interesting polar on the new multi23 trimaran at

http://www.multi23.com.au/

click specifications and then the image at the bottom right

interesting in that it shows 7 different wind speeds and shows that a 90degree beam reach is the most efficient/ fastest in light winds up to 12nts

but as the wind speed climbs over 12nts the fastest point of sail moves off to the 130degree broad reach

less efficient but higher overall speed as presumably as all the buoyancy from a 3 bows is needed to keep the boat from digging in and pitchpoling

Screaming reach!!

180 degrees from hobie1616; doesn't matter the relative wind direction. My opinion from his web presence, I am sure he is a nice guy in real life.

Sailing without him, I'd say beam to broad reach. Depends on sails available, hull shape......

yes, that could imply that the boat is bit of a cow on a beam reach in a breeze!

On a windy beam reach the lee ama is going to be underwater, slowing the boat down I would think. When you get to that point, I think it would be faster to bear away and use the added lift/support of all 3 hulls, and get all the people to the back of the boat!

I would think any point of sail in the upright position would be fast.

I know my sails never worked very well in the inverted (underwater) position. Even with the spinnaker up.

....Then you're not playing the current efficiently!!!!

Haven't you heard of the fifth mode you bunch of donkies!

Aaarrrgggg....Multi 23 made in China and the Farrier we do everything best wankers --- can't wait to get back to work on the TMS-20 come on shoulder heal faster!

Your sails worked pretty fast, even on their side. At least at Hiram's they did...

I would guess that this polar does not include the kite?

Is that flying the tramp?

Bet it does!

Roughly beam reaching is fastest. Putting the kite up for down wind means you can travel fast dpwn wind as this is where you want to go, but you also have a lot of drag up too!

The fastest point slowly goes more down wind as the wind increases as the Angle to apparent changes and the ability to use the power also changes!

The curves at 7 and 10 knots indicate that going dead downwind is fastest with this tri for these wind velocities, which should not happen with a kite (45 sqm!). There is no typical kite lobe, the small max at 130 degrees for 20 knots would be compatible with a genova going downwind.

I could maybe see that DDW might work in light windspeeds on that tri. I think the old Nacra 6.0 with "spin-zilla" did great VMG at DDW in under 10 kts.

This strategy didn't work so well with the high aspect spins of the early N20, however.

Looking at the curves; it looks like they do not go below 160!

Am I looking at the wrong polars?

Yes, they only go to 160, put the first derivative is practically zero in the case of 7 and 10 knots, so you expect a smooth behaviour towards 180. Even 160 is practically DDW for a cat/tri. Really thinking that this thing (300 kg and 45 sqm of kite) is only capable of going 5 knots downwind with 10 knots of wind??

With an Asym kite; YES.

According to Bethwaite, this is about a Soling´s vmg speed downwind at 10 knots of wind (see page 333). I'd rather sail on the tri in a race