Inspiring Sports Technology
Surfing
Professional Engineering Olympic focus
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Professional Engineering Magazine published by IMechE provides an Olympic focus detailing innovations in Stadium design, rowing and sailing. An excerpt from their magazine which is a recommended read is published below:
“A New Zealander who operates a design practice in Sydney, Bethwaite is proud to have engineered a boat deemed worthy of its own class in the Olympic Games. “I set myself five goals when I was 18,” he says, “one of which was to design and engineer a boat that attained international stature. I’ve done that. But I didn’t even conceive I would end up designing a boat that would be an Olympic class – that seemed too far-fetched.”
“Engineering a suitable mast required careful selection of materials. The lower part of the mast is an extruded aluminium alloy, chosen for its “unique ability” to bend without developing fatigue, says Bethwaite. The upper part of the mast is a composite of carbon fibre and glass. The thickness of later designs of 49er mast has been reduced to encourage the top of the mast to bend first, and its carbon fibre content has been cut to slim the diameter of the mast nearer the top. The 49er design is lightweight, weighing around 75 kilos (by contrast the typical crew weighs around 150kg) but the sail generates around 907kg of thrust”.
You can view the whole article at IMechE or Professional Engineering
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Finally a realistic collapsible surfboard has been produced by Nicholas Notara reported to have the same capabilities and performance and the complete version.
For more information please click the link. Images and information reprinted from yankodesign.
