SpeedDream

2SpeedDream

“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream

by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in

the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers

of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their

dream with open eyes to make it possible.”

3 Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet

T.E Lawrence

COVER RENDERINGTyler Doyle

INTERIOR RENDERINGSTyler Doyle

PHOTO CREDITSLarry Rosenfeld, NASA, Brian

Hancock, Vlad Murnikov

EDITED BYBrian Hancock

GRAPHIC LAYOUTBrian Hancock

TEXTVlad Murnikov

COPYRIGHTSpeedDreem

February 2010

SpeedDream

Speed

Dre

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REVEALING (SOME) SECRETS - Pg 6

MONOHULL VERSUS MULTIHULL - Pg 8

A SLENDER WAVE-PIERCING HULL - Pg 12

THE ULTIMATE CANTING KEEL - Pg 15

STABILIZING HYDROFOILS - Pg 15

LEARNING FROM POWERBOATS - Pg 15

KEEPING THE BOAT DRY - Pg 18

DESIGN BACKGROUND - Pg 20

CONTENTS


Revealing (some)

In this issue we take a closer look at some of theinnovative ideas behind SpeedDream.

he idea that a mono-hull will one day out-perform a multihull issure to raise the eye-

brows of even the most sym-pathetic skeptic.

From the days of outriggercanoes it’s been clear that ifyou want to get some placefast, you need a multihull.

While this is generally true itmay not always be true. Sure,a 40 foot catamaran flying ahull and skimming over the

tional r ighting moment andpartially offset displacement.

inally we wil l answerthe question that is oneveryone’s lips; how onearth are they going to

sail that boat without gettingswept off the deck? We willreveal some of the creativeand innovative ideas for get-t ing water of f the boat asquickly as possible.

waves is surely faster than a40 foot monohull dragging aheavy lead keel around, butas boats increase in size therecan be a quite convincingargument for a monohul lbeing the swifter vessel.

In this issue of SpeedDreamwe will reveal some of thesecrets behind this innovativedesign from a slender wave-piercing hull to the ultimatecant ing keel. SpeedDreamalso makes use of a stabiliz-ing hydrofoil to create addi-

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Secrets

Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet

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What’s faster? Monohull or multihull.

YOU MAY BE SURPRISED

Monohull versus Multihullhe SpeedDream proj-ect is a quest todesign and build theworld’s fastest mono-

hull, capable of establishingremarkable speed records inopen ocean condit ionsincluding fastest transatlanticcrossing and global circum-navigation.

Why a monohull?

For decades catamarans andtr imarans were the fastestsailboats to ply world oceans,proving time and again theirhuge performance potential.Al l this t ime mult ihul lsenjoyed unrestricted develop-ment while their designerswere free to explore everypossibility in order to find thebest recipe for speed.

onohull develop-ment on the otherhand has alwaysbeen governed by

class rules which put a huge

relat ive beam and lengthmonoghulls tend to slow downafter each burst of speed.

he SpeedDream teambelieves that the mul-t ihul l performancecould be matched

possibly even exceeded by amonohull if only we could dis-card all the restrictions anddesign the most advancedboat possible. After all multi-hulls, no matter how big, longand slender, still sail in dis-placement mode while high-speed monohulls can gl ideover the water in a much moreeff icient planing mode. Wesee potential for a huge jumpin monohull performance, atrue revolut ion in design,while catamarans and tr i-marans would continue theirincremental advancement,evolving larger and widerwhile growing more complexand costly.

damper on their performancecapabil i t ies. The VOR 70,today’s fastest monohull, is arelatively conservative designwhich in order to reduce costs- and risks associated with theultimate ocean race - hasbeen developed in accordanceto strict “box” rules

The rule puts l imi ts onlengths, beam, draf t , d is-placement, r ig dimensions,sai l area - a l l the majordesign parameters - as wellas materials that can be usedfor the boat construction. Andyet, despite all these restric-tions, VOR 70s are capable ofreaching speed in excess of40 knots, the same as thefastest mult ihul ls . Howevercatamarans and tr imaranswith their needle- l ike hul lforms can susta in higherspeed for a substant ia l lylonger t ime per iods thanmuch wider and shortermonohulls. Because of their

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Generally, light boats are fast.Monohull critics are quick topoint out the ballast weightthat traditional boat has tocarry in order to achieve suffi-cient stabi l i ty. But recentadvancements in canting keeldesign allows for enormousgains in stability while reduc-ing ballast weight. True, multi-hulls don’t need ballast forgenerating righting moment,but they have to carry aroundthe weight of at least one oreven two extra hulls plus allthe complex structure neces-sary to keep it all together. Webelieve that modern technolo-gy makes it possible to pro-duce a monohull with a com-parable weight and rightingmoment of a multihull, whiletaking full advantage of thedrag reduction due to thehigh-speed planing hull.

