Howdy Cat people,

Here is a scan of page 42 of the 10/04 issue of "Outside" magazine.

The captions read as follows:

Quantum Leap
When Aussie sailor Paul Larsen, 34, and British naval archtect Malcolm Barnsley, 47, set out to break the 11-year old outrgiht speed record for sailboats 46.52 knots, or 53.5 mph-they left traditional deisigns at the dock. Their Sailrocket is a marriage of nautical and aeronautical technology that could carry Larsen past sailing's elusive 50 knot barrier this fall, in Weymouth, England-provided it doesn't break apart first. Rivals like Hawaiian board-sports star Robbie Naish-one of several top windsurfers planning fall attempts to break the record on standard sailboards-think the spindly carbon-fiber craft will disintegrate in high winds. Larsen professes no such worries. "We didn't reinvent the wheel just for the hell of it," he says. "You have to do your homework, because it's soul-destroying to get it wrong."

The wing-shaped, 238- square foot sail is set at a 30 degree angle to provide both forward power and lift.

All up weight is 383 lbs.

Underwater, an angled, two-foot-long foil prevents the boat from getting airborne and tumbling to pieces. The intense tug-of-war between the sail and foil creates a squeezing effect, propelling the boat faster than the wind speed.

The sleek main hull is crafted to plane on the water's surface like a speedboat, drastically reducing drag.

At lower speeds, Larsen steers with a joystick-like tiller connected to a rudder. At speeds above 30 knots, he retracts the rudder and deploys a small steering sail.

David Ho
H 18 1067

It appears the picture didn't post, so here it is again.

You're talking about sailrocket which is actually in the water now. It looks quite a bit different than that picture. They've been struggling a bit and having a hard time getting the boat up to speed:

http://www.whbs.demon.co.uk/sr2/content_fr.htm

Hi David -mahalo
hey Jake --are we powered up ?

That was the FAQ to Jake as we raced the Tybee 500
always wishing for a more powerfull and efficient sail to increase speed in the predominently light downwind racing and choppy seas present in this years race.

{ALREADY maxed} was the usual reply as per letting off main downhaul to a fuller mainsail ,--decreasing outhaul for fuller main --though not always w spin --adjusting rotation ,-and setting spin to max fullness --hoist and sheet angle .
Our 400 LB crew weight in racing others with 300 made this a priority if we were to have evan close to comperable boat speed .

The race conditions and requirements of boats very different for a 500 mile ocean race than speed racing machine attempt ,-but some applications of this designs features in practise have already and should continue to find their way into production cat design of the future.

Wish the best to this design and team ,though the boardsailors may have a point on durability of the design .-
The single crossbeam w anglular support looks suspect ,-though perhaps I,m just a cat design traditionalist and would rather see two full hulls and 2 crossbeams with diag bracing or trampoline .

The design themes in common w boards are angled rig which reduces or negates increased downforces from the sail plan -the trick then is control and limiting lift from sailplan.

The lifting hydrodynamic foils or a planning ability as per boards seem the other common design theme in speed record attempts .

We have seen anglular lifting boards applied to several cat design --though this feature has been ruled out of Formula classes and the A class designs by rules limitations .-The experimental deigns with foils and the trifoiler designs are interesting but limited in application to certain types of wind and sea conditions .

The spin adds another potential lifting element to the modern cat design equation.
These 2 areas -
The continuation of development on lifting boards and foils and their application -
and --the development of angular sail plan configurations and designs and controls may be the biggest opportunity for improvement in multihull development .-the wide base platform allowing more possible variations than its narrow mono-hull counterparts,-yet we still sail with sailplans designed for them ,-the basic configuration changed little over the last century or so with the advent of marconi rig from sq riggers .
CF MASTS -rotating rigs -simplified rigging -lightweight sq top high aspect sails -granted all improvements -
It is great to see high speed sailing craft development like this with different ideas applied -
hope the boardsailors are wrong .-

It would be great fun to develop some that would improve speed performance and safety of sailing craft .

have fun
Carl

Interesting. Looks more like a Marshallese riwuit than one of Smith's designs.
http://www.mit.edu/people/robot/mh/riwuit/index.html

Here it is full scale.
Boat fall down; go boom.
http://www.macquarie.com.au/speedsailing/updates.htm