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“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.� T.E Lawrence
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
Dream COVER RENDERING Tyler Doyle INTERIOR RENDERINGS Tyler Doyle PHOTO CREDITS Larry Rosenfeld, NASA, Brian Hancock, Vlad Murnikov EDITED BY Brian Hancock GRAPHIC LAYOUT Brian Hancock TEXT Vlad Murnikov
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COPYRIGHT SpeedDreem February 2010
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CONTENTS
REVEALING (SOME) SECRETS - Pg 6 MONOHULL VERSUS MULTIHULL - Pg 8 A SLENDER WAVE-PIERCING HULL - Pg 12 THE ULTIMATE CANTING KEEL - Pg 15 STABILIZING HYDROFOILS - Pg 15 LEARNING FROM POWERBOATS - Pg 15 KEEPING THE BOAT DRY - Pg 18 DESIGN BACKGROUND - Pg 20
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
Revealing (some) Secrets In this issue we take a closer look at some of the innovative ideas behind SpeedDream.
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he idea that a monohull will one day outperform a multihull is sure to raise the eyebrows of even the most sympathetic skeptic. From the days of outrigger canoes it’s been clear that if you want to get some place fast, you need a multihull. While this is generally true it may not always be true. Sure, a 40 foot catamaran flying a hull and skimming over the
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waves is surely faster than a 40 foot monohull dragging a heavy lead keel around, but as boats increase in size there can be a quite convincing argument for a monohull being the swifter vessel. In this issue of SpeedDream we will reveal some of the secrets behind this innovative design from a slender wavepiercing hull to the ultimate canting keel. SpeedDream also makes use of a stabilizing hydrofoil to create addi-
tional righting moment and partially offset displacement.
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inally we will answer the question that is on everyone’s lips; how on earth are they going to sail that boat without getting swept off the deck? We will reveal some of the creative and innovative ideas for getting water off the boat as quickly as possible.
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SpeedDream What’s faster? Monohull or multihull.
YOU MAY BE SURPRISED
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
Monohull versus Multihull
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he SpeedDream project is a quest to design and build the world’s fastest monohull, capable of establishing remarkable speed records in open ocean conditions including fastest transatlantic crossing and global circumnavigation. Why a monohull? For decades catamarans and trimarans were the fastest sailboats to ply world oceans, proving time and again their huge performance potential. All this time multihulls enjoyed unrestricted development while their designers were free to explore every possibility in order to find the best recipe for speed.
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onohull development on the other hand has always been governed by class rules which put a huge
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damper on their performance capabilities. The VOR 70, today’s fastest monohull, is a relatively conservative design which in order to reduce costs - and risks associated with the ultimate ocean race has been developed in accordance to strict “box” rules T h e ru le p u t s limit s o n len gth s, b e a m, d ra f t , d isplacement, rig dimensions, sail are a - a ll t h e ma jo r design parameters - as well as materials that can be used for the boat construction. And yet, despite all these restrictions, VOR 70s are capable of reaching speed in excess of 40 knots, the same as the fastest multihulls. However catamarans and trimarans w ith th e ir n e e d le -lik e h u ll forms c a n su st a in h ig h e r speed for a substantially lon ger t ime p e rio d s t h a n much wider and shor ter monohulls. Because of their
re la t ive b e a m a n d l e n g t h monoghulls tend to slow down after each burst of speed.
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he SpeedDream team believes that the multihull performance could be matched possibly even exceeded by a monohull if only we could discard all the restrictions and design the most advanced boat possible. After all multihulls, no matter how big, long and slender, still sail in displacement mode while highspeed monohulls can glide over the water in a much more efficient planing mode. We see potential for a huge jump in monohull performance, a true revolution in design, while catamarans and trimarans would continue their incremental advancement, evolving larger and wider while growing more complex and costly.
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Generally, light boats are fast. Monohull critics are quick to point out the ballast weight that traditional boat has to carry in order to achieve sufficient stability. But recent advancements in canting keel design allows for enormous gains in stability while reducing ballast weight. True, multihulls don’t need ballast for generating righting moment, but they have to carry around the weight of at least one or even two extra hulls plus all the complex structure necessary to keep it all together. We believe that modern technology makes it possible to produce a monohull with a comparable weight and righting moment of a multihull, while taking full advantage of the drag reduction due to the high-speed planing hull.
