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HOW TO MAKE YACHTS SAIL FASTER BY MICHAEL PIGNÉGUY N athanael Greene Herreshoff (1848-1938) designed, built and sailed more race winning yachts, including five America's Cup winners, than any other yacht designer of his era. A long list of his inventions include the sail track and slides, crosscut sails, folding propellers, the modern sheet winch, and he developed yacht scantlings based on scientific load calculations. 'Captain Nat', as he was known, was a Naval Architect and also had a degree in mechanical engineering, but it was a very long time before computers came into being, and so many of his designs and innovations came from his keen eye, observations and practical experience, backed up by sound theoretical knowledge. While Herreshoff yachts were winning races in the northern hemisphere New Zealand was home to two notable boatbuilding families whose graceful yachts were winning races in this country, and also in Australia and South Africa. It would have been interesting to have a Logan or Bailey America's Cup yacht race against one of Herreshoff's Cup yachts, but no doubt the New York Yacht Club would have come up with some rule that would have disqualified a 'colonial' yacht had they won! New Zealand racing yachts and sailors started coming into world prominence after Chris Bouzaid brought home New Zealand's first international yachting trophy since 1956, by winning the One Ton Cup in 1969. After that a virtual avalanche of wins followed including Ron Holland winning the World Quarter Ton Cup in 1973 and Bruce Farr designs winning the World Quarter Ton (1975),and later the World Half Ton, Three- Quarter Ton and One ton Cups. In1978 it was Tony Bouzaid who won the World Half Ton Cup. It was the start of both New Zealand Yacht design and sailors becoming a dominant force in world yacht design and racing. The Yacht Research Unit was established at the University of Auckland by Professor Peter Jackson in 1987 with the primary function of coordinating and promoting yacht research and engineering. Professor Richard Flay joined the Mechanical Engineering Department in 1984 and is now Director of the YRU and, apart from teaching fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, design, and wind engineering, his research interests Ron Holland in his draughting office Professor Richard Flay, Director of the Yacht Research Unit, University of Auckland are focussed on wind, and he has consulted and researched in the areas of wind engineering, wind energy, wind tunnel design, and wind tunnel testing. A highlight was his design of the world's first wind tunnel capable of producing twisted flow for testing yacht sails which was used by Team New Zealand, and helped them win the Americas Cup in 1995. This wind tunnel is still used for the testing of a large proportion of the world's yacht sails, including providing advanced sail analysis for many of the current Volvo Open 70 fleet. The Twisted Flow Wind Tunnel develops t he correct simulates the air flow over yacht sails in order to model the apparent wind as felt by a yacht when sailing. The wind in the tunnel is twisted vertically by using flexible vertical frames between the fan creating the wind, and the sails to be tested. This wind profile is necessary for the correct simulation of the proper flying shape and performance characteristics of the sails. In simple terms, the apparent direction of wind and turbulence at the top of a tall mast is different from that at its base, which can affect the efficiency of the sail design, and the wind tunnel simulates these differences in the direction of the apparent wind. The models used in the wind tunnel are 1/15th scale and their coefficients transfer directly to full scale yachts. Knowledge gained from all this testing, and then actually being used at sea, gradually filters down to smaller competitive yachts, and can be likened to the competitive technology of Formula One racing cars benefiting the ordinary car on the road. Since its inception, the Yacht Research Unit has, achieved an enviable record of success. Leading up to the America's Cup in Valencia in 2007, there were arguably more graduates from University of Auckland working in key positions in teams there than from any other university in the world. This success continued when in 2008 Emirates Team New Zealand appointed the University as their 'Official Scientific Advisor', and ETNZ offered several scholarships to support students studying in the YRU. The Master students and Staff visiting a new build at Alloy Yachts with Ron Holland 60 Professional Skipper July/August 2012 Building on their successes, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland is now offering a new one-year Master's degree in Yacht Engineering. The first intake of four students are