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From: cleary@everest.ccs.northeastern.edu (Michael Cleary)
Subject: Re: Unpersoned sailboat race
In-Reply-To: nhowland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu's message of 21 Jan 1994 11: 37:15 -0600
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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 20:47:01 GMT
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In article <2hp3sbINNm0j@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> nhowland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Neal Patrick Howland) writes:
> Actually, smaller boats are safer in large ocean swells.  They behave more
> like a piece of cork bobbing up and down with the waves.  The most 
> significant danger is the boat tipping over, but if you use some sort of
> catamaran or trimaran the odds of tipping will be very small.

> One problem with the windmill sail is that it can't be hauled in.  If
> you run into high force winds the windmill would be destroyed.

If the boat is waterproof and the keel is heavy enough the boat will be
self-righting.  Of course, the rigging will need to be up for abuse.  How big
a sail do you need to provide sufficient propulsion for a small craft?

Mike
--
Michael Cleary              cleary@ccs.neu.edu              (617) 373-5242
Robotic & Vision Systems Lab,  Northeastern University,  Boston,  Ma.  USA
