42' and 50' Cruising Sailboat Designs

Super-shallow, super-fast sailboat hull design

This design has been assigned US Patent #7752986 B2

USpatent 7752986 B2 cover front page USpatent 7752986 B2

For information on a license for producing this hull design please contact http://www.millenniumip.com/Contact/tabid/202/Default.aspx.

Below is an ad that ran in Latitude 38 magazine before the patent was granted.

Design aspects of this hull can be produced in sizes from about 17 ft to 500 ft in length..

2007 ad in Latitude 38 magazine of intercontinental ocean surfing vesse3l

The rotors under the hull replace the conventional rudder(s) that, in many cases, forego the need for side thrusters on ships. The rotors can be used to keep a hull away from docks and pillars when moored in a current so preventing damage to hull sides and mooring cables and hawsers. Most moored vessels are in an environment of current.

The rotors allow ships the freedom to move sideways (yaw) parallel to the course line. Such a movement prevents the stern from moving too far over when an impromptu sharp turning maneuver is needed such as when it might be in an imminent collision situation. The rotors’ placements and designs are highly useful in arrival and departure procedures to and from docks, especially when a current is present. These rotors and their uses are unique in maritime history.

Rotors are also much more reliable than standard rudders in maneuvering in narrow canals such as the Baltimore Chesapeake Canal. Rudders change the course of a vessel by forcing the stern sideways with respect to the bow. Rotors allow the bows and the stern to move so that such large swings of the stern are prevented and make navigating narrow canals much easier and saver.

Some fins of the rotors can be made to be retracted or folded so that under high speed the fins create less friction and yet keep the vessel under full control.

My super fast, super shallow design can make an enormous difference in commercial river vessels moving people and cargo. The shallowness of the hull (especially at higher speed ranges) when used in conjunction with power drives exceeds all standard means of fuel conservation now available for inland water transport. Up-current trips are much shorter in time reducing exposure to the current and thus conserve fuel . Also, the shallowness of the hull allows for much straighter paths on winding rivers such as in the Mississippi river system - deep displacement hulls must follow the channels accurately while my hull design can make all the available shortcuts or keep all parts of the hull closely centered in a very narrow channel.

The widening hull feature is unique in comparison with technologies now used. (I cannot find the word planing used for boats moving over the surface rather than through so I use planing. I believe planing is also used)

The means to keep the trapped air under the hull is unique. Air must flow under the hull, not be trapped as the main source of friction-reduction. Air escaping along the hull to the surface in the immediate wake of the hull reduces the amount of water that is dragged along with the hull. Therefore the hull is moving much less water along than when the air is merely trapped stationary with respect to the hull. This is a great feature.

Having now technologies available to force air under the hull narrowness of hull is becoming obsolete because the air under the hull makes narrow displacement type hulls unnecessary. The more bottom surface a planing hull has the greater carrying capacity it has at sharply reduced friction coefficients.

The future is to fast planing vessels (of all sizes) and not to deep displacement-type vessels because air-cushioned, broad beamed, planing vessels such as my design incorporates use a fraction of the fuel that displacement type vessels use. My design also has displacement features that compete favorably with current displacement-type hull designs.

The difference compares air shipment to maritime and marine type shipping.

An airplane can take on less cargo and less passengers per trip than water-borne vessels but they can make so many more trips that airplanes compete in many areas of transport in a superior manner over waterborne crafts. Cargo arrives much faster to its destination which is a great feature. So also, a super-fast planing cargo or passenger vessel can compete with huge ships of the displacement type in moving items in a much shorter time. Smaller vessels also have the advantage to always be able to sail fully loaded while huge ships sometimes sail almost completely empty. I know I was a former shipmate.

Design configurations of this patent when incorporated in maritime and inland ship designs can save shipping companies much time, in-transit fuel consumption and dry-docking fees. Also, since less fuel is consumed less sulpher-bearing chemicals are released into the air. I like to make some comparisons when aspects of my patent are incorporated in the motor vessel Emma Maersk and in present-day conventional ships moving at speeds between 18 and 21 knots.

