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I'll take a stab- down in RI a couple of guys rigged a camera/frame
grabber board/PC and digitized the draft stripes, basically. You could
get suggestions of draft placement, car position, vang etc. This story
is almost 10 years old, and cameras have gotten *lots* cheaper, so by
now you probably need to add strain gauges, accelerometers,
inclinometers and such to the equation.
Maybe a (big) sail loft can fill in some blanks?
Keep us updated- maybe I can work and sail yet!
Scott
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| In Freemantle, New Zealand used tv cameras and VAXen along with very
large, black draft stripes on their sails. The cameras were mounted on
the mast. Matador2 uses PC's. Their cameras are mounted in the deck.
It is good for documenting sail shapes that are "fast" and then being
able to reproduce them. Many of the IACC programs are using this
technology now, primarily for the mains, since the size and complexity
of the tuning job is so huge. Neither North or Doyle have "embraced"
this technology from a sail design point of view. All the
implementations have been proprietary, and usually quite confidential.
(E.G., I wouldn't suggest calling Koch and asking him how it works or
about his results.) Although if you know some of the folks at MIT (I
don't) they may be willing to share some info.
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Funny thing is, when I was trying to tune to my new North genny
2 seasons back, the North rep was on his back, on the foredeck, with
a Polaroid, taking pictures of my draftstripes! He said they'd be
marked up, then studied by Judd, then filed....?
And, Ive heard the North Fast course provides you a piece of clear
plastic (sail-scope?) to view your shapes with. Isn't this just the
non-automatic, old generation of the same thing the PC's are doing?
Between target boatspeeds, autohelms and computerized sailshape
advice, I can stay below and debug code on race day...
Just like work, kinda!
Instrument_Inadequate_Scott
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