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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
Ocean yachts class W-60. History of invention and production
Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us The Whitbread Round the World Race has been held every four years under the patronage of the Royal House of Great Britain since 1973. They began to get involved in yachts in England in the 1660th century. King Charles II, who ruled from 1720, owned, among other things, a yacht called "Mary". The first yacht club in England appeared in XNUMX. Whitbread is the most prestigious and longest, lasting about nine months, professional sailing competitions. Here the latest technologies in racing under sail are being developed. Traditionally, the leading world powers - Great Britain, the USA, France, Japan, Italy participate in them. The Soviet Union was represented only once in 1989-1990 by the Phasis yacht, which finished eleventh. In 1993-1994, only Ukraine competed from the former Soviet republics with the sailboats Hetman Sagaidachny (7th place) and Odessa-200 (out of standings). Russia has never participated in such prestigious competitions. In the races in 1997, yachts of one class (W-60) started, and not three, as in the previous time. Already in 1993-1994, the W-60s, designed specifically for such races, proved themselves from the very best side. Since that time, yachts have become even faster and more reliable.
The "Whitbread-60 Ocean Yacht Rules" provide for the construction of single-masted monohull yachts, at the highest level of modern technological and sporting achievements. They should have fairly close characteristics. The document specifically emphasizes the requirements for the safety and stability of the vessel. The idea behind the W-60 is to level the playing field for yachtsmen. The participants and organizers of the race were tired of too big gaps between rivals, which happened, for example, in the race of 1989-1990, complex formulas that equalize the possibilities of ships of different sizes, according to which they had to calculate the winner. There is a decision to choose one high-speed and relatively cheap class, where the ships finish tightly, and the result is determined as simply as possible - the time of arrival. On the recommendation of the riders, in June 1990, a group of sixteen of the world's leading yacht designers was assembled in the UK. After this meeting, a new class appeared - Whitbread W-60. This is a family of ocean racing yachts that have almost the same characteristics: for the values of lengths, areas and weights, an acceptable range has been determined. Nevertheless, every skipper, designer, sailmaker and builder has enough opportunities to apply his talent and new technologies. The speed potential of the new generation W-60 yachts is very high. The average speed of a sailboat of this class is 20 knots, and the maximum is up to 40. Setting several world speed records in the races of the 1990s is the best proof of the promise of the W-60 class. In accordance with the rules, the hull of the yacht is divided by watertight bulkheads into three compartments, if any of them is flooded, the yacht remains afloat. Case W-60 - three-layer. Styrofoam is placed between two Kevlar shells. After gluing, a monolithic structure is obtained. The rejection of the traditional scheme of the transverse-longitudinal power set allows you to strengthen the structure and place the load-bearing elements in the most fortified places. All rigging fasteners are made of composite materials, which make it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the vessel compared to metal counterparts. The speed of a yacht is markedly affected by the rigidity of the hull, as the deck is subjected to tremendous compression, especially at the bow and stern. Special computer programs are used to optimize the weight and the best distribution of loads. In the 1993-1994 race, most of the sailboats suffered from hull delamination, except for Hetman Sahaydachny, built on the basis of advanced aviation technologies. The reason is the use of highly efficient water ballast. It allows you to carry a significantly greater windage in strong winds, which means that the vessel has to withstand large dynamic pressure and shock loads compared to traditional ones. Therefore, after the finish of the 1994 race, in order to avoid the destruction of the hull in the harsh conditions of the race, they developed special technological tricks. In the 1993-1994 race, eight out of ten yachts were built according to the design of Bruce Farah. All of his ships were equipped with L-shaped keels. On a thin narrow steel pylon, a massive lead bulb weighing eight tons was suspended, resembling a torpedo in shape. The new keel, with a significantly smaller surface area, gave a significant lift advantage in sharp courses compared to the traditional design. However, when heeling, large torsional loads occur on the attachment points to the hull, since the center of gravity of the bulb is strongly shifted back. Before the 1997-1998 race, the designers had to choose between L- and traditional T-keels. Analysis of the models did not reveal any particular advantages of any of them. If at higher speeds L-shaped was preferable, then at low speeds - due to laminar flow - a T-shaped keel. Computer simulation did not help either. And only full-scale tests in the pool made it possible to choose the optimal shape. Traditionally, racing yacht rudder parts are made of carbon fiber, and the W-60 is no exception. However, several serious breakdowns forced the designers to reconsider some traditional concepts for the 1997-1998 race. So, as a result of fine-tuning the rudder of a new generation, the distribution of loads, relative elongation and wetted surface area, its shape when flowing around in different modes were optimized. Initially, the steering system of "Hetman Sagaydachny" had the maximum design loads on the bearings - 9,2 tons for the lower one and 5,1 tons for the upper one. After a revision