YACHT RACING

Yacht Racing Design

Cape Horn Engineering has undoubtedly a long-standing pedigree in the world of yacht racing. Apart from dominating the Volvo Ocean Race for almost a decade, we successfully participated in 4 America’s Cup campaigns: the 32nd with BMW Oracle Racing, the 33rd with Team Origin, the 34th with Artemis Racing, the 35th with Land Rover BAR.

We were also involved in the design of several IMOCA 60 class boats (Pindar in 2008, Cheminées Poujoulat 2011 and most recently Hugo Boss), the one-off record breaker 100 feet Speedboat in 2008, and the gold winning Olympic Star boat in 2008.

More recently our simulations helped design the 2015 ORC World Champion in class C Low Noise II (Matteo Polli designed) and the fabulous Ker40+ Invictus Team (Jason Ker designed). The TP52 “Enfant Terrible” profited from our CFD analysis, performance prediction and ORC handicap optimisation to win 2 consecutive ORC World Championships in class A in 2014 and 2015.

Please click here to read our case studies.

How we can help you win races?

Running simulations to help design the sails, hull and appendages of your boats

Running Velocity Prediction Programs to assess the yacht performance and optimising your design for a given handicap system

Using state-of-the-art optimisation methods and algorithms to come up with the best design for a given condition or multiple conditions in yacht racing

Obtaining accurate load cases for reliability or for designing to the edge when that is what matters

What are the main features of our simulations?

We use the best CFD package available on the market, STAR-CCM+ by CD-adapco. We don´t compromise on the tools we choose.
Our work flow is highly automated, which allows us to run hundreds of simulations per day
We have access to a large cluster and large amounts of software licenses
Hydrodynamic simulations at full scale including all appendages, the free surface deformation, the dynamic sailing attitude of the yacht, and complex physical phenomena when present, like transition laminar/turbulent flow, cavitation, ventilation, sprays
Hydrodynamic simulations with multiple degrees of freedom. i.e. with 6 DOF, fully balancing the yacht with the aerodynamic forces

We simulate motions of the yachts in incoming waves of any direction, also surfing down a wave possible
There is no restriction on the amplitude of the motion, even capsize event possible
Aerodynamic simulations in steady state or transient flow, coupled to FEA model for deformation of sails
Fluid Structure Interaction for lifting foils and other structures
Slamming loads, sloshing, water entry, wave piercing, water on deck and any associated dynamic phenomena
We have done years of verification and validation with model testing in towing tanks and wind tunnels

Your advantage

You will be working with a team that looks back on many years succeeding in highly competitive environments requiring the greatest level of accuracy. We are persistent and passionate about what we do. Research and development have a major role in our work, we are always on the edge looking for solutions for problems so far unresolved.

Online Sail Design Service

Our online CFD computations are for sail makers, naval architects and yacht designers.

We will analyse and evaluate the performance of your sails (and the boat), from a single sail design to multiple geometries, weather conditions and racecourse conditions. Accurate results of the best possible sail geometry plus an efficient visualisation of the sail loads will be available in just a matter of hours.

Go to AeroSim Portal

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CFD Specialists & Marine Technology Solutions

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