ur prel iminary est i -mates show that theSpeedDream conceptwould result in a

monohull capable of reaching

50-knot speed and maintain-ing average speed on par withthe fastest mult ihul ls.Building the world’s fastestmonohull adds a new level ofexcitement to the never-end-ing quest for speed. It willquestion the status quo andshatter existing stereotypes ofhigh performance sailing. Itwould effect the sailing com-munity in a more profoundway than any speed-recordmultihull could ever do sim-ply because the vastmajority of sailboats aremonohulls. The designinnovat ion andresearch that will gointo this project andthe experiencegained will benefitfuture sai lboatdesign, sett ingdirect ion fornext genera-tions of sail-ing yachts.


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A Slender Wave-

igh performanceresults from a combi-nation of two mainfactors: providing the

boat with enough power andreducing her resistance toorder to utilize this power inthe most efficient way. Somedesigners focus performanceoptimization on the powerincrease. Multihulls are typicalof this approach as they growlarger and wider with everynew generation to achievehigher and higher sail-carryingcapacity. The problem, howev-er, is that over-powered vesselsare over-stressed requiring amore and more robust struc-ture to survive. This comes atthe expense of extra weightcalling in turn for even morepower to maintain speed.

Our solution is to reduce drag

H by all means possible. This wayall available wind power is usedmore efficiently, requiring lesssail area to achieve higherspeeds. Less righting momentis needed, the boat is lessstressed and can in factbecome lighter while remainingjust as strong. Lighter meansfaster.

o greatly reduce resist-ance SpeedDream fea-tures a relatively nar-row, slender hull,

almost triangular in plan viewand equipped with a sharpwave-piercing bow. The goal isto reduce drag in heavy seas aswell as to minimize pitching andslamming.

he boat is designed to sail mostof time with a constant heelangle of around 20-25 degrees.

This angle of heel is maintainedby adjusting sail area and keelangle to suit wind conditions.Both the hull and rig are opti-mized to be at peak efficiencyin these conditions with the hullhaving two narrow, planing sur-faces port and starboard, eachtilted at 20-25 degrees.

uring further designdevelopment we willhave to veri fy theoptimal heel angle

and determine both shape andwidth of the planing surfacesto achieve best combination ofmaximum hydrodynamic l i f tand minimal hull drag. Theoverall hull design will con-centrate on reducing its vol-ume and surface area, whilemoving buoyancy andhydraulic lift as far outboardas possible.

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piercing hull


"All the functional attributes of the

SpeedDream design also contribute to the

boat’s strikingly futuristic image.

Yacht design is as part science, part art

and the common believe has it that

beautiful boats are fast.

This boat looks like nothing ever

seen before, and to the

SpeedDream team eyes she is

very beautiful – and there-

fore she has to be very

fast.”

14SpeedDream


he VOR 70 rules limitkeel cant to 40degrees. Geometry ofcurrently used canti-

ng systems allows maximumcant up to 50 degrees,beyond which loads growdangerously high. For theSpeedDream concept wehave developed a proprietary

Even if the keel is going toperiodically get submerged inwaves, on the average thisconcept promises sizable ben-efits for overall drag reduction.Future research and develop-ment should concentrate onfinding optimal keel and strutshape to minimize drag whileawash with waves.

system that allows much high-er cant angles while maintain-ing signif icant ly reducedloads. The goal is to ultimate-ly taking the keel completelyout of water and thus remov-ing significant portion of thestrut and bulb drag, eliminat-ing their buoyancy and maxi-mizing righting moment.

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The ultimatecanting keel

he SpeedDream con-cept ut i l izes hydro-foils to create addi-t ional r ight ing

moment and partially offsetdisplacement. Located nearCG to diminish the negativeeffect of hull movement on

Further analysis will focus onfinding the optimal size andshape of the hydrofoils andtheir prof i le in order toachieve maximum l i f t andminimal drag.

their performance, these foilswill be capable of creating liftequal to 30-50% of total dis-placement and could beeither retractable or fixed andcould be used as separateappendages or in combinationwith daggerboard.

TStabilizing hydrofoils

mong other venueswe are act ivelyexploring are appli-cat ions of stepped

hulls, spray rails and otherspeed-enhancing featureswidely used on powerboats.The next step would be to

throughout design, construc-tion and boat testing, we willgradually keep improving ourrevolut ionary SpeedDreamconcept until it evolves intothe most extraordinary speedmachine ever.

take a close look on the bene-f i ts of bottom aerat ion inorder to further reduce wettedsurface.

