See full version: The Fastest Monohull Sailboat In The World
Down below, Volvo Spirit has all the cheerful ambience of a World War II U-boat. There are a half-dozen pipe berths, a token marine toilet jammed against the mast, and a cubbyhole crammed full of computers where the tactician spends his days and nights. The galley consists of a foot-square sink and a single propane-powered burner. Ocean racers live on tasteless freeze-dried food reconstituted with distilled seawater. [links]
To achieve this record-breaking performance, with handling to match, the weight of all equipment is concentrated in the center of the hull for a low polar moment of inertia. Both the hull and deck are as clean as possible for minimum resistance. The keel is a narrow blade sticking down into the water, with a 12,000-pound lead torpedo at the bottom that's contoured to provide lift. The rudder is T-shaped, with its own lifting foil. To help trim the boat against the tilting force of the sails, 13,000 gal. of water can be pumped into three holding tanks in the hull.
Each V.O.60 requires a crew of 12 to race it flat-out, day and night. Nearly all crew members are full-time professional sailors, who can earn up to $1500 per day. Most are in their 20s or 30s and look like bodybuilders. Only the helmsmen and tacticians, whose experience is more valuable than bulging biceps, are apt to be older than 40. more
Above decks, Volvo Spirit looks like an oversize dinghy. There are tandem steering wheels, a dozen winches, two grinders and a convex deck fenced by lifelines. When Volvo Spirit buries her nose in a wave, there's nothing to stop the water from flowing smoothly over the boat, sweeping anything not tied down--including careless sailors--over the cut-down transom. here
Some 35 of these racing boats have been built, comprising an international 1-design class. The premier V.O.60 event is the around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race held every four years. The latest competition started in Southampton, England, on Sept. 23, 2001, and will end in Kiel, Germany, on Sept. 6, 2002. By that time, the crews will have raced 32,700 nautical miles, with stops in Cape Town, Sydney, Hobart, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Baltimore, La Rochelle and Göteborg.
The sailing was magnificent, hour after hour of running before the wind or on a broad reach, pushed along at 14 knots by 20-knot winds. We made only a handful of sail changes in four days. Twice, I was able to steer for a full 3-hour night watch without touching a line, delicately balancing the main and spinnaker, Polaris ahead and Orion behind, providing my only illumination, and 150 miles from the nearest land. It was sublime.
“It is now at the stage that it is too expensive for hobbyists and needs a whole bunch of different skills to do it,” he adds. “That’s probably why Mike Drela was the one able to do it. He had a fantastic set of skills and was backed by MIT.” more
The speed record may not seem that fast, but moving at speed on water requires enormous effort (Credit: David Hills) more
Large ships are responsible for a sizeable share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (Credit: Alamy) [links]
“It was much harder problem than building our plane. If you drift up and down in a plane, it’s not a problem, even by a foot. On a hydrofoil, drifting even by a few inches can be a disaster.” more
The official world water speed record is 275.97 knots (511.09 km./h, or 317.58 mph) by Ken Warby in the unlimited-class jet-powered hydroplane Spirit of Australia on Blowering Dam Lake, New South Wales, Australia, on 8 October 1978. However, it is estimated that Warby reached an estimated 300 knots (555 km/h., or 344.86 mph) unofficially at the same location on 20 November 1977. more
All records listed on our website are current and up-to-date. For a full list of record titles, please use our Record Application Search. (You will need to register / login for access) more
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This will be mounted into an all-new hull that is being built from kevlar and Baltek, a highly-engineered balsawood material produced by 3A Composites SA of Switzerland.
His new project, Longbow is powered by twin Rolls Royce Viper turbojet engines and will be piloted by David-John Gibbs, a Formula 4 powerboat racer and flight examiner at RAF Cranwell. [links]
Since then the team has gone through two further designs before landing on the current twin-cockpit version (pictured above). Concept 4, as it is currently known, sees the engine mounted towards the front of the central hull.
The Spirit of Australia II team are due to take to the water for further testing later this month with the aim of cracking the 300mph barrier. [links]