The motor vessel Emma Maersk

           Country of origin - Denmark
          Length - 1,302 ft
          Width / beam - 184 ft                                                                                         Draft - 51 ft
          Net cargo - 123,200 tons
          Engine - 14 cylinders in-line diesel engine (110,000 BHP)
           Cruise Speed - 29 miles per hour
          Cargo capacity - 15,000 TEU (1 TEU = 20 cubic feet)
          Construction cost - US $145,000,000+
Silicone paint applied to the ship's bottom reduces water resistance and   saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year. http://www.emma-maersk.info/, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_M%C3%A6rsk

I tried Teflon paint on the bottom of my sailboat in 1980. I hoped that the Teflon would prevent marine growth and increase speed.
The boat did go faster than before but only for a week when marine growth started to adhere to the bottom. After 5 weeks the marine growth was so severe that I had to haul out again, grind away the Teflon and apply the regular anti-fouling paint I had been using.

The silicon paint that was applied to the bottom of Emma Maersk works because the marine growth that attaches itself to the hull has a very infirm grip on the silicone paint. The ship's high speed simply forces the growth right off the hull.

   On cruising sailboats such paint does not work because sailboats do not move fast enough to force the marine growth off the hull.
   Also, the longer a hull is the more the hull's stability and the hull speed increase. So, it is not a technological wonder that this monster vessel can go faster than conventional, shorter ships.
   The Emma Maersk must be dry-docked regularly which operations cost the operators much money in dry-dock fees and lost time. My patent, however, provides any hull with continuous marine-fouling protection so that these costs are non-existent. The draft to beam ratio make the Emma Maersk an ideal prospect for the design innovations of the above mentioned patent.
   For instance, just a percentage of the exhaust energy recovered from exhaust fumes as is done in the Maersk vessel could compress and force a sufficient amount of air under the forward section of the hull. This air, traveling gratis all along the bottom of the hull, would reduce bottom friction considerably. When the trapped air rises at the stern the air would expand and help break up the low pressure at the stern to reduce the volume of the column of water dragged along in the vessel's wake.
   These are some of the aspects of my patent-claims that give a superior slickness to the hull so that, when used on a vessel the size of the Emma Maersk, these innovations could increase its speed even more or save fuel while cruising at the same speed.

My patent claims also mean that smaller sized ships may begin to compete with this monster ship in speed and in total cost of shipping.

Also, my patented hull design would make marvelous life vessels as these hulls would swiftly bring an endangered crew to the safety of the nearest harbor. The life vessel would be a blast on passenger ships as entertainment underway as well as when the ship is at anchor or docked.

The above shown super shallow, super fast, radical hull at DWL 50 ft is the optimum length to surf well developed ocean swells and also is an excellent cruising sailboat. This hull has no keel, no permanent ballast and no conventional rudder.

The design lends itself to sailing craft to about 300 ft and motor vessels up to 500 ft for both inland and coastal use. As a surfing platform it can be designed in lengths of 25 ft to about 85 ft. It must comfortably fit on the forward slope of the swells it is designed to ride as a surfing platform.

The bottom of the hull can be fabricated using conventional methods in monel or copper-clad steel, aluminum or conceivably fiberglass. The reason for copper-clad is that the bottom must always be as smooth and clean as possible in order to get all the speed producing innovations to work right. The metal alloy monel has sufficient copper in its alloy to prevent marine growth.

The hull will go over 50 knots at sustained speeds with sufficient wind and/or trade wind like swells. This particular hull design (LWL of 50 ft) is 18 ft wide at the turn of the bows into the sides and the beam continues to increase from the turn of the bows at about a 4^o angle with respect to the centerline to reach a beam of about 21 ft at the stern. The bottom is substantially flat. The hull has no keel, no permanent internal ballast, and it has no conventional rudder. Hull static draft is 1 ft and including the steering fins the draft is about 1½ ft. She begins to plane almost immediately reducing overall draft to about 10 inches. She has German-design, vari-props that go automatically in vane stand when the motors stop and automatically deploy when the motors are engaged in forward. Once the motor gear lever has been placed in forward there is no need to use the motor gear shift as the prop has its own forward and reverse lever.

