Kiwing

I have it on good authority "one of the designers" of the SR-71 the air intakes for the engines finally doubled the performance of the plane after many different goes it was one of the real learning curves.

Fantastic @kelly can't wait for some more pictures and news. Well done!

My friend died this way 50 metres above the ground and hit a shear - straight into a tree!

@A Class Sailor with the two shapes I should have said. The Mule sail cross section seems to be more like ..... Can there be some advantage in making the softwing cross section look more like (the glider wing cross section) for some of the time (maybe when you are doing 40-50 knots?) I assume that the internal structure of the softwing can do such a change. Do you not think the softwing could make such a change or do you think there is no advantage in doing it?

@Remodel with some sort of internal structure, a hydraulic control system which can produce changeable winglike shapes, and an reverseable top is 70% of the AC50 wing possible? The new sail cloths and membranes they have these days will help tremendously wont they? Am I "delusional" as @A Class Sailor suggests? Looking at the "Mule" cross section and the "Glider" cross section I posted earlier can you help with interpreting @Erwankerauzen's XFoil post? which is too technical for me, please.

TC remember AC34 those boats were not going to foil just foil assist!

@NeedAClew My guess is that the softwing will have better Power down low speed and hence achieve and earlier lift off. However changing shape to match the quickly changing apparent wind will be the challenge.

The optimum speed for glider is 40 to 50 knots for the slowest sink rate. That is why I have chosen a glider wing. I am sure you require a different cross section for the getting onto foils and maybe the mule sail shape will be better for that short period (20%? of race time). If so I think they will change the shape during the "take-off" time. @A Class Sailor I have no blind faith that the soft wing will be as good as the AC35 wing. But I do believe that it will be a lot better than a soft single skin sail, maybe half way between. I know most of the reason ETNZ chose this design was to get sail makers more into the game and to increase the trickle down benefits from the AC but I also believe there is some secret knowledge from AC35 which will enable the Teams to produce a better sail design. I also think the history of this design is far from complete development of this idea.

From fish fins apparently. When you apply a force to "structure A" fixed at the bottom it distorts unusually as in "structure B". @Erwankerauzen showed the hint to the research above. I wonder if it can and will be used in the new soft wing?

I'll have to investigate if at slower speeds the "mule" sail above is better.

"You've got a young and vigorous team in New Zealand, a bunch of young guys who I think have choreographed the handling of that boat beautifully and they really work efficiently together" "You'd have to put your money behind Team New Zealand at the moment with the boat speed they've shown, which seems to be coming from their foil and wing package" Almost everyone talks about the foils, almost none about the ETNZ wing and foil controls which I actually think was the difference. particularly the wing control.

Sorry @Brutal I believe it was ETNZ's wing control which was the point of difference AC35. There might have been some times when ETNZ's foils were better but I believe there were equal times when OR's were better. So I believe AC36 will be won and lost on softwing control.

Yes some humour !!

Is this a valid comparison ?

Thanks Erwan, looks very interesting and we fish alot so I am interested in exploring this natural effect.