Winnerboats Europe Class Results 2003 � World Champion 2002 - WomenS Fleet
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JUNE 2003 / 2 NEWSINTERNATIONAL EUROPE CLASS UNION From the President From France Dear Sailors ! Spring is traditionally a big period in sailing, and a lot of important events are sailed At Easter time I spent a week in Palma. I was in a few weeks. In France, as warming, the national regatta took place in April in Les as usual impressed over how the topsailors Sables d’Olonnes, and more than 120 competitors competed in light and medium winds. can handle our litlle difficult sailed dinghy. Unfortunately, the Palma Trophy was in the same time and some of the best girls were It was very nice to meet old friends, and I missing. However, Anne Marteau realized a good performance by taking the second place was very happy to see a lot of new faces in right behind Mathieu Derand who showed an outstanding speed in medium wind. Anne the class. That is perfect for the future. In was using a new hull built by Erplast. This builder was making only optimist dinghies Palma the IECU board spent a day together but is now interested by our class. Regarding the results he got in such a few months, he for a halfyear meeting. It was very positive should probably become one of the top makers soon ! After a few days of rest, the best for once to sit at the same table, and not girls went to Hyères and young sailors could learn a lot from the best Europe sailors only have e-mail contacts. Even if it has before going to the French Championship in La Grande Motte. Still light wind for this been a quiet period, we had no problems to event won by Blandine Rouille in front of Solène Brain who failed to win a third title. spend the whole day. Remember one thing: Anne Marteau confirmed her improvement by taking bronze medal. The next important DO NOT MIX SPORT AND POLITICS. event is of course the famous “12 hours of CVT” (14-15 June). It consists in sailing the I am looking foreward to meet you at the largest number of laps in 12 hours. A lot of different classes are invited to sail this event Europeans and the Worlds. hold in a small lake. You can choose to sail alone or in team, in this case, the crew sailed in Good winds to you all. the same boat which let some time to enjoy party around the event and it may be the only regatta when you can overtake a melges 24 at 3 o’clock in the morning. Antoine Préveaux Best regards. seems to be THE specialist of that event regarding he won the last two years, but I guess Jan Abrahamsen, IECU President he will meet some serious opponents this year... For any information, visit our website: asso.ffv.europe (this is written without “www” !) Waiting for to see you. Sail development Have fun !! WB-Sails has done a lot of research around Valérian Lebrun the Europe sail as part of their development work. In addition to the traditional on- water testing with 2 or 3 boats, both wind tunnel measurements and sophisticated computer simulation have been used, striving for faster shapes and more versatile sails. A digital video camera attached to the top of the mast is routinely used to record and analyze sail shape in all wind conditions. Wind tunnel testing An accurate scale model of the Europe dinghy was created for the wind tunnel testing. Actually the hull used was that of a 470 with a modified bow, since the hull was there from earlier tests and its exact shape is not that important. Much care was given to the design of the mast and the sails, produced in 1:4 scale to fit in the Helsinki University of Technology wind tunnel. The bending of the carbon mast, with sail groove and everything, was carefully engineered so that it was exactly the same as the real mast. In addition, its overall stiffness was adjusted so that the loading on the sailcloth would be similar to the real world sail when blown with a two times stronger wind than in reality. Thus we could use the same sailcloth as in the actual sails, Read more>>> JUNE 2003 INTERNATIONAL EUROPE CLASS UNION 1 — www.europeclass.org — >>> for both the horizontal and the radial Computer calculated wind design. So 12 m/s in the wind tunnel would speed on the leeward side of the sail, when the apparent represent very accurately 6 m/s on the sea, wind is 6 m/s (true wind when it comes to mast bend, sail loading and speed about 4 m/s). Max. sail shape. The sail shapes were recorded wind speeds are over 9 m/s. Higher speeds mean a with several cameras for all the 25 or so tests lower pressure, or suction performed with the radial and the horizontal on the leeward side of the sail in wind speed ranging from 6 to 25 m/s sail in simpler words air is (3 to 12,5 m/s in the real world). Forces and “pulling” the sail. moments on the model were measured. In addition several flow visualization tests with smoke were done. For the purpose of these tests, the sail was painted black to show the On the windward side the smoke better. The flow pattern was recorded flow is slowed down to WB-Sails uses digital video camera attached to the top of 2 m/s. Slow speed means with a video camera. the mast to record sail shape on the water. higher pressure, so air is “pushing” the sail on the Computer simulation digital wind tunnel. windward side. Computer simulation of the wind flow around sails has evolved quickly during the last few years. Sophisticated tools can give much more detailed information about what is happening around the sail than wind tunnel testing. However, wind tunnel testing Top view of the Europe with computer generated is essential in validating or qualibrating the streamlines around the flow software. In practice, the wind tunnel sail. This illustration shows tests are first replicated in the computer, and how complex the airflow around sails can be. For calculated driving forces and heeling forces accurate results, the hull are compared to those measured in the wind model should be included in the simulation, since the tunnel. Computer software parameters are flow over the hull influences that over the sails. Ideally then adjusted so that the results agree with the sailor should be modeled, too, but his/her influence on the flow over the sails is minimal: the sailor is almost measurements. Then we can run many more pure drag. simulations in the computer, testing different Smoke is used in the wind tunnel to visualize the flow. sails shapes and trim, with relatively good Here you can see the swirl forming in the top of a Europe sail. The sail has The sail has been painted black to show confidence that the results can be relied on. better. As an example, we ³filled² a lightly loaded area in the computer generated pressure map of the sail through adjusting the sail shape in its lower part. Sure enough this design change, when transferred to the real world, produced a faster sail in light and medium Another illustration of the complexity of sail flow. When airs when two boat testing. The change has leaving the leech of the sail the air is forced into a rolling since been permanently added to our design. motion, swirling into two large vortices in the top of the We now take routinely mastcam footage sail and under the boom. This is the “bad air” behind the boat familiar to anyone racing. These swirls consume of new designs, to record and analyze sails energy, bending the airflow around the sail itself and shapes in the “digital wind tunnel” provided reducing the lift. The leech vortices contribute up to 75% Smoke visualization of the flow, seen from above. by the computer. of the air drag of the boat, so no wonder much of the sail computer simulation work focuses on minimizing their effect. See the one-design section at www.wb-sails.fi for animations and video about Europe sail Mikko Brummer simulation. WB-Sails The “bad air sector” seen from behind... The radial sail in the wind tunnel in 25 m/s, corre- sponding to approximately 10 m/s true wind in the real world. Rows of tell tails are ...and overhead. If air used to monitor the flow. wasn`t invisible, we would see quite The horizontal lines are for a spectacle every time we sheet the sails. recording sail shape from above with a video camera. The bend of the mast is realistic and you can see how the sail stretches and wrinkles under the loading. The shadow of the mast makes it appear larger in reality it is accurately scaled from the real mast, but solid carbon to make it stiff enough. 2 INTERNATIONAL EUROPE CLASS UNION JUNE 2003 JUNE 2003 — www.europeclass.org — FROM CZECH REPUBLIC FROM CZECH REPUBLIC The traditional opening of the yachting sea- son “Palavska Regatta” is one of the most popular sport events in the Czech Republic. In South Moravia, about 30 km from Brno and 100 km from Vienna (Austria) the race was held from 9 to 11 May 2003. The Lake Nové Mlýny gave a hearty welcome to 46 competitors from Czech Republic, 8 from Austria, 1 from Slovakia. The wind conditions were not quite excellent but the weather was wonderful and sunny.