Winged hull for a watercraft

Abstract

A hull for a boat, for example a sailboat, has a sharply angled front or bow with a curved center crest line providing a entry into the water during forward motion. Sides of the bow are concave. The main body of the hull is shaped as a semicircle in transverse cross section. The upper edge of the hull has a flare that extends laterally outward to form wings along both sides of the hull. The wings begin adjacent the front or bow and gradually increase in the extent of their lateral extension at a mid-position the hull and adjacent the stern. The stern has an angled end extending rearward at the bottom of the hull. A step is provided at the stern. The deck extends from the upper edge of the hull to the edges of the cockpit. The cockpit has curved inside surfaces and a center beam extending along the center of the boat, the center beam having sloping surfaces. An open transom permits water to flow from the cockpit.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a winged water surface craft hull, and in particular to a winged hull for a sailboat or powerboat or other watercraft utilizing a winged hull shape. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] People have been moving about on the surface of lakes and seas with success for perhaps 10,000 years or more. Ocean dwelling creatures, on the other hand, are the genetic result of a few million years of nature's evolutionary natural selection survival process and so have a significant ‘research and development’ head start when it comes to moving about in water. Thus, it is likely that large fast fish or water-based mammals are almost perfectly optimized for moving large bodies efficiently in the water. A better understanding of how whales, sharks, dolphins and other large-bodied ocean creatures move so effortlessly and rapidly in an incompressible fluid, and apparently with such low energy...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0026] The present invention provides in one embodiment a hull for a sailboat, which has low drag and is safe, fast and fun under a significantly wider range of weather conditions than other craft of its size. The hull is shaped to more closely optimize the action of hydrodynamic forces of the water acting on the hull, and in effect work with, not against, the water to improve the motion, speed and stability of the boat. In general, the portion of the hull below the water line emulates a large fish to provide optimum hydrodynamic effects. At the same time, the portion of the hull above the water line more emulates seabird shapes to provide aerodynamic and hydrodynamic effects and other functions specific to optimum sailing performance.

[0028] Specifically, the hull has a sharply defined water entry line with water-flow shaping surfaces extending from the water entry line at the bow. The shaping at the bow changes to a mid-portion of the hull having a generally semicircular transverse cross section to permit the boat to readily roll, or heel, when under sail.

[0029] The stern, or back of the hull, has an extension to provide an increased water line length for greater speed and to transfer weight forward, and shaped for minimum stern wave generation and low stern drag. Above the water line, the hull has extensions, or wings, extending from the upper sides of the hull. The extensions or wings are small to non-existent at the bow or front of the boat but extend to a greater length from the sides of the hull. The extensions or wings are shaped to contact the water surface only at large heel angles.

[0030] The crew space of an embodiment of the present hull has an open transom to permit any water entering the cockpit to exit the cockpit easily and automatically while the boat is under sail. The interior surfaces of the hull are shaped to provide seating surfaces and foot braces for the crew at a variety of heel angles while sailing. The deck surface extends over the extensions or wings at the sides of the boat to provide seating for the crew during large heel angles.

Problems solved by technology

Unsinkable even with hull severed in a catastrophic event through floatation of any major severed sections.

Amazingly enough, very few pleasure or even professionally crewed passenger surface craft operating today can meet the first two of these suggested basic survival requirements.

Hardly any craft, including navy vessels, can meet the third requirement.

Although many watercraft include some level of emergency floatation, most will become swamped and virtually incapable of normal operation, or navigation through the water after suffering a major hull breach or taking on large waves that filled the interior of the craft.

This is because, even if the craft does not sink, the high level of swamping accepted in most designs will usually fill the craft, lowering it to the gunnels in the water.

Such a swamped condition would make the craft difficult to move and may leave the craft and its occupants at the mercy of the seas.

This situation has prevailed in the industry over many years, most likely because use of floatation foam, balsa, cork or similar materials to eliminate swamping or sinking increases cost and reduces the hull volume available for crew and payload.

This is a difficult task, and one not optimized in any large bodied living creature that comes to mind.

This blunt cut-off at the stern is likely to increase stern wave generation and increase drag, when compared to a tapered stern.

Rolling on a seaway is uncomfortable to people, and surface craft typically design-in higher roll resistance through a variety of different underwater shapes, such as flat bottoms or chines, to avoid excessive rolling or capsizing.

However, most current watercraft designs, although possessing relatively high static and dynamic roll resistance when level or heeled at lower heel angles, often exhibit the potentially dangerous characteristic of reduced roll resistance with increased heel angle when heeled beyond some critical angle.

This leaves such craft exposed to a higher risk of swamping or capsizing in heavy seas.

Less experienced sailors are often unaware of and unprepared to handle the extremely hazardous conditions that can occur with little or no warning in squalls or storms.

A danger of many of the available smaller sailboats is that they may perform poorly in a seaway or under heavy air conditions.

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