Hey All,

I probable outta just let this nagging question ride ( and go sailing),but I keep running into a pair of what I believe are persistant and fundamental myths among sailors regarding...,um, how sails work. The first is the way in which lift is created by sails (forget Bernoulli's equation !); I can live with this one though. The second has caused me pain , humilitation and often both : what do asymmetrical kites do for catamaran stability...?
I really would like to know how an asym. kite creates a lifting effect on the leeward hull of a catamaran (the best data I can find is definitive in showing the opposite! {Wouter, remember the Cherub research ?} ). We've had lengthy discussions on the F16 forum (kites,krashes and obese angels thread), all of which culminated with the frustratingly obtuse conclusion that the kite "calms the boat..." in wind and waves , if in combination with : a very flat main and kite and so long as one sails from the wire, feet on the transom, toes and undedicated fingers crossed for good luck...
I think hydrodynamic lift is created by a hull oriented so that the rig produces an upward force (really hard to keep this hull orientation in cats !). The extra sail area of the kite - while the hulls are oriented properly - provides a proportionatly greater intermittent hydrodynamic lift than sailing downwind w/out the kite (is this that false feeling of stability?). However, "intermittent" seems to me the unfortunate complication, because when hull conformation and wave frequency get out of sync, the kite isn't going to save a "pitch in", but will accelerate it, you'll
just swing in going seven knots faster than if you'd kept the kite doused...
As more cat classes begin sailing w/ kites, I wonder why smart N.A.'s keep moving hull volume and placements around in new designs, instead of innovating lift for the bow's ala a cheap (ha), simple, reliable, moveable T-foil rudder system ?
Cats are sailing much faster downhill with the asymmetrical spinnaker ; where are the compensatory innovations of design for what we'd all agree is a glaring weakness of catamarans - the nose dive if pushed hard...?

Best To You,


Paul

P.S.

just kidding about Bernoulli...