Planing sail boats?

[bowman316]

Can racing sail boats get on plane, like a power boat?
I was watching some sail racing, and it kinda looked like they were throwing a power boat type of wake.

 

[smclear]

Re: Planing sail boats?

All boats will produce a wake. I have never heard of a sailboat with a planing hull. I won't go as far as saying they don't exist, I've just never seen one. I've been boating my entire life (50 years) and although I'm in Indiana now, I spent 10 years in Ft. Lauderdale working in the marinas (Pier 66, Bahia Mar, and Harbour Town, yeah, I worked at them all) so I feel as though I know a little about these things. Anyway, sailboats have full displacement hulls. A full displacement hull will produce the largest wake. Given enough speed, a sailboat could throw a large wake. Much like a Trawler plowing through the water.

 

[saildan]

Re: Planing sail boats?

I have never heard of a sailboat with a planing hull.

Lots of sailboats have a hydroplaning hull, just don't expect a rooster tail wake. Any hull designed for skimming so it can ride up and on its own bow wake is achieving a planing attitude. Displacement hulls are limited by their bow wake and LOA as the calculation for hull speed demonstrates. Planing hulls can therefore exceed the LOA speed limitation.

On the small end of the spectrum are Sunfish, Laser, and Butterfly to just scratch the surface. Moving up the ladder you find the whole gamut of the Scow Class from 12 feet to, what, 40 feet, maybe bigger; 420, 505, 49er's, and so on all the way up to round-the-world ocean racers.

Here's a 505 on a plane. Note the point of the bow is 3' ahead of the bow wake... and pulling away from a 90hp motorboat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wy8WjKK1x4

Just for fun, here's a little perspective on speed -- some planing some not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWINygISxDE

 

[steelespike]

Re: Planing sail boats?

Amazing video! amazing boats!

 

[smclear]

Re: Planing sail boats?

Lots of sailboats have a hydroplaning hull, just don't expect a rooster tail wake. Any hull designed for skimming so it can ride up and on its own bow wake is achieving a planing attitude. Displacement hulls are limited by their bow wake and LOA as the calculation for hull speed demonstrates. Planing hulls can therefore exceed the LOA speed limitation.

On the small end of the spectrum are Sunfish, Laser, and Butterfly to just scratch the surface. Moving up the ladder you find the whole gamut of the Scow Class from 12 feet to, what, 40 feet, maybe bigger; 420, 505, 49er's, and so on all the way up to round-the-world ocean racers.

Here's a 505 on a plane. Note the point of the bow is 3' ahead of the bow wake... and pulling away from a 90hp motorboat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wy8WjKK1x4

Just for fun, here's a little perspective on speed -- some planing some not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWINygISxDE

I never even thought of sailboats such as the Sunfish. (and my dad had one when I was very little DOH!!) As for round-the-world racers, I was working at Pier 66 when the Whitbread (I think it's called Volvo something now) made it's stop there. It was a pretty big deal as it was the first time they had ever made a stop in North America. I never considered them as anything other than a displacement hull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcWgcZ9grA

 

[flwestcoastboater]

Re: Planing sail boats?

One sailboat that will plane under MOTOR power is the macgregor 26M i believe it is, they designed a hull which can sail well and take a 50hp outboard, Id prefer to have a powerboat and sailboat personally

 

[saildan]

Re: Planing sail boats?

I was working at Pier 66 when the Whitbread (I think it's called Volvo something now) made it's stop there. I never considered them as anything other than a displacement hull.

I think in those olden days those were displacement hulls. Designs today appear to be something of a hybrid between what we think of as displacement style and planing.

http://www.sailtexas.com/modernyachtdesignfinalb.html

It's a brave new world

 

[tommays]

Re: Planing sail boats?

Well

yes and no

Pretty much nothing but a moth on foils will plane UPWIND

But they have no problem running about 22 knots

Even my old school 1981 J24 will plane down wind IF you got a big enough set of coarse it has ended badly a few times when people pushed it a bit far

And then there are the modern sport sailboats which have no problem breaking 20 knots

 

[saildan]

Re: Planing sail boats?

Pretty much nothing but a moth on foils will plane UPWIND

Yeah well, hydrofoil and hydroplane are two seperate facets of hydrodymanics applied to boat hulls.

I'll take a planing hull in the grand scheme of all things sail powered. Foils don't fair well in light air whereas a planing hull will get you back to home port.

 

[freddyray21]

Re: Planing sail boats?

not often, but in the right wind conditions I have planed this. Take a lot of rail meat though.

 

[saildan]

Re: Planing sail boats?

Takes a lot of rail meat though.

Uh Right, maybe there's a useful place for Larry the Cable Guy after all... now there's a mental image.

Good point though... If you sail a planing hull heeled over like a keel boat then you get displacement hull limitations. Making use of the planing design requires sailing the hull in a flatter attitude. Watching the YouTube clips of the 49er's at the Olympics sure shows a lot of effort going into keeping the profile of those sleds flat.

 

[saildan]

Re: Planing sail boats?

I have never heard of a sailboat with a planing hull

It's a new dawn​

I never considered them as anything other than a displacement hull.

Seems the day of the displacement hull has vanished
from cutting edge bluewater racing

Photo - Sailing Anarchy - www.sailinganarchy.com​

 

[smclear]

Re: Planing sail boats?

I think in those olden days those were displacement hulls. [/CENTER]

"Olden days"? Ok so that was back in 1988+/- a year, it wasn't THAT long ago. Man do I feel old now. I've never been into sailing that much as you could probably guess by my earlier posts but I've got to say they're beautiful to watch.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Planing sail boats?

Well

yes and no

Pretty much nothing but a moth on foils will plane UPWIND

The first time my Y-flyer planed out was on a beat ....actually about 1/2 way between a broad reach and close-hauled, it really caught me by surprise.....didn't realise at first what had happened.
I thought I had stalled it because the typical loud slapping noise of the Y suddenly vanished and there was an eerie silence. Then i realised how fast we were going across the water....just smoking.
Fastest I have ever gone on water under sail power.

Last weekend we got the very rare blend of conditions that allowed me to get out the iceboat.
She will run over 45 MPH and that feels like 100MPH when you are 12" off the ice.

 

[saildan]

Re: Planing sail boats?

"Olden days"? Ok so that was back in 1988+/- a year, it wasn't THAT long ago. Man do I feel old now.

Don't feel bad, we're in the same boat.

20 years ago -

• Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
• The Exxon Valdez ran aground
• East Germany opened the Berlin Wall
  (I saw it go up, I watched it come down)
• Students protested in Tiananmen Square
• The first full-length episode of The Simpsons aired
• The stock market crashed (some things never change)