4 ms·
The reason why monohull records had not been broken in a long time is because speed is largely a measure of wet hull length (unless you're planing or on foils).
by cycomanic 4y ago
The reason why monohull records had not been broken in a long time is because speed is largely a measure of wet hull length (unless you're planing or on foils). Race sail boats are just much shorter than those old freight boats, so they really only started breaking records once they build such they could get consistently onto the plane or foils.
- nl 4y agoYes this is true and a great point, although it's mildly surprising that some of the maxis from the 1970's onwards weren't reliably planing. I had a quick look at race records, and even pretty formidable ones like Kialoa III's Sydney-Hobart records from 1975 that stood for 21 years was only 10 knots[1] (compared to over 20 for the clipper records) [1] https://rolexsydneyhobart.com/news/2005/pre-race/kialoa-s-race-record-remembered-30-years-later/ https://rolexsydneyhobart.com/news/2005/pre-race/kialoa-s-ra...