Sailing Directly Into the Wind - Is it Possible? 

Was really curious where this video was going when you showed the bottom view of the hull on the intro

LOL those first few frames of the video sure didn't look like a sailboat. Seriously though, your engineering and building skills are next level and something for folks to aspire to. Love it.

Hi. This was first done in the 1950's, "Popular Mechanics" did a model rotary-sail boat. The big problem with these things is they sit in water which being fluid allows the boat to go awry. When the "drag" on the windmill exceeds the "thrust" of the underwater propeller the "radio control" becomes purely theoretical. I redesigned it as a little four-wheel cart. My thinking was that with positive contact with the concrete it couldn't go off on its own. The drive wheels were geared down using a rubber turn-table belt twisted through 90 degrees, so the windmill did a lot of spinning to produce a top speed that would only have a snail hanging on for dear life. It always worked well until the belt ran off the top pulley! Made today using model bevel gears it would be quite possible to make a steerable wind powered cart in which the windmill always faces directly into the wind by using a tail-vane. Slow motion races around a tennis court could become the next "geek" sport. Cheers, P.R.

Yup! You got my attention at 00:02. Made me think "I bet it'll be eady to find the man in the boat this time, it's RCTestFlight!" 😆

If you want to push this experiment forward I think you need to explore both : - variable and remotely controlable pitch for the wind blades (so it can adapt to diferent wind velocity and/or point of sail) - axial rotation of the water propeller to make it act as a rudder (more authority at low speed than a regular rudder) - definitely add some keels on the hulls to ake it less "floppy"

One of those "vertical-axis wind turbines" would be interesting. Would simplify the gearing at least. Doesn't matter what direction the wind is going too, so no mechanisms for pivoting.

Your "Project Curve" is brilliant...seriously!!! I might have to get it printed out and stuck on my wall. (with attribution of course!)...Thank You

Good work !!! In 2000 or 2001, when I sailed a lot, in a sailing magazine I read an article talking about sailing 0° upwind, with an "apparatus" like yours. I remember this performances: it sails 5 kts upwind with 13 kts of down wind. Greetings fron Argentina !!!

Rather than increasing the propeller diameter, would it not make more sense to design the gearing so that it spins faster than the turbine instead of 1:1?

I think you could use the bevel gear to increase the ratio between the turbine and the propeler, so that the propeler would turn faster. In my opinion (but I am not an expert in this), it would be more efficient to have a fast turning propeler with a slow turning wind turbine. Also, I think having the mast turn with the blade insted of the boat would reduce the drag of the boat

So you remember Keven Costner's sail boat in the movie "Waterworld" released in 1995. The trimaran used a three bladed Darrius wind turbine and sails. Your project will work with a vertical turbine, but when you sail downwind, the craft will be slower than pure sail.

I love when you do projects like this, the goofy propulsion projects that aren't going to change the way people do things but are still amazing accomplishments. Well done!

Beautiful video

The funny part is that, the way you made the boat, the way to go against the wind is to rotate the boat (and the wind turbine blades) backwards, because of the drag created by the blades of the wind turbine. Putting the drag in front of the center of mass and center of thrust only helps destabilize the system, which is why it seems to be so stable while it's "facing the wrong way", at 8:00 to 8:30.

I love watching your building processes, it gives me inspiration for techniques I can use in my own designs. Cheers! from Texas

You’re my favourite RU-vidr by far. Your quirky shots of turtle shells, floating bottles and such that you always have are totally irrelevant and therefore genius, they show your sense of discovery and curiosity for the anodyne. I also love your harbour shots and the graph showing scam innocent investors!

5:59 - I do so love that completely accurate project curve graph... 😅 👍

Why didn't you increase the gear ratio so that the propeller spins faster?

Brilliant project, I like it very much. It reminds me of crazy drawings that I was doing in the 80's trying to find a way to move sailing boats upwind more efficiently

I see what you did there at 0:02. The color matches perfectly. :D

Literally tears squirting out (5:54) - "Trough of Despair" to "Scam ignorant investors"!