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ur preliminary estimates show that the SpeedDream concept would result in a monohull capable of reaching
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50-knot speed and maintaining average speed on par with the fastest multihulls. Building the world’s fastest monohull adds a new level of excitement to the never-ending quest for speed. It will question the status quo and shatter existing stereotypes of high performance sailing. It would effect the sailing community in a more profound way than any speed-record multihull could ever do simply because the vast majority of sailboats are monohulls. The design innovation and research that will go into this project and the experience gained will benefit future sailboat design, setting direction for next generations of sailing yachts.
Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
A Slender Wavepiercing hull
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igh performance results from a combination of two main factors: providing the boat with enough power and reducing her resistance to order to utilize this power in the most efficient way. Some designers focus performance optimization on the power increase. Multihulls are typical of this approach as they grow larger and wider with every new generation to achieve higher and higher sail-carrying capacity. The problem, however, is that over-powered vessels are over-stressed requiring a more and more robust structure to survive. This comes at the expense of extra weight calling in turn for even more power to maintain speed. Our solution is to reduce drag
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by all means possible. This way all available wind power is used more efficiently, requiring less sail area to achieve higher speeds. Less righting moment is needed, the boat is less stressed and can in fact become lighter while remaining just as strong. Lighter means faster.
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o greatly reduce resistance SpeedDream features a relatively narrow, slender hull, almost triangular in plan view and equipped with a sharp wave-piercing bow. The goal is to reduce drag in heavy seas as well as to minimize pitching and slamming. he boat is designed to sail most of time with a constant heel angle of around 20-25 degrees.
This angle of heel is maintained by adjusting sail area and keel angle to suit wind conditions. Both the hull and rig are optimized to be at peak efficiency in these conditions with the hull having two narrow, planing surfaces port and starboard, each tilted at 20-25 degrees.
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uring further design development we will have to verify the optimal heel angle and determine both shape and width of the planing surfaces to achieve best combination of maximum hydrodynamic lift and minimal hull drag. The overall hull design will concentrate on reducing its volume and surface area, while moving buoyancy and hydraulic lift as far outboard as possible.
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"All the functional attributes of the SpeedDream design also contribute to the boat’s strikingly futuristic image.
Yacht design is as part science, part art and the common believe has it that beautiful boats are fast.
This boat looks like nothing ever seen before, and to the SpeedDream team eyes she is very beautiful – and therefore she has to be very fast.�
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
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The ultimate canting keel
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he VOR 70 rules limit keel cant to 40 degrees. Geometry of currently used canting systems allows maximum cant up to 50 degrees, beyond which loads grow dangerously high. For the SpeedDream concept we have developed a proprietary
system that allows much higher cant angles while maintaining significantly reduced loads. The goal is to ultimately taking the keel completely out of water and thus removing significant portion of the strut and bulb drag, eliminating their buoyancy and maximizing righting moment.
Even if the keel is going to periodically get submerged in waves, on the average this concept promises sizable benefits for overall drag reduction. Future research and development should concentrate on finding optimal keel and strut shape to minimize drag while awash with waves.
Stabilizing hydrofoils
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he SpeedDream concept utilizes hydrofoils to create additional righting moment and partially offset displacement. Located near CG to diminish the negative effect of hull movement on
their performance, these foils will be capable of creating lift equal to 30-50% of total displacement and could be either retractable or fixed and could be used as separate appendages or in combination with daggerboard.
Further analysis will focus on finding the optimal size and shape of the hydrofoils and their profile in order to achieve maximum lift and minimal drag.
Learning from powerboats
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mong other venues we are actively exploring are applications of stepped hulls, spray rails and other speed-enhancing features widely used on powerboats. The next step would be to
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take a close look on the benefits of bottom aeration in order to further reduce wetted surface. And that’s only a start. During the extensive research and development process,
throughout design, construction and boat testing, we will gradually keep improving our revolutionary SpeedDream concept until it evolves into the most extraordinary speed machine ever.
Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
Making a wet boat less wet
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ery important for this boat’s performance is the deck design and layout since at high speed the deck frequently gets submerged. Its shape should be sculptured to shed water quickly to the sides, to throw as little water and spray forward as possible, and to prevent large amounts of water reaching the cockpit. All this will help reduce resistance and provide the best protection for the crew.
