World's fastest sailing boat to go on display at Advanced Engineering Show
by Paul Larsen 16 Oct 2015 13:15 PDT
4-5 November 2015
Outright World Speed Sailing Record holder, VESTAS Sailrocket 2 © Helena Darvelid / VESTAS Sailrocket 2
Sailrocket 2, which smashed the world speed sailing record by the biggest margins in its history, will go on display at this year's Advanced Engineering Show in Birmingham on the 4th and 5th of November. She will be accompanied by the team that sailed her at over 65 knots (75+ MPH) down the record course in Walvis Bay, Namibia.
During an amazing two-week period in November 2012, Sailrocket 2 broke the Outright speed sailing record three times and also smashed the nautical mile world record. She demonstrated incredible efficiency sailing at over 2.4 times the speed of the wind in an open, natural harbour.
The totally unique craft, representing 11 years work by the team is a hybrid blend of aviation and hydrodynamic know-how. She is based on a radical concept that removes all the overturning forces associated with sailing boats and is as stable in the air as she is in the water.
The super powerful and efficient craft was designed with the sole purpose of breaking through sailings "sound barrier". With conventional hydro-foils, at speeds around the low to mid 50 knot range, the pressures involved cause water to boil on contact in a phenomenon called cavitation. This offers a brick wall of drag. Sailrocket 2 was developed to have the power to test radical new foil shapes to overcome this phenomena and prove that sail powered boats could go way beyond conventional limits. She remains the only sailing boat in history to have done this.
This will be the first time that Sailrocket 2 has gone on full public display since she broke the record three years ago. She will be set up exactly as she was the day she set the current record.
Sailrocket 2 was designed and built in the UK and will be brought to you courtesy of some of those who helped make her a reality, GURIT, FORMAPLEX and AEROTROPE.
AEROTROPE was the primary design office behind both Sailrocket 1 and 2. Both boats were built using GURIT composite materials throughout. FORMAPLEX provided tooling and complete CNC milled foils for SR2's record breaking session.
sailrocket.com