Thank you so much for all your gerea content!My top 5 favorite channels!!!

Love the videos and engineering conversations. Playing "Where is he on Lake Washington?" as a ex-Seattleite is a bonus.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE seeing personal applied physics and engineering. This nakedly demonstrates human ingenuity & creativity applied to problem solving. More, please! ❤

Even though they're less efficient, what about using a vertical axis wind turbine (or turbines!) to drive the prop (or props), since it would require 1 less beveled gear set and the turbine assembly wouldn't have to "turn into" the wind?

This answers one of the questions I have been wondering about.

I have great time watching this, very calming.

Awesome video. I had a beautiful 1 meter RC sailboat for a few years. The best thing I ever did was add a small electric motor shaft and prop. The ability to bring it back to me was great.

00:02 bros got to be trolling hahahha

Thank you for using metric units, makes it so much easier to understand than other US-based youtubers

i design a boat with this propulsion method as a senior at UMaine in mechanical engineering. I met with a guy who built a working prototype and went for a sail. my calcs showed his independent design was close to optimum.

An aerodynamic profile on your wind turbine blades should make a huge difference because the flat blades you have might only be achieving a L:D ratio of maybe 6:1 whilst a good aerofoil could have in the order of 20x that.

My idea on solving the screw being too slow is to connect the rotor sail and the screw with a remote controlled CVT and test the optimum gear range. After you get the data and find the gearing solid, magnetic gear couplings might help since both input and output shafts can be placed diagonally (to save weight and space), also theoretically less friction.

Great design work!! A lot of fun to watch

Pretty awesome that you share your build files. thank you

For your wind vane, you might be able to maintain effectiveness and reduce drag by increasing the length of the lever arm. A smaller vane placed farther back along that shaft could provide similar leverage without so much drag. Great video though! Love anything boat-related

The right edge of the project curve made me lol. Thanks for continuing to push on weird projects like this; I always enjoy them!

Thx. Enjoyed your work.

Would love to see a Vertical Wind Turbine part 2 to this video!

I believe that the 45° air propeller pitch is probably optimal for the same reason that a beam reach is the fastest point of sail on a sailboat (where the wind is at a 45° angle to the sail). Interesting project.

I don't know if I'm just an idiot, but this seems kind of groundbreaking

I always look forward to your videos. Keep up the great work

Wow that wrench at 4:10 really brought back some memories!

Awesome idea and execution

In 1985, Commandant Cousteau created a boat called the Alcyone. This boat had the peculiarity of being powered by a tourbine housed in the mast. You can find all the information you need on the wikipedia page. It's an evolved version of what you're about to do. I don't know why the concept didn't catch on, as it was innovative for its time.

I've been designing one of these for a while now, my first attempt (I have a couple of videos) performed similar to yours. You should read the documentation given in Optimal Blade Design for Windmill Boats and Vehicles by B. L. Blackford (1982), that is chiefly about the design of turbine powered boats, and gives some numbers as well as known-functional blade design offsets. There is also (amongst others) the vessel Falcon, previously part of the National Maritime Museum in Irvine, Scotland, which was a full-size boat powered by this method. The comments on higher aspect ratio propeller and more efficient (non-planar) turbine blades are spot on, and also what I've been working on with my double-size V2 design. My version one design used a cam-pitch linkage to change the pitch of the blades depending on the direction of the hull relative to the wind, but I ditched this temporarily after realising that I had more elementary problems to overcome first. V2 is ready to go, and I'm currently awaiting a nice windy day to run some tests!

Wow! that is different level DIY. An innovative idea, and amazing engineering and tools to trial it, and the explaination of the physics - very impressive in so many ways.

I want to thank you for making this video.

Amazing graph of a project. I can definitely relate to my own projects. Also a amazing video about this really cool design, I really enjoyed it!

