 |
||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||
|
 |
|
|
KS2000 Designed to break the World Sailing Speed Record and to make the First Kite or Aerostat Powered Transatlantic Crossing KS2000 is designed to break the World Sailing Speed Record and to make the first kite powered Transatlantic Crossing. It will be capable of speeds in the order of 100knots and should easily beat the present World Record of 48.6knots. It could also beat the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by any vessel, but that will depend on the conditions at the time. One of the main features of the yacht is that when it is ‘flying’, i.e., when the outrigger hull and the cabin are lofted by the kites the foil/Hapa is especially curved in order to provide sufficient drag to stop the complete yacht from being pulled out of the water, yet the cabin is 30ft above the waves, so even in high seas does not provide extra drag to slow the yacht down.
KS2000 is an unconventional yacht that will be powered by the remotely controlled new generation of airBeam™ kites, capable of landing and taking off from water. Like previous Kite Yachts it will be capable of maneuvering just like a conventional yacht in confined spaces with the main hull and outrigger hull as well as the kite on the water. On reaching open seas the kites are lofted, using a winching system that we developed originally for KY5, but with KS2000 we will be motorizing it because the forces generated will be too great for hand operation. As the kites are lofted their ultimate height will be controlled by a lead kite with wind direction and speed measurement on board which will be monitored on board the yacht. As speed increases the outrigger hull and, later the main hull as it is winched up the rails towards the outrigger hull, start to 'fly', giving the craft an incredibly small wetted surface and therefore much greater speed and windward ability than a conventional yacht. Other integral parts of the future yacht were developed for the military, particularly the foil or Hapa/Sea anchor arrangement, which we remotely controlled together with a kite for ASWE. KS2000 is a proa for many reasons, one of which is that, with a kite, conventional tacking takes longer than ‘shunting’ because one of the main assets of a kite is being able to sweep through the sky at speeds which are much faster than the wind speed, so acceleration from fastest speed in one direction to the fastest speed in the opposite direction is a matter of a few seconds, whereas by tacking the maneuverability of the yacht is the limiting factor. Secondly it enables a movable cabin to be placed between two rails so that the pilot and navigator are always facing the direction of the kites. The cabin can move fore and aft along the rails, so that when at rest it is a flotation pod, sitting next to the Hapa (or Sea Anchor) and with the outrigger inflatable hull it forms a stable catamaran. This design enables KS2000 to maneuver in confined spaces with the kite(s) on the surface of the sea (as all versions of the Kite Yacht were capable of doing) and closely hauled to the cabin pod. The airBeam™ Kites will be more aerodynamic than present kites, because they will hold their shape even under extreme wind conditions, so they will not be subject to the present day kite flatulence. The method of control of KS2000 includes a rail over the outrigger hull which is used to change the center of pressure on the Hapa, thereby obviating the necessity of having a rudder, exactly as in Kite Yacht 5, which also was able to operate efficiently without a centerboard. At present we are talking to and actively looking for sponsors for this project.
|
||