And that’s only a start. Duringthe extensive research anddevelopment process,

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Learning frompowerboats

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ery important for thisboat’s performance isthe deck design andlayout since at high

speed the deck frequentlygets submerged. Its shapeshould be sculptured to shedwater quickly to the sides, tothrow as l i t t le water andspray forward as possible,and to prevent largeamounts of water reachingthe cockpit. All this wil l helpreduce resistance and pro-vide the best protection forthe crew.

Naturally, the task of protect-ing the crew from the ele-ments on a boat intended toreach 50+ knots in realocean condition is an enor-mous design challenge, but

through the open transomwith a minimal impact on thecrew and boat speed.

It has to be said that so far nooffshore sai lboat has eversailed at such speeds so weare venturing into a total lyuncharted terr i tory and noone knows what we might facethere. High-performance sail-ing could be dangerous, butso is climbing Mount Everestor driving an F1 car....

he SpeedDreamdesign team wi l lstr ive to make theboat as safe as possi-

ble and we believe that expe-rience gained throughout ourproject will greatly benefit alloffshore sailors.

we have a few interest ingtricks in our sleeve that willa l low us to make thisinevitably wet boat a little bitless wet and more comfort-able for her crew.

he deck, with a sever-al strategically placedbreakwaters isdesigned to shed

water aside as quickly as pos-sible. The cockpit is as setfar aft as possible and is sig-nificantly elevated relative tothe rest of boat. Both thehelmsman and crew are pro-tected by the substant ia l lysized dodgers. The cockpitsole is a mesh trampoline witha deep, steeply sloped chan-nel underneath to let watereasily pass aft and discharge

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Making a wet boatless wet

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SpeedDream

20SpeedDream

peedDream is a brain-child of Vlad Murnikov,a radical sailboatdesigner, born in

Russia and now living in theUSA. Vlad was the projectleader and design coordinatorfor FAZISI, Russia's first-everentry in the Whitbread Roundthe World Race, the premieroceanic sailing competition inthe world, now known as theVolvo Ocean Race. In the1989-90 Whitbread race, notonly did the remarkable FAZISIwith her minimal budget andcrew of novice sailors over-come impossible odds to place11th in a field of the world’sbest yachts, she posted thenext-to-longest 24-hour runracking up an incredible 386miles in a single day.

AZISI was one of thelightest boats in theentire Whitbread fleet.Although the almost

twice-as–heavy, over-can-vassed New Zealand ketchSTEINLAGER won the raceunder the command of the leg-endary skipper Peter Blake,the light-displacement boatsultimately prevailed in thedesign competition. Today theyfully dominate the racing scenegetting lighter and faster withevery new generation.Murnikov’s uniqueSpeedDream concept improvesupon the once-revolutionaryFAZISI blueprint and advancesthe scientific art of boat designinto yet uncharted territory.

S Another trend-setting designthat influenced theSpeedDream concept was MX-Ray, a revolutionary boat thatforever changed small boat sail-ing. When Murnikov came upwith the idea of super-fast, sin-gle-handed dinghy with asym-metric spinnaker, nobodybelieved that the concept couldwork or that there would besailors skillful enough to handlesuch a boat.

ot only did the tiny13-foot MX-Rayproved to be extreme-ly fast, capable of

reaching 27 knots, she turnedout to be great fun and veryeasy to operate. Over the yearsmore that a half-dozen designsfrom various manufacturers fol-lowed in her wake, and todaypractically every dinghy pro-ducer has a similar boat in theirline-up. It is from the MX-Raythat the SpeedDream concepthas borrowed her sharp wave-piercing bow, very narrowwaterline, and dart-shaped hull.

Other members of theSpeedDream design team arebringing their cutting edgeexpertise in offshore racingboats, record multihulls, hydro-dynamics, structural engineer-ing, hydrofoil and keel design.On top of this SpeedDream’sinnovative rig and sails aregoing be developed by industryleaders. We are confident thatour team is capable of produc-ing the fastest sailboat ever.

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design background

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SpeedDreamTeam Contact

BOSTON, USAVlad MurnikovEmail: [email protected]: vladsailing1

KIEV, UKRAINEEugene PlatonEmail: [email protected]: eugene.platon

MOSCOW, RUSSIAValery ZakhovaevEmail: [email protected]: valeriy_Zakhovaev

MARBLEHEAD, USABrian HancockEmail: [email protected]: callbrianhancock

SpeedDream

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