Conference unifix::sailing

    See Note 636.261 and 636.274 for comparisons of Aikane X-5 and the
    Stars and Stripes cat.  Some interesting results from the Newport to
    Ensenada race a couple of months back.
    
    Apparently Stars & Stripes is a LOT faster.
    
    ... Bob
    

    "Apparently Stars & Stripes is a LOT faster."
    
    yea, sure, until the wind exceeds 10 knots, then what happens?
    i'll tell you, her tender(which by the way has never left her side)
    tows her to protection.  Newport to Ensenada is about as light-weight
    of a race as they come.  Let's see Stars & Stripes hold her own
    out in the trades.  She's a joke, we'll keep the kids in the shallow
    end of the pool.
    
    Stinelager 1 & 3 in the South Pacific, Jet Services on the East
    Coast, Great American from Newport Beach, Double Bullet II due for
    completion early next year.  all examples of REAL boats, all worthy
    of REAL weather conditions, all qualified to be the REAL fastest sail
    in the world.
    					John Papa

    Thank you.  You have given me a brief moment of pleasant nostalgia.
    When I began to see the possibilities of multihulls, or when my
    father observed or heard a conversation such as the above, he (a
    dyed-in-the-wool mono-hull sailer) would get this twinkle in his
    eye and with a subtle grin, would sidle up to the multi-hull enthu-
    siast(s) and innocently ask,
    
    "By the way, what ever happened to Arthur Piver ?"
    
    It never failed to make his day.
            

    Aikane is back.  This makes the third time equipment failures
    have caused her to return from an offical start.  All three breakdowns
    are related to a new $23,000 North mainsail.  This main features
    an additional eight feet of roach.  The first failure, three weeks
    ago, happened when three Harken cars attached to the head ripped
    from the main track.  Harken used cylinder shaped, plastic bearings
    which blew under load.  The head of the main also suffered a tear
    during the failure.  The second failure, two weeks ago, happened
    when the track to which the three head cars are attached ripped
    from the mast.  We dropped the mast and backplated the track at
    the three head reef points.  Then failure three, two days ago, happened
    when the load was transfered to the weather shroud.  The chainplate
    moved approx 1/4 inch, which caused a very nice stress fracture along
    the top of the hull.
    
    Before the failure, Aikane X-5 had an average speed of 20 kts,
    providing Rudy Choy Designs with their first 400+ mile day under
    sail.
    				awsome...
    					John Papa
    

re .4:

What is really awesome is the fragility and cost of these machines. You 
can't win or set a record if you sink or don't finish. If you want to 
cross an ocean really quickly and safely, the only way to go is Boeing.

    RE .5
    
    It's not that the machines are fragile, exactly.  Just that the rig is
    so big the forces in a good blow are awesome.  You say you can't win or
    set a record if you sink or don't finish.  But it's a fact that you
    can't win or set records by overbuilding everything either.  As Dave J. 
    put it, "fat is slow".  Records are set by constantly pushing the limits 
    of crew and hardware.  You only find those limits by occasionally 
    exceeding them.  When that happens either something breaks or somebody
    gets hurt, or both.  That's part of yacht racing, especially at the
    level of this particular machine.
    
    ... Bob
    

    This time I agree with Alan.  A lot of auto races are won by the
    guy who doesn't break down.  Ever notice how many of the pole sitters
    with the fastest one lap qualifying times never finish the whole
    race?  The forces that are blowing up this cat mean that there is
    too much resistance in pushing the thing and the forces are building
    up instead of moving the boat.  Too much sail or poor hull design.
    Probably the former.  The true art is building these things just
    strong enough to hold together.  Looks like this cat needs some work.   
    
    I'd take the Boeing.
    
    Dave

    re .5:
    
    My research shows cost between "these machines" and 70 raters the
    same.  One half to three quarter million  to buy, and a quarter
    million to race each year.  These are race boats.
    