by the designers, the new assembly weighs only 19,2 kilograms on the lower and upper bearings, respectively, the maximum working loads of 36,1 tons and 19,6 tons. For your information, the steering gear of the yacht "Odessa" made of stainless steel weighed about 480 kilograms! Computer modeling and field tests in the pool allowed Farah's team to create a conceptually new wheel for the last race, lighter and at the same time more durable and efficient in all modes. This made it possible for the yachts of the new, already fourth generation, to become more manageable with less resistance, especially at high speeds. “The navigation cabin of a W-60 class yacht is not inferior to the cockpit of the latest fighter aircraft in terms of saturation with modern electronics and computers,” writes E. Platon in the Tekhnika-Youth magazine. “After all, success in the race, first of all, depends on the quality of the decisions made by the navigator. Indeed, other conditions in the race are the same for the participants, since all yachts are of the same class and all (except one) are designed by Bruce Far, and the teams consist of professional racers of the highest world qualification. Success or failure depends on one person - the navigator, who spends all the time crouching over his desk and "conjuring" over computers and weather maps. During the ocean race, each navigator receives and analyzes weather information in his own way. When determining the optimal course, he must also take into account the speed characteristics of the yacht, different combinations of sails, the angle and strength of the wind. Carry out accurate calculations in the, to put it mildly, cramped conditions of the deckhouse of the W-60 yacht (the winch drive shaft rotates overhead, capable of scalping at any time) with constant lack of sleep, in 100% humidity of the tropics or at zero air and water temperatures in the Southern Ocean - hard work. And therefore, on the W-60 - at least two computers, at least four communication systems, of which two are global satellite, a satellite navigation system, an automated complex for collecting information about the state of the yacht and the weather around; radar, finally - the detection system "Man overboard!". But I repeat: no matter how powerful modern technology is, it is only an assistant, the decision is always made by the navigator. And with all this intricate economy, he manages during the 9-month race around the Earth. During the race on the W-60, in addition to the storm staysail and trisail, 38 sails are allowed. And at each of the stages on board should be no more than 17. The cost of a complete set is approximately $ 370000. Sails are the engine of the yacht. To design such an engine, you need to know the strength and direction of the wind in the race. Based on this, their geometry and aerodynamics are calculated, material and technology are selected. More than 150 rig options are tested for each yacht in preparation for the race in order to create the optimal variant. The team usually consists of three professional sailors who work or have experience in racing sail companies. Before the start, they spend more than five thousand hours at the sewing machine, altering the panels after the tests. Wind tunnels are widely used in research programs. Comparative tests are being carried out on two yachts in sparring using state-of-the-art radar systems to determine speed variations. “In order for the yacht to go into the wind (in a tack), - writes E. Platon, - it must constantly tack (“through the wind”). The W-60 is able to go at an angle of 30 degrees (steeper than most others) to the true wind The mainsail and staysail on these courses are fixed as close as possible to the axis of the deck.When the wind blows from the side at 90 degrees to the course - gulfwind - on a yacht, the speed of the pennant (total with the speed of the ship) wind can be twice the speed of the true one. Then the sailboat goes faster than the wind! On courses sharper than gulfwind (hauled), a mainsail is placed on the W-60; jib-top - full staysail and staysail - narrow saber-shaped inner staysail. When the wind angle is slightly more than 90 degrees (gybe), a reacher, a flat asymmetrical spinnaker, rises instead of a jib top. On more complete courses (backstay) - the reacher is replaced by a runner - a full asymmetrical spinnaker. Two types of reachers and runners are used on W-60 yachts - top and 7/8. The first, in light and medium winds, rise to the very top of the mast - the top, the second - in strong winds - seven-eighths of its height. In the 1993-1994 race, the organizers introduced artificial restrictions on the weight of the fabric for reachers and runners, it was not allowed to use the top versions of these sails on most stages of the race (except for two). The restrictions have now been lifted. During a hurricane, the W-60 is equipped with a storm staysail and trisail. These are relatively small sails made of heavy-duty fabric." Today sails for racing yachts are made from special laminated fabrics. In this case, matter is selected that corresponds to the working loads in one or another part of the sail. Thus, when sewing together different panels, a sail is obtained, as if made up of panels of different colors and weights. In the late 1990s, North Sails developed a technology for manufacturing one-piece, seamless, so-called 3DL sails. These sails are made of polymer films and high modulus fibers. They are laminated together at high temperature in a special matrix. Due to the lack of seams, such sails are much lighter than "panel" ones. The first such mainsails for the W-60 yachts of the 1997-1998 race weighed from 90 to 100 kilograms. They have become twice as light as the "panel" predecessors. Further use of high-modulus PBO fibers as reinforcing fibers made it possible to further reduce the weight to 75-80 kilograms. And 3DL staysails are significantly superior in quality to their "panel" counterparts. Author: Musskiy S.A.
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