This paper describes model and full scale measurements of the flying shape of spinnakers that have been developed for a 38’ c/r yacht. The flying shape measurement principle was based on photogrammetry. Motivation behind this study was to investigate and compare the flying shape as obtained in the wind tunnel and at full scale. While flying shape measurements in the wind tunnel are straight forward to do providing quite accurate results, respective measurements at full scale in natural, stochastic environment turned out to be challenging. As a result of the comparison it can be shown that flying shape at full scale and model agrees well for given trim settings of the spinnaker, while trim settings for driving force optima where quite different.

Keywords:
pattern recognition, machine learning, artificial intelligence, flying shape measurement, spinnaker, apparent wind angle, yacht, shape measurement, downwind sail, flying shape investigation
Subjects:
Information Management and Systems
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2011. The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
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