Video: Dean Barker and the big cat
Dean Barker reports on progress assembling the AC72 cat at the Emirates Team New Zealand Viaduct Harbour base. The shore crew is working hard to make sure the big cat is ready for the “reveal” at the Viaduct Harbour next Saturday, July 21.
The team is inviting the public to the show – and it’s free.
As Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton says: “The design and build of the Ac72 has gone ahead behind closed doors. Now it’s time to share the big cat with New Zealand.
“The team will be celebrating and we invite people to celebrate with us on July 21. “People will have great views from the Halsey Street wharf, from public areas around the Viaduct Events Centre and from the area around the lifting bridge.
“The action takes place on the water bounded by the Halsey Street wharf and the bridge.”
He urges people to arrive at the Viaduct by 5.30pm. “The first few hundred will have the opportunity to be part of the launch crew. The show will get underway by 5.45pm.”
Should the weather refuse to cooperate on the Saturday July 21, the show will go on the following day, Sunday July 22.
Hi Team,
thanks for the updates really looking forward to the launch!
I have a good feeling about this campaign I’m not a sailor nor have I been on a yacht before, but I just love following and supporting you guys from day one.
I have my private licence in fixed wing Aircraft for the last 10yrs now and that wing on your cat is really going to make that boat fly.
Anyway, here’s my one cent worth about a wing:
At the big picture level, a wing has an effective angle of attack, as it passes by a volume of air, it introduces a void, that is mostly moving downwards and a bit forwards, which causes air to accelerate downwards (lift) and a bit forwards (drag). In the typical case where angle of attack is small, most of the downwards acceleration occurs above the wing. This is mostly because the lower pressure area above the wing draws some of the airstream away from the air that would otherwise flow below the wing, which lowers the seperation point where the airstream splits up, and because at the seperation point the air stream that flows under a wing is already deflected downwards at the seperation point so the wing’s defelection of the air doesn’t add that much more downwards velocity (less downwards acceleration), as opposed to the uppper airstream which starts off being deflected upwards, and then curves (acclerates) back towards the low pressure area caused by the moving void left by the wing as it passes through the air.
Surface friction, visocity of the air, laminar versus turbulent flow, … affect the amount of lift generated.
Good luck Guys
We’ll be with you on 21 July for what surely be a memorial evening. This is a brave new era for sailing. We have been keen supporters of Team NZ since we spent a day out on the water during your successful San Diego campaign in 1995. We have just added new pairs of Red Socks to our wardrobe for the cat effort.
Diana & John
@Harry, maybe some day we will see the CFD models of the AC70. But in the mean time you can see this Youtube clip of an AC45 under going computer modeling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzhOH_7buoA&feature=player_embedded#!