Tank Testing (Take 1)

Its taken weeks of standing out in the freezing garage superglueing our fingers to thin plywood strips. We've gone through several trees and an entire beach worth of sand paper, but the model is finally ready.

Today we took it down to the towing tank at Southampton Solent University. Their tank is 60 meters long and allowed us to test (at an equivelent speed of 17 knots).

The model is fixed to a carriage that sits on rails via a post. The carriage can then be sent down the tank at precise speeds and the resistance of the model can be measured.



The model is sent down at a series of speeds, correcting the trim each run and then a resistance curve can be produced which will give the naked hull resistance of the boat at any speed. We can use this to estimate the amount of power required to reach certain speeds.

We ran tests in the sprint and endurance conditions and the data should prove invaluable to help us design the new boat.