The ever-popular song 'My Dream is to Fly...' could just get its variation if the singer got to know about 'the Hydroptere' or 'L'Hydroptere' as it is known in French.
This could probably be the most innovative step in the world of sailing, considering that this sail-boat of sorts does faster speeds than well-powered speed-boats and at the same time...has its roots to nautical discoveries more than a century old!
L'HYDROPTERE - FLY-BOATING
From the Greek hydros (water) and ptère (wing), l’Hydroptère is a trimaran with foils. These underwater wings extract the boat’s hulls from the water when a certain speed is reached, which considerably reduces the ship’s hydrodynamic drag.
And by now all you regular readers of GiiraYachts.com would be knowing what 'less drag' leads to...higher speeds!...and we all love SPEED...dont we!?
HOW DOES IT FLY ?
Aware of the Archimedes Principle!?
Simply put, a vessel is pushed upwards with the same force as it pushes downwards with its own weight.
With the foils on the L'Hydroptere, the hull is raised and hence the trimaran 'frees' itself from the Archimedes Principle.
The foils then remain the only parts in contact with the water, which makes it possible to considerably lessen the drag and to have a potential for speed far above that of classical Archimedian boats.
The functioning of the foils is simple and based on the principle of dynamic lift, allowing the wings of a plane to make it take off.
The greater the speed of projection of the foil, the more the lift increases.
After a certain speed, the lift generated by the foils becomes superior to the weight of the boat and it causes the boat to be lifted out of the water.
V AUTOSTABLE FOILS
The foils used on the L'Hydroptere are designed to limit the lift in order to maintain stability.
The geometry of the foils used on l’Hydroptère is conceived so as to limit the increase of this lift, so that the boat stops rising and is stabilized a few meters over the surface of the water.
This very simple concept allows for an easy application, but the stress exerted is such that is was necessary to wait for the advent of high-tech materials such as carbon and titanium in order to be able to make a large-sized boat fly over the waves.
THE PROJECT'S STORY
Equally interesting to the concept is the story itself!
The original idea of l’Hydroptère was born in 1975, but the dream only started to materialise in 1994.
On 1st October, Alain Thébault and his crew make the prototype fly for the first time.
From this milestone, passion and daring have continued to power the project and have made l’Hydroptère today a technological jewel, and the holder of two world speed records.
From the first prototype launched in 1994 until today, l’Hydroptère’s teams, driven by their passion, have known how to benefit from technological innovations to build, improve and make a pioneer sailing boat fly, combining glide and perfection.
The story of this carbon bird is more than just an adventure that has gathered together skippers, engineers and technicians from the leading companies in the aviation and naval industries.
An extraordinary sport and human adventure linking sky and sea.
RECORDS
l’Hydroptère wins two world speed records, officially ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council:-
1) 500 meter speed record in Category D at an average of 44.81 knots
2) 1 nautical mile speed record, all categories, at an average of 41.69 knots
Click here for one of the most interesting and intricate websites on sailing ever...and a tribute to a winning concept and super-spirited team.
Jul 18, 2008
L'Hydroptere (Water-Wings) - Flying on Water !
Posted by
Paul Hyde
at
10:59 PM
Labels: archimedes principle, L'Hydroptere, multi hull
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