    In my opinion, the design and construction methods used can 
    reduce the operational risk of any "machine".  Experience is the
    key to know when to stop, or how far to exploit an idea.  Rudy Choy
    has fourty years into designing ocean going multihulls, some are
    for charters, some are to break records.  Aikane X-5 is a race 
    experiment, she is three years old and has seen more changes than 
    modern music.  The whole point of Aikane is to push the upper reaches 
    of the sailing envelope, she's a race machine...
    	
    besides, I don't like to fly, but I love to sail.
    	
    					John Papa

    RE .7
    
    >> The true art is building these things just strong enough to hold
    >> together ...
    
    My point exactly.  And how do you find out what "just strong enough" 
    is except by exceeding it occasionally?
    
    If the boat was averaging 20 kts. when the failure occurred, then it
    had to be blowing pretty good out there.  Maybe they were carrying too
    much sail.  That doesn't indicate that the boat is "fragile" or that
    there's anything wrong with the design.  Only that the crew hasn't
    figured out the boats limits yet.  So what, big deal.  Happens at the
    club level all the time (as in dismastings, parted halyards, broken
    shackles and blocks, torn sails, etc.).  Those kinds of failures don't
    indicate a damn thing about the boat design, because they happen to
    just about everybody at one time or another, particularly in heavy
    weather.  And this cat is an experimental design to begin with.  I can
    imagine that these kind of failures are factored into the race plan for
    a machine which has record breaking goals.
    
    It seems to me that no matter what you're attempting to do, if you're
    trying to break a world record you have to figure on a few unsuccessful
    attempts along the way.  You're too close to the hairy edge of failure
    not to occasionally cross the line.
    
    ... Bob
    

RE: multihull construction (and implied weakness therein),

Monohulls are generally limited in speed by their wave-making, or form 
resistance.  Multihulls are generally limited by their wetted surface and 
the efficiency of their rig.  That's one of the clear reasons multihulls 
more often find themselves up in the range of *serious* forces where 
things tend to find a weakest point, fast and suddenly.

I sail on a Condor 40, a semi-high-tech trimaran -- modest racer or 
high-speed cruiser, depending on your outlook.  The standing and running 
rigging is sized for a monohull in the 50'-55' range, just so that owners 
don't have to worry too much about gear failures.  Sure it's heavy, 
especially on a boat designed to tip the scales at around 6000 lbs loaded, 
but it's also confidence-building as you slam over, into and through large 
ocean waves at 20 kts plus.  There's a lot of carbon fiber and attention 
to construction detail for the same reason.

RE:  fastest [ocean-going] multihulls,

Of course it's not entirely simple.  Rudy Choy builds from a tradition of 
Hawaiian cats, and they are definitely fast.  Equalizing for all other 
factors (which can't really be done, I'll grant you), cats are faster 
since they have less wetted surface.  However, tris are closer-winded, 
which is why so many Formula 40's are still tris, since they race 
windward-leeward and triangles.  So flat-water speed trials don't see tris 
anymore; ocean races in various winds often favor more weatherly tris.

Also, to risk confusing things, tris tend to be slightly heavier for a
given sail area, due to three hulls and connecting hardware.  However,
to-the-limit cats have a worse failure record, since the mechanics of
stepping a mast on a bridge over thin air and water are orders of
magnitude more tricky than putting the stick in a hull right near the
daggerboard. 

You pays yer money; you takes yer choice.  But no question: They *are* fun!