The flat bottom incorporates two steering and course stabilizing rotors on which sets of fins are mounted. These rotors are in lieu of a rudder. They are also used in special tandem routines while planing or surfing the hull.

The bows sections and the intersections of the bottom with the sides are equipped with multiple sets of pressurized air nozzles and the hull is equipped with multiple sets of crosswise venturi slots that suck air under the hull in great quantities as the hull speed increases above10 knots. The venturi arrays have much more sophistication to them but I can leave that discussion out of this epistle. The compressed air nozzles are needed to quickly bring the hull to planing speed. It must quickly crawl out of the water into planning attitude so a lot of air is needed to get her quickly up to speed and planing.

The venturi air flows can be controlled by damper valves so that the boat can be slowed down and not slide into the trough in front of the wave on which it is surfing.

The stern is equipped with large trim surfaces to help keep the stern configuration above the water at high speed to prevent wake turbulence while planing or surfing.

Along the straight flat sides (having 3.5^o tumble home) are sets of water ballast scoops that are filled with water from the lee side just before the boat tacks so that the ballast water taken in ends up on the high side after the tacking maneuver has been completed. In this manner between 0 and 10,000 lbs can be taken on board as is needed according to the wind force and sails flown. Just before the next tack is negotiated this water is dumped and water is again taken on at the lee side just before the boat tacks. This disposable ballast weight is the equivalent of having up to 50 people sitting on the high rail. Idle crew members can also ride on the high rail. The wide-beamed and very stable boat thus can carry enormous amounts of sail and still retain a minimum heeling angle.

The idea is to keep the boat as level as possible to trap the air under the hull as long as possible. A 5^o heel should be the maximum allowed. Tacking into the wind, however, should be exercised at low speed so that the relative wind comes more from the upwind direction allowing the boat to point steeper into the wind. The sides have a 4^o angle with the lengthwise centerline of the hull; so that the lee side becomes keel when she heels. When the boat sails on the wind the boat is thus moving upwind at an increased angle of 4^o; or really, creating a 0^o drift angle.. This is an advantage over any other sailing vessel.

Steering is done by rotors. Two rotors are used; one up front and one near the stern. The helmsman only has to turn the rotors about half the angle of a conventional rudder. The great advantage of these rotors is that one can turn both rotors upwind while sailing close to the wind causing the boat to crab or crawl upwind while yet retaining full efficiency of the sails.

The water ballast tanks are also important in trimming the hull while surfing. The stern should be a little deeper in the water for good steering and planing stability. While surfing large ocean swells the stern rotor is locked into mid position to serve as a course stabilizer while the front rotor and/or the outer trim surfaces at the stern can be used to control the heading angle with respect to the movement of the swell.

This hull can climb onto the front of a swell and ride it all across the ocean in the trade wind sections of the world or at the fringes of heavy storms, and then it is making between 45 to 55 knots over long stretches. Since this hull can surf any time during bad weather there is never a chance of it capsizing. It is always under full control while riding with the brute forces of wind and swells.

In mono-hull design it is in a super class by itself.

This super shallow, super fast hull design was derived from my 42 ft cruising hull design. I had a 1/8 scale radio-controlled model made of this 42 ft LOA, cruising boat that has forward and stern rudders. That model hull did go to windward as anticipated; although it is a very difficult task to perform with a radio-controlled sailing model.

license info on super-fast super-shallow hull patent

Page created on 12 16 2009 - last revised on 10 30 2011

Innovative Cruising Boat Designs

Nothing comes close to owning a well-designed cruising sailboat.

Innovative Cruising Boat Designs| description of the 42 ft hull | 42 ft ketch rig | 42 ft sloop rig | description 50 ft hull |

50 ft ketch rig | design objectives summary | design objectives | editorial summary | editorial | super fast, super shallow hull|

the book Win Bets Consistently | articles by Hans van Krieken | the book The Truth About reality | Usernames and Passwords At Hand |

Phone 828 393 8569 USA