A sailboat could have a wing which is bent, so it only needs tensile strength on the outer side. The wing would be bent into an upside down U shape and anchored ar the bottom, with the airfoils parallel to the boat. The wing should be made so that it points in slightly when bent so that it will tend to balloon out when a wind comes from the front. The sailwing can have extra airfoil section towards the rear so that it will point the top into the wind slightly because of wind pressure. The sailwing can be anchored rigidly to the boat, or allowed to go back and forth, in which case it needs a pair of ropes from the top of the upside down U to the front and back of the boat to keep it vertical.

To steer the sailboat, a tiller can be used or an air tiller can be used. An air tiller would be mounted on the back of the boat and would point the boat into a constant angle relative to the wind, when the boat is pointing into the wind. To point the point with the wind, extra drag or pointing force must be added at the front of the boat. One way to do this is to tilt the sailwing forward, if the attitude of the sailwing is determined by ropes, the front rope can be pulled in and the back rope released, so that the sailwing tilts forward. If the sailwing is rigidly attached, drag can be added by releasing a spinnaker type sail in front.
 
 

Feedback   Free Electronic Nation Home    Invention   GNU Free Documentation License