J.

re:.10 
    
    trimarans are more efficent to weather due to their greater stability,
    and catamarans are faster off the weather due to their reduced wetted
    surface area and higher power to weight ratio.  This brings to
    light some of my design ideas, which I have bounced off Rudy with
    favorable feedback.  My goal was to merge these two qualities. 
    Picture a trimaran with three equal sized hulls, so that it appears
    as if two catamarans are sharing a central hull.  The two outer
    hulls would be lifted so that the waterline is distributed in the
    following manner: %24 %52 %24.  Additionally, the two outer hulls
    would have a 5 degree tilt outboard.  This configuration under load
    would raise the weather hull out of the water (reduced wetted surface
    area) and drive the lee hull into a position 90 degrees to the water's
    surface.  Three equal sized hulls would allow the lee hull to support
    the entire boat, while tacking would axis only on the center hull.
                                                             
    Project distribution would be as follows:
    Sails, wing mast, and boom would be put in the hands of Randy Smyth.
    Hull design and construction would be pieced to Rudy Choy Designs.
    Deck configuration would come from Warren and Roy Seaman.
                                             
    					John Papa

    Re:.11
    
    This ties in with the current thinking in Formula 40 Tri's. 
    
    Whilst they don't have equal sized hulls, they are certainly bigger
    now than they used to be. This is so they can fly the weather AND
    CENTRE hulls in moderate winds. There is enough bouyancy in each
    outrigger to support the entire weight of the boat. Some of the
    film from recent F40 regattas show this happening a lot, but it's
    a very fine balancing act, not really practical for long offshore
    trips !
    
    Chris.
     

Ama displacement (fully immersed) is typically quoted as a percentage of 
the boat's weight or displacement floating at rest.  For a Condor 40, it's 
180% (surprised?), and some designers have tried up to 220% or so.  On the 
other end, some of the foilers have 80% or even 60% amas, which doesn't 
give much reserve stability at all.

The other point is that on a less-than-huge multi designed for other than 
flat-out racing, attention must be paid to accommodations.  Cats split it, 
sometimes with a bridgehouse on deck for the larger or uglier ;-) ones.  
Tris keep it in the center hull (vaka), so accommodations significantly
impact ama displacement in the process of designing to a target weight and
size. 

J.

    Left Coast Update: Aikane is ready to sail...
    
    I was part of another Aikane X-5 sea trial last night, and can she
    scream.  Replaced was the entire track that holds the main to the
    wing mast.  The new North main was modified with another head and
    all new cars (one of which broke under load), it is by far the best
    looking circus tent I've had the pleasure of standing under.  The
    broken chain-plate was fixed and improved by spreading the load
    over three bulkheads instead of the previous one.
    
    so we were under way, sails in trim, then boom(sonic boom) 25 knots
    of boat speed, a little more trim, and here comes the weather hull.
    a nice reach after time to weather, jib, and a quick skip home.
    
    ready to go, now will the wind set the stage for a record?
    
    					John Papa

    John,
    	Where does Aikane X-5 tie up and sail out of?  I would like
    to come down and check out the "sonic boom".  When's the next sea
    trial?
    
    Don @LAO X4425

    re:.15
    	Aikane's primary holdup is a private cove owned by the University
    of Hawaii on the island of Hawaii.  On the west coast, she holds
    up on the end ties of the Long Beach marina in Alamitos Bay of Los
    Angeles Harbor (usually near the Marina Shipyard, an interesting
    design feature was keeping the overall beam at 32 ft. so that she
    could be pulled at said shipyard).  Contact can be made through
    Rudy Choy Designs @(808)522-1560 Rudy Choy is the head designer,
    Barry (his son) is in charge of operations.  They are good people.
    
    as for a sea trial, their well on their way back to Diamond Head
    under the time frame of setting a transpac record, I'll keep this
    note posted with the results.  It should be interesting, there's
    a tropical storm offshore and south that should speedup their transit
    to the trades, from there we'll see, it's about a month after the
    trade's most intense period of the year, but the high is again as
    South-West as it was in July, fingers are crossed, good luck Rudy...
    
    					John Papa 

    Double Bullett's transpac record of 7days 7hours 30minutes has fallen!
    
    Aikane X-5, fastest sail in the Pacific, now holds the transpac
    record with a crossing of 6days 22hours 41minutes 12seconds.
    
    whats next?  world domination...		John Papa