The Sailboat Race that Outpaces the Wind

Re-adjust what you imagine when you think of a fast sailboat. Forget the floppy sails, majestic prows, and guys scurrying around in silly caps. Those would fly off on a C-class catamaran. Hell, the boats even fly.

C-cats, as they're affectionately known, are the most efficient wind-powered vessels on water. They're light, weighing about as much as their two-person crews. And, because they're designed by aerospace engineers, they leverage every hydro and aerodynamic trick possible to make speed. Instead of one hull, you get two; and instead of a sail, each one of these boats boasts a rigid wing sticking straight up from the deck. No surprise, then, that they can fly on the water. Literally.

The wing sails, usually about 40 feet tall, can convert even the weakest breeze into impressive nautical thrust. But when there's high wind, you have to hold on for your life.

Fred Eaton, the Canadian who helms the defending champion, Canaan, explains: "At 10 knots, it's an incredibly smooth and happy experience on the boat. At 15 knots, it's a complete handful. At 20 knots, you just want to go home. At 25 knots, the boats take off—physically take off—from the water."

The predicted conditions this for this week's International C-Class Catamaran Championships off the coast of Newport, RI? Some rain with winds up to 25 knots. [Editor's note: As of right now, the winds are too strong for racing, and the event has been postponed to prevent the boats from going so fast that they travel back in time and totally screw up history.]

Winged sail boats are seeing something of a popularity boom recently. The ship sailed by the BMW Oracle team in this year's America's cup, USA-17, used a behemoth 223 foot wing in competition. And the Sauter Formula Zero Solar Hybrid Megayacht has solar cells attached to its gigantic rigid wings.

C-cat races have been around since the 1960s, and rigid sails started to emerge in the early 70s. Over the years, designs have improved, and numerous international races have been held. The big prize, which one lucky team will take home at the end of this week, is known as the Little America's Cup. It's skipped around the globe between teams from Britain, Denmark, Australia, the United States, and Canada. And the honor of who has the craziest, most over-engineered boat, is almost as desperately sought.

The beauty of the C-Class is that there are very few design constraints, leaving engineers room to experiment. The catamaran must have two identical hulls and be sailed by two people. It must be 25 feet long, 14 feet wide, and the area of the sail must be 300 square feet. But that's it. There is no minimum weight, no material that's off-limits. The rest is open to interpretation.

That's where the wing came from. Because engineers had no rules, their thought process went something like this: We need the lightest hull possible. We need the tautest sail possible. DRAT! To make the sail hold its shape in the wind, we need a heavy mast and a bunch of high-tension wires (forestays, if you're in the know), which would put too much pressure on our super-lightweight hulls. EUREKA! We can combine the mast and sail into one rigid piece—a wing!—that holds its shape due to the nature of its materials and construction, eliminating the need for a heavy mast or high-tension forestays. Woop Woop!

Norman Wijker, head of the British team Invictus, explains that winged sails feel substantially less drag than conventional canvas. This lets C-cats sail attack the wind at sharper angles as they tack, zigzagging upwind. And sailing downwind in a C-Class is true aerodynamic magic. Usually, a boat with the wind at its stern (back) simply catches the wind in its sails, never moving any faster than the speed of the gusts. But in a C-cat, sailors deploy flaps (just like on an airplane wing) to keep air flowing fast even when apparent wind (the breeze you feel) is low. Sailing directly downwind will never give you much speed, he says, "but by tacking downwind, we can sail faster than the wind."

But it's not just wing design that wins races. The crew's familiarity with the boat and the wing's controls are crucial for performance. This race's underdog is the British team, which will be using this event to debut its new, more aerodynamic wing. That said, Wijker believes his team has spent more time on the water than his competition. This could count for quite a bit in a race where split-second decisions and precise handling of the controls are crucial.

Indeed, C-Class catamarans are beyond responsive, says Steve Clark, leader of the US team, pointing out that small differences in wind velocity across the race course have larger than normal consequences. "Large leads can vaporize in seconds," he says. That's something Clark knows quite a bit about: His squad's new boat, the Aethon, was damaged during pre-race testing, so the US team was forced to enter an older boat, the Cogito, into the competition. It's no slouch, having won the Cup in 2004, but it's just one more piece of evidence leading to the conclusion that sailing—no matter what sort—is a fickle sport.

