[MHml] Time to vote

[roy mills]

Gary Pearce wrote:
> On 08/02/2010, at 4:27 PM, Rob Denney wrote:
>
>   
>> Gary,  What's holding the hulls of Alinghi together is every bit as
>> high tech as the wing.
>>     
>
> Hang on a mo. 
>
> Whats holding Alinghi together looks like a Sopwith Camel.
>
> The BMWO wing looks like some Austrian sailplane
>
> I'm not convinced :-)
>
> Gary
>
>   
 Perhaps you are arguing about different things.  Compare the wingsail 
with the wing mast plus soft sail, Wingsail wins.No argument. Compare 
the trimaran structure with the Alinghi structure and that matter is 
arguable. Sopwith Camel? why not Gloster Gladiator, which was good for 
250 mph before monoplanes moved the required performance to over 300 mph.
    Here we are talking about apparent wind speeds of say 40 knots, 55 
tops.  Then square say 60 mph and 250 mph.. Big drag difference yet 
Biplanes were still the preferred approach. Now the thing that multi 
types are really big on is weight, or reduction of weight, as it is for 
aircraft. So from that point of view the Alinghi approach begins to make 
sense. One can idly wonder about the respective drags of the under 
platform structure of Alinghi versus that of the vaka of USA 17, both 
presented at angles of say 20 degrees to the apparent wind. I don't know 
the answer but I hazard a guess that the Alinghi design team do as they 
considered their options. VPLP probably did not consider those options, 
just how to build on their enormous trimaran experience of seaworthy 
racers. It's horses for courses as they say, I think USA17 has more of 
the options covered, but when the going is just what Alinghi likes she 
will be hard to beat. USA17 with wing mast and soft sail instead of a 
wing sail and the racing would be extremely close. As a cat person I 
would have bet my $2 on Alinghi then.
    I wonder if the proa approach was considered at all, probably not, 
through lack of experience plus not exactly good at match racing one 
would think, even minimal tack match racing as people seem to think that 
these races will be.
    Ball is back in your court Rob and we still have a $2(Canadian) bet. 
:-)
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