Some Sailing-Related Articles
Selections from a Set Published in Australian Amateur Boatbuilder magazine
Joshau Slocum's solo circumnavigation of the world at the end of the
19th century still rates as one of history's great navigation feats.
In his book, "Sailing Alone Around the World", he sang the praises of
his yacht, the Spray. But was it as good a performer as he claimed, or
was he simply expressing gratitude to a robust design which had served
him well?
Rudimentary drag theory suggests that high-speed waterskiing should not
be possible. But it is, of course, and this leads to some interesting
thoughts on getting the most out of a planing hull.
When I took Hullform from its initial "amateur" format
to the first professional version, one of the first items on the
list of additions was a capacity to estimate the drag of a designed
hull. The program had to be able to represent drag which originated
from skin friction, from the forcing apart of the volume of water
through which the hull moved (form, or profile, drag), and from the
generation of waves on the water surface. Of these, the one which
gave the schemes I used most problems was wave drag.