Whether your boat is old or new, "you can't see the wind, and it doesn't blow consistently," says Clark. "You have to be able to pick out the clues that tell you what is going to happen next and position yourself to take advantage of it." "Keeping the boat going fast and going in the right direction is the challenge of all sailboat races."

Kate Greene is a science and technology writer based in San Francisco

Photographs courtesy Christophe Launay.

Draganflyer X8: The Dreamboat UAV

All respects to whatever UAV you've got on your pin-up calendar. The Draganflyer X8 has it beat in the beauty department. And wait until you see how flexible it is.

DraganFlyer X8 complete spec list is pretty ridiculous, so let's just gun through some of the highlights: GPS that can track up to 16 satellites simultaneously, can carry a payload of over two pounds, has a microSD black box data recorder, 3 gyros, accelerometers, and magnetometers on-board, and capable of carrying a remote-operated 10MP still camera and a 1080p video camera. Also: it's foldable.

Pretty slick, and a worthy addition to the Draganflyer lineage. It's also, presumably, very expensive, since you have to request a price quote. That's fine, though; this little monster's meant for professional photographers and/or amateur spy games. For now, I'm content just to focus my gadget lust on it. [DraganFly]

Kazaguruma Wind Force Futuristic Transportation

(tuvie.com)

In order to reduce environmental load, we need to start thinking how to take advantage of natural energy which freely available around us. Take a look at Kazaguruma, a futuristic car that uses wind as its power. These Japanese industrial designers thought that electric vehicle indeed reduce the amount of CO2 but at the same time by generating electric, it will produce CO2. So, they decided to focus on natural energy, wind force, and dynamic lift. In order to make Kazaguruma works, they have designed a mechanism similar to a rotor ship. Wind force and Magnus effect create whirlwind at the back that makes this vehicle to move.

Designer : Ippei Iwahara, Naoki Kato, and Keisuke Fukunaga

Revolute : Futuristic Single Person Electric Vehicle by Harsha Vardhan

(tuvie.com)

Living in big city, I get stuck in traffic jam most of all the time. So when I see motorcycles break up the traffic jam, I wish I was the one on that bike. Harsha Vardhan, an Indian industrial designer might hear my wish. He designed “Revolute”, a futuristic single person electric vehicle, well actually this vehicle was designed to enter INTERIOR MOTIVESDESIGN AWARDS for “Conceptual Exterior Category”. This transportation was designed to bridge the gap between a car and a motorcycle, it’s definitely smaller than a car. Revolute features 2 postures: dynamic and static. While in use, the vehicle uses dynamic mode, static mode while parked. The response is triggered by the on-board computing facility behind the seat that activates the swivel arms enabling the change.

Designer : Harsha Vardhan

Kia Electric Pop Concept Car : Compact, Lightweight, and Green

(tuvie.com)

As usual, Kia Motors will unveil its new conceptual future electric car to answer future demands of compact, eco friendly, and futuristic transportation at the Paris Show on September 30th. Kia Electric Pop is an all new electric concept car with innovative and chic design. This dramatic styling zero emissions car is perfect transportation for urban environment. Full details will not be released until the car’s show debut.

From : Kia

Bulbo Light Bag by Nicole Osella

(tuvie.com)

Have you ever been in a situation when you need to look and dig for something in your bag in the dark? You can use your mobile phone for light, but that means you can only use one hand to dig while the other holds the mobile phone. Bulbo, a ribbon with LEDs could solve your problem. This device is an add-on module that could fit in any bag you have. It features silicon bulb on one side and a clip that allows you to attach it to any bag. This ribbon light generates its own energy for the light. As you can see in the picture, there’s a sphere that will levitate outside the bag to harness kinetic energy for the battery. Finding stuff inside your bag in the dark won’t be a problem anymore.

Designer : Nicole Osella

Aard Is An Efficient And Functional Combination Of A Wind Turbine And Solar Energy Plant

(tuvie.com)

When power would be the most concerned issue for future civilization, designing energy efficient product is not enough; rather, power generating systems that can transform natural energy into usable power is more important. Aard concept combines a wind and solar power accumulating system into a sleek and simple product with a goal to contribute to the future power requirements.

This concept with a round shape features flexible photovoltaic modules that can accumulate solar power during daytime, also when wind gets strong, the ball starts with spin and produces electricity through the dynamos with each of the eight wings. The aluminum construction with basic blue color have given the product a beautiful look that can complement to the urban architectural environment as well as areas that are covered by nature. Moreover, the round shape of the product eliminates the need of turn and adjusting it according to the direction of sunshine.

