Here is a selection of videos for visitors to the AYRS booth at the RYA Virtual Dinghy Show
A selection of AYRS member’s experimental craft – mostly taken during Weymouth SpeedWeeks. Some from a few decades ago, some relatively recent, some successful, some scary, some disappointing, all I think interesting . . . go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNc4NTZxIgU
An AYRS Zoom meeting – the AYRS has been holding regular on-line meetings using Zoom from April 2020 – all are welcome – details are posted on this website and are also emailed to our members. This presentation by Bernard Rhodes is a fine example from these meetings. Bernard was a pioneer of modern multihull sailing. Back in the 1960s he designed and built a 22 foot trimaran then sailed this tiny craft from the north west UK to New Zealand where he settled and lives to this day. The presentation was given in two parts, the first part on 6th June 2020, the second on 13th June 2020.
Paul Larsen is a long standing AYRS member and has sailed faster than anyone else has ever done. Paul has also been involved with long distance ocean racing and was a member of an expedition that re-enacted Shackleton’s boat passage from Elephant Island in the Antartic to South Georgia – he has diverse interests in sailing. Paul has encouraged us to use his highly successful projects in publicising the AYRS so here is the video of the record breaking run – 59.23 knots over 500metres and 63 knots peak speed in approximately 25 knots mean wind speed. This was in November 2012 and no one has yet sailed faster than that although some are certainly trying. See here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjyusAgk8I – other videos of the SailRocket project available at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcoYIGpTo2WCjyPkG0WvO2w
Illustrating the diversity of AYRS members’ projects, here is Tim Glover’s amphibious land yacht. Tim likes to go land yachting on a beach in Wales which is partially flooded as the tide comes in, so he developed a land yacht with big bouyant wheels that makes it amphibious. The plates on the wheels were a later addition to help with crossing soft sand see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hl7JnkNF30 Tim, working in collaboration with AYRS member Kim Fisher, also experimented with towing these wheels behind a powerboat hoping that if they went fast enough they might roll over the surface of the water reducing drag. However, the opposite happened and the wheels dug into the surface and partially submerged – which shows that fluid dynamics does not always work as you might expect it to. But a lot was learnt along the way and it lead to good collaboration between AYRS members – one advantage of joining the AYRS is that you can meet people to share ideas and even set up joint projects.
A number of AYRS members have been fascinated by the idea of sailing with a kite in the air, a paravane (often known as a ‘hapa’) in the water and the sailor suspended on the line connecting the kite to the paravane. This feat has been attempted at many Weymouth Speedweek meetings and now it is starting to become practical reality thanks to Stephane Rousson. Stephane and his collaborators are developing the hapa concept invented by the late Didier Costes, a longstanding member of the AYRS. See here for a video of the longest flight so far, with Sylvain Claudel as test rider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq-yCfKsg1k Didier Costes also experimented with the concept of sailing with a paravane in the water attached to an airship that acted as the ‘sail’. (I understand that an airship held at an angle of attack to the wind typcially has a lift to drag ratio of about 4:1). Stephane continues to develop and experiment with this concept – see Stephane’s website: https://www.rousson.org also see https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/stephane-rousson
