SailRocket update

Paul Larsen brings us up to date with his speed sailing project

The goal of the Southampton based SailRocket project is to set the outright world speed sailing record. The boat is under construction in the NEG- MICON facilities in Woolston and is committed to being launched on Press day at this year's Southampton Boat show.

With a little under four months until the public unveiling of the finished SailRocket, today marks a significant step towards that all becoming reality. Today we fired up the oven that will cook the finished pieces of the boat which will then be glued together like a giant Airfix model.

With the materials and assistance of SP Systems and NEG-MICON Rotors we have been able to construct SailRocket to standards that would have otherwise been out of our reach. The oven we have acquired is perfect for the job and we have been extremely fortunate for it to land in our laps. It’s as if it was meant to be. One day a few months ago I walked next door to ask NEG if they had some lazy old foam panels that we might be able to borrow to start an oven… and I walked back with what later grew into a complete, bolt together, all singing, all dancing, your's for the taking oven set-up.

It just happened to be lying around waiting for a bunch of focussed nutters with a wild idea (and not so wild bank accounts) to put it to good use. So many thanks to NEG, David Rowan, FCM and Nigel at NEATAFAN (talk about helpful) for helping us to get this extremely useful piece of kit up and running.



SP Structural analysis showing potential hull deflection

In the next couple of months we will focus on post curing the moulds and building the main hull and beam components. As the parts are so light and therefore don’t require much in the way of material, we may build a spare set of ‘blanks’ just in case we break a major piece later on. Other small components will be built alongside and slipped into the oven during ‘cooks’.

Malcolm’s energies have been focused on the design elements of the project. The design team has grown which has enabled us to begin looking at the ever time consuming detail.

SP Technologies have been resolving the loads within the structure determining if there are any critical areas and if so, what to do about them. Will Brooks, a senior composites engineer fresh from the Prada America's Cup team, has also come on board bringing invaluable experience in the field of carbon composite design and construction. Chris Hornsee Jones has been working on the structural hotspot of SailRocket, which is the area from the beam connection to the foil. This is a tricky area especially seeing as we are now making the angle of the foil adjustable as well as including structure to enable the craft to be sailed on either tack. With Richard Pemberton’s work on the foils and Andy Bellamy’s work on the outer float… there is quite a lot of smart thinking going into this.

The results we got back from the wind tunnel were encouraging as it showed that the platform structure of SailRocket was more aerodynamically efficient than expected…. by quite a margin too! The model's sail performance wasn’t so hot and in fact gave a lift to drag ratio comparable to that of a Finn dinghy’s rig. The result of all this is that the efficiencies/inefficiencies balanced out and showed that the boat should be capable of fulfilling its objective, especially as we know we can build a far more efficient full-sized rig.

We have decided to push ahead with the a conventional soft sail for our initial attempts as we feel that once optimised, it is more than capable of beating the existing record (remember that a sailboard is only a fraction over a knot off the pace) and that it is a far easier set-up to handle for all practical purposes.

We accept that the solid wingsail option will ultimately prove more efficient and will feature in the future of the project. If the hurdle is raised significantly or the need for pure ‘grunt’ to live with foil cavitation arises then the wing will become a priority. The sail maker will be announced soon.



SP Technologies Finite Element Analysis of the hull

Financially we are still in the same boat. The project relies on all team members volunteering their time and expertise gratis and the support of product sponsors to whom we are very grateful. The fact remains that our passion for this endeavour will not, on its own, see it come to fruition. The quest for title sponsorship or a patron to see us through to that stage is on-going. We believe fully in the appeal and significance of the SailRocket project and know that it will eventually land on the table of someone who shares our belief. We just keep trying and hope that it is sooner rather than later.

So that’s where we’re at. The clock is ticking a little louder and there will no doubt be plenty of midnight oil burnt on the banks of the Itchen between now and Southampton Boat Show. Rough plans for after the launch are to conduct initial trials at the inshore course at Weymouth. If a suitable course isn’t found within the UK, but a sponsor is, then we would like to take the boat down to Sandy Point in Victoria where the current record was set and the current record holders are trying to up the stakes with their new craft, Macquarie Innovations. Now that would be interesting.

To contact Paul Larsen - click here.