What a week its been for the America's Cup, with the biggest prang ever for an AC72 boat as Oracle 17 nose dived into oblivion out on those choppy waters of San Francisco Bay!
Can these beasts be ridden or are they destined to overpower the crews? Are even Olympic Gold Medallists up to the task or do they need the Buff-Meister's advice?
Yes, that's right, your's truly has the answer and it came to me as I was drawing the curtains at JP HQ early this morning (Ed: the neighbours INSIST you remember the bathrobe!!)
It came to me in a flash - curtains! Or rather, should I say blinds!
These wing sail things are built with a thin skin over a skeleton but why should it be static: why not design the skin to be retractable? Split the wing into segments, each controlled separately and you could reef an AC72 wing!
When you find yourself in a bit of a blow and the foiling wing-sail cat is a bit over-powered & nose-heavy you could just wind in one or more sections of skin to leave bare carbon fibre. It would be like rolling in and out tin-foil!
So what do you think? Ready to join the Buff Staysail: 2013 AC Team!!
BS: ACT now for 2013!!
This is Buff Staysail, without his bathrobe but with a vision, over and out!!
Picture from: here
3 comments:
Why don't wings on airplanes need to be able to reef?
Magnificent! (As usual. :-P )
They are balanced by having one wing either side of the its "hull" plus engines so have more control?
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