hoom

'Redefining spectator sport' Eh fuckem.

To be clear: I'm not saying 'no bear away' I'm saying 'less bear away than the boat with half-size foils'. Say TNZ goes down to 80deg for 10s & has 5deg higher pointing vs LR who take 20s at 100deg & 50deg pointing. TNZ would open a big gap from an equal standing start before LR could get up to speed. It might well be that LR then is able to more than make up for it with quicker speed once up & before the next manoeuvre but it might not, we'll have to see once they line up. Half the foil area has to translate to a significant top-speed adavantage.

ETNZ had the biggest span but the word was that TNZ had a 30% smaller surface area than Orifice. I'm not sure if ETNZ actually confirmed that number but Gashby did describe having more heaviliy loaded foils -> intentional effort to keep things smooth & flow attached. If ETNZ foils are 100% bigger than LR this time thats a lot bigger difference than I thought by eyeball. I do think teams will have a very good idea of the relative sizes with modern photometry so I'm taking that as a likely factual number. On the other hand if it means TNZ gets away with the lower-drag belly hull, gets them up foiling without such a big bear-away & keeps them foiling through manoeuvres more reliably it might be enough of an average speed advantage to make up for a slower top speed, especially given flukey Auckland summer weather. Bunch of other very interesting points in that interview

Beautiful, Infidel & Innismara

For the car-style ground effect = more righting moment enthusiasts: does it look like the spray is getting sucked in under the hull in some of those shots? With that angle the chines could be generating some nice vortexes under the hull. I'm actually really digging this little'un.

No that was the first time I'd noticed them & I did miss your earlier comment while scrolling through the trash-talking. And I was only semi-claiming the tips as TNZ style, TNZ is the first with them in this AC class but that form is far from new or unique to TNZ. Ironically more like Boeing 787 winglets than anything Airbus has done. Even the latest Airbus ones are more like 'traditional' vertical tips. Sailplanes at least have been doing that curved & raked style much longer, not to mention scimitar/scythe props on planes & subs.

Ex fuckin quooise you?! I see you did mention it back on 15th but there doesn't appear to be any other discussion of it I missed between all the shit-slinging. So anyway: US team copies TNZ again, I guess those smaller foils didn't really work out?

When did their foils get those tips?

Very good, it actually sails!

Supercavitating torpedos are a very different thing. Shkval is the original, its a rocket that runs 200+kt, idea being that it closes range before the victim can get out of the way/shoot a response. (also initial version was nuke...) Yep, here's the Shkval nose As I understand it vents some of the rocket exhaust to help create the bubble & the nose plate can be angled to adjust the bubble shape -> steer. And aft, supposedly the fins were springloaded to skim the inside of the bubble

Thanks for the effort. Not exactly much going on in the vid but any pics/vid at all is better than none

Just like when 'Basher smoked Artemis' in the lead up to last AC...

Am I missing sarcasm here? We saw & discussed the hinge mechanism shortly after the launch & a nice drawing was produced (by @buckdouger I think?) which fits the visible evidence very well

You're not wrong. I didn't mean to say 'has no effect', more 'its not so bad that its falling off the foils'. Perhaps someone can do the numbers & check if there's a noticeable acceleration when the bubble closes/deceleration when it opens?