Designer : Arttu-Matti Immonen

Traffic Light Saves A Lot Of Energy With Ultimate Functionalities

(tuvie.com)

Traffic lights are one of the most overlooked things in our everyday life which I guess would left behind forever unless Cheng Tsung envisioned this energy efficient and eco-friendly traffic light concept that features innovative color-changing LED technology instead of existing incandescent bulbs. This will enable even the visually impaired or color blind people to read the traffic lights through strong visual sense created by only one light. Rather than taking electricity from the power grid, this concept features solar panel on the surface through which it accumulates solar energy which will save around 1 billion degrees of electricity every year.

Designer : Feng Cheng-Tsung, Wang Bo-Jin, and Lin Yao-Jie

美國研製太空垃圾清理車可用於對付他國衛星
來自：環球時報

(weiphone)

 

漂浮在太空中的空間碎片看上去像一隻只蝴蝶，但是卻蘊藏著巨大的殺傷力。為了減少太空垃圾給航空活動帶來的危害，科學家們在減少太空垃圾方面可謂新招迭出。相信隨著技術的發展，清除空間垃圾並非是夢想。據美國“大眾科學”網站16日報導，美國國防高級研究計劃局正資助發展一種“電力碎片消除器”。它實際上是一個安裝了200張電磁網的航空器，可以捕捉近地軌道上的空間碎片。該項目負責人羅姆•皮爾森稱之為“空間垃圾車”。

太空垃圾清理車想像圖
據稱12個空間垃圾車經過7年時間，將能捕獲近地軌道上已被識別的2465個兩公斤以上碎片。一旦捕獲目標，空間垃圾車將把垃圾打包投擲到南太平洋。當然，更好的選擇是廢物利用，因為太空垃圾中有很多珍貴金屬。

據報導，該項目的一些前期試驗工作已經開始，有望在2013年完成試飛，收集太空垃圾的具體行動則在2017年全面展開。不過，該構想會遇到不少挑戰，例如，12個大型太空垃圾車在軌道上運行時，近地軌道交通會非常擁擠，需要空間交通管理。此外，這些巨網可能被用於軍事目的，例如從軌道上移除一顆衛星，這會遭到別國的反對。因此，項目組正在致力於把該項目轉交美國NASA而不是國防高級研究計劃局，該局是五角大樓的一部分。

其實，和這種太空垃圾車相比，更好的辦法是盡量不產生太空垃圾。目前太空垃圾主要是報廢衛星、運載火箭“製造”的。為了減少太空垃圾的產生，目前大多數運載火箭製造商都加裝燃料排空裝置，完成使命後將燃料排空，防止爆炸產生太空碎片。對於衛星而言，一種方法是讓衛星在使用期結束時，啟動自身發動機降入大氣層，但這需要讓衛星攜帶額外的燃料，增加發射成本，所以使用並不廣泛。最近，參加加拿大多倫多航天動力專家會議的工程師們表示，通過加裝一個廉價的折疊式氣球，失靈衛星就會快速返回地球，不會形成太空垃圾。

他們研製的這種裝置被稱為“輕型軌道降低設備”，實際上是安裝在衛星上的一個折疊氣球，一旦衛星壽終正寢時，氣球內便會充滿氦氣或其他氣體。當氣球與地球的大氣層外稀薄的大氣接觸時就形成額外的阻力，降低衛星速度，從而縮小衛星軌道半徑，讓其墜入大氣層。據稱，一隻直徑37米的氣球只需要一年的時間，就能把1200千克重的衛星從830千米的軌道上拉下來，使其墜入大氣層。

Ryno Motors公司正式推出電動獨輪摩托車

 

Ryno Motors公司早前曾經透露過自己正在製造一種新型的電動獨輪摩托車，而現在這輛電動獨輪摩托車正式由Ryno Motors公司推向了市場。

與早前所透露的資料一樣，Ryno Motors公司的這款電動獨輪摩托車在一次充滿電的情況下可以跑上30英里的路程（大約等於48公里），最高速度為25英里。騎上這東西在大街小巷裡穿行似乎是一件很酷的事情，但是行駛的時候請務必小心控制速度和避讓行人和車輛，否則在高達25英里的時速下發生事故的話，還是很危險的。

來自：威鋒網(weiphone.com)