I'm sailing a Hobie Cat 16 since three years. Being a physicist, I was interested also in theoretical aspects of sailing in order to understand the effects. Currently, I read
The Symmetry of Sailing - the Physics of Sailing for Yachtsmen
from Ross Garerett. Therefore some questions came up concerning my Hobie Cat 16:
Are numerical or graphical data available for Hobie Cat 16?
Are there polar curves (lift coefficient CL versus drag coefficient CD) or performance polar diagrams (speed versus angle to true wind) for different wind speeds available?
Or do you know somebody, which gathered similar data?
Thanks a lot
Kurt Ruegg
I know of an individual in Canada that has done some interesting mathematical figures regarding the H16 when it comes to overall speed, etc. Soon as he replies I will pass this info. on to you in this post.
I too studied Physics as my undergraduate work and am excited to see a kindred spirit interested in the H16 class. There are polars at the address below that might be of interest to you. Do you have any of your work posted on the internet? I would be very interested to see some information on your work.
http://www.west.net/~lpm/hobie/archives/v1-i3/feature3.htm
kyle < h16
I am still waiting for him to reply (guy from Canada). I am interested in this mathematical info. but am no mathematician by any means. I’ll post the information as soon as I get it, it should be very interesting to those of us who care.
I sure would like to see his model and know how it is based on Frank Bethwaites work. His book is very good but somethimes takes a math shortcut that will give skewed results. I can crosscheck with the math sail model I have of sailforces that I used to derive the sailpower plots that are present on my homepage.
Wouter