following the lead up to the American’s Cup Deed of Gift (DoG) match race to be held in early February, you’re probably familiar with BMW Oracle’s entry into the match as the Challenger of Record, a boat some are calling DoGzilla. Below is a picture of the boat from yachtpals.com showing a recent modification. They have added streamlined fairings to the structural crossmembers...
January 2010
2 posts
The Amazing Work of Hanno Smits
Just after I posted the multihull link I remembered intending to show you a hydrofoil sailboat prototype incorporating one of the same principles as Radboat, namely something similar to what I call aeroballast. I ran across this link about Hanno Smits on Monday of this week. Oddly enough in all the research I performed leading up to my patent application, I never was able to retrieve any...
Large Multihulls
Not any real news to report, so why not share a great link from Yachtpals that does a great job compiling information about some of the coolest and most advanced multihulls, some of which are described on my Exotic Sailboats page. It even has a great video. Here you go. http://yachtpals.com/monster-multihulls-9004.
October 2009
1 post
Patent Update
At the request of a great friend to whom I owe my sailing knowledge and skill, and who calls me ALL CAPS, I’ve made a PDF version of the patent and shared it here. I plan to follow this up with a bit of condensed and clarified explanation. For those that have read, written, or otherwise worked on patents, you’ll appreciate the condensed explanations.
September 2009
1 post
Speed Sailing Updates
Let’s start out with a “good” YouTube video of a windsurfer on a speed run. Note the lack of annoying music and credits and the short viewing time. Just a great video showing how ridiculously fast these guys can move. In the meantime l’Hydroptère broke both the 500 Meter and Nautical Mile Records, and Banque Populaire V, the largest trimaran in existence, broke the 24 Hour Record. And as of...
August 2009
1 post
Pivot Assembly Prototype
Currently working on the pivot assembly prototype. I decided to use a 1/2 inch PVC “T” fitting for the relative wind pivot, which allows the sail to lean into the wind. I’ll provide better explanation of the pivot assembly in a future post.
April 2009
2 posts
Patent Published
The patent for aeroballast has been published here. I’m currently working on the scale prototype for testing. Hope to have pictures soon.
Apparent Wind Angle & Congratulations Greenbird
In their latest News posting for April 1, 2009, the Wotrocket team point out that they’ve installed a “new Nexus instrument package…including a wind wand on the leading edge of the wing sail that gathers data which allows the co-pilot to trim to the apparent wind angle.” It’s worth mentioning here because trimming to apparent wind angle is vitally important to high speed sailing. It’s the one...
March 2009
2 posts
Patent Allowed
It has yet to be formally issued, but the patent for aeroballast has been allowed. Here’s a snapshot of page 1 of the Notice of Allowance from the USPTO:
Design Approach
In the post entitled ”Beyond 50“, Bob Imhoff shares his insight about “barriers” to high speed sailing. I’d like to discuss one of these barriers myself, drag. In aeronautical engineering drag is a funny beast. The slightest bump, seam, or protuberance can cause seemingly disporoportionate amounts of associated drag. The goal, therefore, lies in designing and manufacturing aircraft that are mostly...
February 2009
2 posts
Patent Application
Click here to view a PDF version of the patent application. I’d forgotten how hard it is to navigate the USPTO website and hope this helps for those of you interested in taking a look at the concept.
Status
The patent application, filed in April 2007 and published in October 2008 in its original form here, is pending a final response from the USPTO, which should be received in the coming weeks.
October 2008
1 post
Welcome to our new WordPress website
The Radboat Team welcome you to our new WordPress website!
June 2008
1 post
Hello, no updates
No updates for you unfortunately. Schedule is looking good, however, to put in the time to start building the first molds in the coming weeks. Should be fun!
May 2008
1 post
New name and updated website
As you can see we’ve decided on a name, RAD-boat. Let us know what you think. We’ve also updated the website to include more multimedia and some info about other high speed sailboats on the Images page. More details about our design will follow soon. We’re even in the process of submitting proposals to the US Navy for some composite materials research opportunities. Perhaps I...
April 2008
1 post
Where does it go?
Busy working out a detailed prototype design…sounds like an oxymoron. Here’s a video of the workbench assembly…nothing special and just provided a means to experiment with the new video capture software we recently acquired. All the tools and supplies are here and we are ready to start building. The only thing holding us back is…well…time. Where does it go? On another...
March 2008
1 post
Shop is set up!
It is all here…the shop equipment that is! It’s been a long time coming…over a year now since we’ve started the project and the day has finally come to start doing the real work. We’ve got all the molding materials and have the shop set up to start building things. The real reason for writing is my visit to ProSoap today. They have great pride in their soap and...
February 2008
1 post
Almost ready to build
We are still in the process of getting the shop set up and revamping the website. It will look a little different once its finished. I will post some pictures of the shop and the new design once the new website is ready to go.
January 2008
1 post
New Year and New Records!
Still working on the shop set-up…organizing the workspaces and waiting on the delivery of our bandsaw. It will be the end of the month at least before the bandsaw gets here. In the meantime it’s been exciting to the follow the progress of the IDEC trimaran and Francis Joyon on his solo round-the-world sailing speed record attempt. He’s due to finish this weekend...
December 2007
2 posts
Ready to build!!!
Most of our composite supplies and hardware tools have arrived. We will start the build after we get things set up.
Congratulations to Sailrocket!!!
Congratulations to Paul Larsen and the team of SAILROCKET for reaching a peak speed of 42.4 knots recently down in Walvis Bay, Namibia. I wish you the best and look forward to reading more good news. Here’s a pic of SAILROCKET from their website.
November 2007
1 post
Refining the design
We have been acquiring materials and some new power tools for the prototype build and should soon have the shop up and running. We have been refining the design beyond the initial conceptual models shown on this website. In the meantime we will continue to develop the complex theoretical models of the sailboat’s behavior in order to accurately characterize and predict its behavior (including...
October 2007
1 post
Budget and supplies (i.e. THE PLAN)
We’ve recently completed our modeling and simulation contract with the US Air Force with tremendous success. It’ll give us time to pursue the sailboat project…among many other cool things. The shop is slowly but surely coming together. As mentioned before we have the drill press and the sander. Now we need some wood, glue, fasteners, etc. - not to mention a band saw - to start...
September 2007
1 post
New shop equipment
We’ve recently obtained a small drill press and oscillating spindle sander for our new shop, which is located right next to White Rock Lake in Dallas, TX (see below). View Larger Map