FEBRUARY 18, 2022
By Donald Blount & Dudley Dawson
Professional Boatbuilder Magazine, Feb. 2002
Our Thoughts on this Paper
A planing vessel is a high-performance vehicle. A high-performance vehicle is a vehicle where dynamic forces acting on the vehicle exceed the static forces. For planing hulls, dynamic lift from pressure on the hull bottom provide more vertical force than the buoyant force of water. On airplanes, the aerodynamic lift force exceeds the force due to gravity. On F1 race cars, rumor has it that the down force of the foils exceeds the force of gravity at high speeds, which would enable the car to drive upside down on the roof of a tunnel – totally high performance. So, it is important to keep in mind for all these types of craft, that the angle of attack is important, in that it drives the balance of forces, of which drag is one of them.
Too much or too little angle of attack (trim angle), can easily result in a vessel exhibiting more drag than expected. So, at DLBA, we focus on controlling vessel trim by design. It’s an input to the hull design, not the result. For a summary of some of the tricks of our trade, go back to the February 2002 issue of Professional Boatbuilder Magazine and read the article “Trim Control” by Donald Blount & Dudley Dawson.
If you would like to engage in a technical discussion, please reach out to a member of the DLBA team! Contact Us
DLBA Naval Architects
860 Greenbrier Circle, Suite 201 Chesapeake, Virginia 23320 USA
Phone: 757-545-3700 | Fax: 757-545-8227 | dlba@gibbscox.com
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