Naturally, the task of protecting the crew from the elements on a boat intended to reach 50+ knots in real ocean condition is an enormous design challenge, but
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we have a few interesting tricks in our sleeve that will allow us to make this inevitably wet boat a little bit less wet and more comfortable for her crew.
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he deck, with a several strategically placed breakwaters is designed to shed water aside as quickly as possible. The cockpit is as set far aft as possible and is significantly elevated relative to the rest of boat. Both the helmsman and crew are protected by the substantially sized dodgers. The cockpit sole is a mesh trampoline with a deep, steeply sloped channel underneath to let water easily pass aft and discharge
through the open transom with a minimal impact on the crew and boat speed. It has to be said that so far no offshore sailboat has ever sailed at such speeds so we are venturing into a totally uncharted territory and no one knows what we might face there. High-performance sailing could be dangerous, but so is climbing Mount Everest or driving an F1 car....
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he SpeedDream design team will strive to make the boat as safe as possible and we believe that experience gained throughout our project will greatly benefit all offshore sailors.
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Spe edD rea m
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
SpeedDream design background
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peedDream is a brainchild of Vlad Murnikov, a radical sailboat designer, born in Russia and now living in the USA. Vlad was the project leader and design coordinator for FAZISI, Russia's first-ever entry in the Whitbread Round the World Race, the premier oceanic sailing competition in the world, now known as the Volvo Ocean Race. In the 1989-90 Whitbread race, not only did the remarkable FAZISI with her minimal budget and crew of novice sailors overcome impossible odds to place 11th in a field of the world’s best yachts, she posted the next-to-longest 24-hour run racking up an incredible 386 miles in a single day.
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AZISI was one of the lightest boats in the entire Whitbread fleet. Although the almost twice-as–heavy, over-canvassed New Zealand ketch STEINLAGER won the race under the command of the legendary skipper Peter Blake, the light-displacement boats ultimately prevailed in the design competition. Today they fully dominate the racing scene getting lighter and faster with every new generation. unique Murnikov’s SpeedDream concept improves upon the once-revolutionary FAZISI blueprint and advances the scientific art of boat design into yet uncharted territory.
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Another trend-setting design that influenced the SpeedDream concept was MXRay, a revolutionary boat that forever changed small boat sailing. When Murnikov came up with the idea of super-fast, single-handed dinghy with asymmetric spinnaker, nobody believed that the concept could work or that there would be sailors skillful enough to handle such a boat.
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ot only did the tiny 13-foot MX-Ray proved to be extremely fast, capable of reaching 27 knots, she turned out to be great fun and very easy to operate. Over the years more that a half-dozen designs from various manufacturers followed in her wake, and today practically every dinghy producer has a similar boat in their line-up. It is from the MX-Ray that the SpeedDream concept has borrowed her sharp wavepiercing bow, very narrow waterline, and dart-shaped hull. Other members of the SpeedDream design team are bringing their cutting edge expertise in offshore racing boats, record multihulls, hydrodynamics, structural engineering, hydrofoil and keel design. On top of this SpeedDream’s innovative rig and sails are going be developed by industry leaders. We are confident that our team is capable of producing the fastest sailboat ever.
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Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet
Course for Adventure, featuring books by Vlad M u r n i k o v, C a m L e w i s & Brian Hancock, all key members of SpeedDream. Visit www.courseforadventure.com. Here you will find blogs, books and videos that will inspire you to toss the lines ashore and head for that distant horizon. We i n v i t e y o u t o j o i n o u r c o m m u n i t y, subscribe to our blogs and watch the online videos. There are free chapters and lots of other incentives to encourage you to get your sailing fix from www.courseforadventure.com
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SpeedDream Team Contact
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BOSTON, USA Vlad Murnikov Email: vmurnikov@verizon.net Skype: vladsailing1
KIEV, UKRAINE Eugene Platon Email: eplaton@msn.com Skype: eugene.platon
MARBLEHEAD, USA Brian Hancock Email: brian@brianhancock.org Skype: callbrianhancock
MOSCOW, RUSSIA Valery Zakhovaev Email: valerzah@mail.ru Skype: valeriy_Zakhovaev
Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet