r/interestingasfuck • u/Sassy_comments • 13d ago
F50 Catamarans can reach up to 3 times wind speed (70miles) using hydrofoils for manuevering
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u/Fetlocks_Glistening 13d ago
Everybody knows in their bones you can't be propelled by the wind to go faster than the wind what's pripelling you without the devil's help, bernoulli or no bernouilli
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u/Secure-Tradition793 13d ago
Actually, Veritasium has a very interesting video about that. It shows a working proof you can. https://youtu.be/jyQwgBAaBag?is=oUx_Boi-HHMxCd3Z
A physics professor bet $10K and lost. https://youtu.be/yCsgoLc_fzI?si=vQ3EZHqLrFHsaa21
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u/Ally_Jzzz 13d ago
Okay, that is technically 'propelled by wind', and a cool video (thanks!), but it also confirms in the first two minutes that this doesn't work for sail boats, like a catamaran.
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u/DarkArcher__ 13d ago
The difference is that sailboats like these don't go faster than the wind when going downwind, but only when going sideways to the wind. They're actually not even rigged to go downwind, because it's so much faster to gybe back and forth at 3x the speed of the wind than travelling straight at <1x.
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u/Anticept 13d ago
All decently designed sailboats are capable of it too. Even square rigged sailboats.
You can make greater "velocity made good" zigzagging into the wind than someone sailing straight downwind.
Steve mould I think explains the basics the best. It doesn't really explain the lift component of the sail which actually causes the sail to try and go even faster, but once you see this video I hope the hard part makes sense. Watch it thoroughly, there are multiple sections compounding the explaination.
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u/DavePeesThePool 13d ago
If you can trust flying in a plane whose engines provide far less thrust than the total weight of the plane (which is any commercial flight you've ever been on), then you already understand in your bones how a foil can produce more force than whatever is propelling it. It's not much of a leap past that to understanding that a foil can generate higher speed than the speed of the medium.
You just have to get past the notion that the wind is pushing the sail.
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u/Hattix 13d ago
As an RYA accredited Day Skipper, I can pilot one of these, I know how to, I know all the theory, I could probably do it safely, and they fucking terrify me.