Design - Might light be right?

The consensus of opinion seems to be that the top right corner, ie long and heavy, is the favoured part of the current America's Cup Rule (see Fig 1 overleaf ). However, Bruce Farr has previously produced a successful boat (NZL 20) towards the light end of the rule (bottom right hand corner, Fig 1) and, if reports are to be believed, may have produced another 'lighter' design. It might be interesting, therefore, to see what advantages, if any, a long light boat may have over a long heavy boat.

As most of the advantages of a light boat are to do with lift-induced drag, both aerodynamic and hydrodynamic, a closer look at the factors affecting induced drag may be useful (these are contained in the box on pge 49).

Comparing two boats of the same measured length (LM) at the heavy and light ends of the ACC rule...

To read the remainder of this article please go to the December 2002 edition of Seahorse, available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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