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Cut into the water on a triple hull sailboat pulled by a giant kite, the members of the SP80 team challenge the world record for sailing speed from the south of France, a burst of wind at a time.
The three -shell design (Trimaran) of SP80 prioritizes the stability and the reduced trail.
“There is nothing to win at the end, except that you are proud to get there,” said co-founder Benoit Gaudiot, who is also one of the pilots of the boat.
The record that the SP80 team aims is 65.45 knots (more than 75 MPH), established by Paul Larsen in 2012 aboard the Vestas Sailrocket 2 in the waters off Namibia.
The current world record holder Paul Larsen and the Vestas Sailrocket 2.
The SP80 team was inspired by the design of Sailrocket, in particular the superventilation sheet which allows sailboats to overcome “something really similar to the sound barrier of planes”, says Gaudiot.
The “cavitation barrier” prevents boats from accelerating beyond 55 knots (63.3 MPH) due to an accumulation of air bubbles on aluminum foil, part of the boat that sticks in water for stability. Aluminum foil is also the maximum drag point on the boat, and therefore required a lot of precise engineering to create an aluminum foil which “theoretically has no speed limit as long as we keep the boat stable and we have the power to push it further”, explains Gaudiot.
The hydrofoil supentntiling of the boat departs into the water, adding stability and helping to overcome the “cavitation barrier”.
Two pilots operate the boat, with a direction focused and focused on control of the kite that propels the boat. The boat is designed to travel in a straight line, like Drag’s race Veil.
The rupture rupture rules of the global veil speed record require the highest average speed of more than 500 meters, at least one person on board and to only use the wind as a source of energy.
SP80 has so far reached a top speed of 58 knots (around 67 MPH).
SP80 finally hopes to break 80 knots with its boat design in Kite. Beyond that, SP80 admits that the boat itself will be not very useful to anyone who hopes to do something other than beat world records. However, there may be useful applications for part of the team technology on other markets such as hydroelectric energy, maritime shipping and, of course, boats.
To see the SP80 team and its kite sailboat in action, see the video in this article.
