Hydroptere’s

To understand Hydroptere, the world´s fastest sailing trimaran, we have to take a look back into Archimedes’ theory elaborated twenty-five centuries ago, traditional boats can float but with much resistance to achieve high speeds. It was then necessary to make the boat rise above the sea surface to eliminate this drag by replacing Archimedes’ buoyant thrust by the water’s dynamic lift. This physical phenomenon has been analyzed in detail for the air in the early twentieth century by aeronautical engineers and its application to water (800 times denser than air) is one of the prides of the Hydroptère team. To take off, Hydroptere has “marine wings”, the foils, which are placed under each of the floats of the trimaran.

To understand Hydroptere, the world´s fastest sailing trimaran, we have to take a look back into Archimedes’ theory elaborated twenty-five centuries ago, traditional boats can float but with much resistance to achieve high speeds. It was then necessary to make the boat rise above the sea surface to eliminate this drag by replacing Archimedes’ buoyant thrust by the water’s dynamic lift. This physical phenomenon has been analyzed in detail for the air in the early twentieth century by aeronautical engineers and its application to water (800 times denser than air) is one of the prides of the Hydroptère team. To take off, Hydroptere has “marine wings”, the foils, which are placed under each of the floats of the trimaran.

Once the boat reaches 10 knots, these immersed “wings”, deployed at 45 degrees in the water, generate an upward thrust. With the appropriate angle of attack of the foil, the sum of the pressure at the intrados and of the depression at the extrados generates an upward thrust with a reduced drag, which raises the boat like the wing of a plane. This is called the “lift” i.e. the same principle that allows the wings to make a plane take off. Then the hull and the floats of Hydroptere fly five meters above the sea surface. Only 2.5 m² of the boat are in contact with the water and she is able to sail from 20 to 45 knots (from 37 to 83 km/h) in 10 seconds.

In theory, everything seems to be quite simple, but the achievement of this incredible project has encountered numerous obstacles. Between the initial model made in 1985 and the first record broken by Hydroptere in 2005, Alain Thébault worked hard during twenty years and fell many times before finding the ideal configuration which allows this technological jewel to fly above the water.

World speed records

World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC)

Date: 4th April 2007

Speed record in category D over 500 metres: average of 44.81 knots.

Outright nautical mile record of 41.69 knots.

Date: 2008

Speed record in category D over 500 meters: average 46.88 knots.

Outright nautical mile record: average of 43.09 knots.

Dimensions

Length: 18.28 meters (60 ft)

Overall Length: 18.28 + 4.5 = 22.78 meters (74,7 ft)

Length of the floats: 6,7 meters (22 ft)

Span: 24 meters (79 ft)

Mastl: 28 meters (92 ft)

Length of the foils: 6 meters (19,7 ft)

Weight: 7,5 tons

Velocidad

Wind speed required to take offr: 12 knots stabilized

Speed of the boat: About twice the wind speed (it sails at 30 knots with 15 knots of established wind).

Máximum speed: 56 knots (= 104 km/h = 65 mi/h)

Máximum average speed: 50.17 knots on one nautical mile (outright speed record = 93 km/h = 58 mi/h)

Fuente: Página web del Hydroptere