Wot Rocket - preliminary tests

Plus Christophe Launay's images of Sean Langman's speed sailor

Led by pilot Sean Langman and co-pilot Martin Thompson, the Wot Rocket project team have been assembling the half sail boat/sail plane at Kurnell in Sydney before testing for the world speed sailing record attempt commences on Botany Bay.

With light autumn NE/NW winds forecast for rest of the week however, there may be few, if any, windows with enough grunt to get Wot Rocket rocketing.

he Wot Rocket is half sailboat/sail plane; a nine meter long canoe-style hull with two tiny foils, each about a sixth of the size of a Moth foil and a 9m rigid sail, then a traverse beam out of an aerodynamic twin pod crew compartment. It is built entirely from carbon fibre and weighs approximately 400 kilos.

The difference between this sailboat/sail plane and any that have come before it is that it will be attempting to break through the water speed barrier using a technology as yet untried on any sailing craft ­ supercavitation - to reduce the drag which is around 1,000 times greater in the water than in air.

Supercavitation will in effect mean Wot Rocket flies in a gas bubble created by the outward deflection of water by a specially-shaped nose cone and the expansion of gases from its fin and foil design. By keeping water from contacting the surface of the body of Wot Rocket, this will significantly reduce drag and allow extremely high speeds.

The concept behind the Wot Rocket approach is to induce supercavitation at lower speeds where control can still be maintained and from there push through to the top speeds.Supercavitation means Wot Rocket should only require a fraction of the 45-50 knot winds that Albeau needed to go 0.39 knots better than the previous record. A moderate 18-20 knots should do the trick believes Langman.

More photos on the following pages...