I hope you continue with the traditional sailboat design. I'm especially interested in an autonomous sailboat that can automatically tack, wear, and perform all other normal sailing maneuvers to reach any desired destination.

Haha that disappointment curve🤣🤣 you are so skilled 👍👍👍❤

This has been done decades ago 1:1. Search for a project called Aeolian (or something in that direction), an ocean going yacht with a wind turbine on the top of a mast, generating the power do either directly drive the prop mechanically, or store electricity in batteries, to power an electic motor, As long as there was wind, you could go in any direction you wanted, even directly into the wind.

8:20 sailors call this heaving to/hove to, useful in blue water to keep the boat as stationary as possible by balancing the sail forces with the keel drag. Neat that you found it with a prop and wind turbine!

A great idea for making it work better is to use vertical axis turbines, there are already some cargo ships that have giant rotor sails on them

I always wondered if this was possible. Great build!

Great project and very well engineered!! I'll bet with enough engineering it could compete with standard sailboats when sailing into the wind, since it doesn't have to tack. If the streamlining were developed enough and perhaps if it were combined with hovercraft or hydrofoil technology to eliminate drag, it is likely possible. Incidentally, I have a series of ion thrusters on my channel, that are patented for lifting themselves and their power supplies against gravity!

I feel like a future boat project should be a RC rescue tugboat

I think a twin - counter rotating prop set up would help with directional stability. You could also run a shaft inside each hull.. reducing drag. I think you are on the right track with higher aspect ratio water props Great video !

"Scam ignorant investors" (5:57) I can't xD

Fascinating, I LOVE SIENCE!

10:40 I wonder if the lack of left turn (vs right turn) authority is partially due to the rightward torque produced by the drag from the vertical drive shaft.

I'd love to see you make a foiling monohull/catamaran, like the AC75/F50 racing yacht, respectively. You could make the ride height (foil control) automated using lidar, like the AC40's.

I'm guessing this took what...20 mins? Seriously, genius level stuff...thanks...

fantastic video. I love youtube how you guys work together. subbed

Daniel, I think that's called a propellor 🤣, all in all though, cool video! I can't wait to get more updates on the Flik wing aswell!

That's awesome. I really enjoyed this video. I wonder if trying a few different gear ratios between the sail and drive props would help? You could also utilise some components from a rc heli to have a nice efficient driveshaft and even variable pitch

In the 1980’s Glasgow University’s Naval Architecture Dept successfully built a small monohull capable of carrying at least one person, powered by a three-bladed air propeller driving a water propeller. It could head directly into wind.

you have increadible skill and knowledge thanks for sharing and also for not adding some crap music to your great videos.

This reminds me of the Blackbird car that uses the wind to go faster than the wind

This is an awesome idea. Also very related to the Veritasum video of sailing faster than the wind. But in reverse. Could you put a uni joint/cv on the wind turbine axle so you can change the direction of it vs the boat??

This dude rocks. Cool “into the wind” sail boat.

Everything you are talking about has been done before. As a Sailor, sailing to weather is a part of the enjoyment of sailing. It looks as though, you are having fun, so carry on!

Peter Worsley has done some really interesting stuff and not only with rotary sails. I have seen his videos multiple times and plan to try his idea of a self trimming wingsail on an old Sea Devil sail boat. I built a reverse flow double wing sail on my Sea Devil (I saw it on a video from tsstproa - who has also done some really interesting stuff) that got lots of attention from other people on the lake - that would sail in almost no wind, and go very close to the wind, but had some issues that I havent yet got worked out.

Wow. I guess I’m the only one with their head in the gutter with that opening shot.

I thought about that before and wondered how good it would work!

I live near Andrews Bay, saw this craft last year. Now I know what it was all about. Fun video.😊

Had an interesting thought: What if, instead of a propeller, you used a parachute or kite that pulled a rope wound around a drive shaft? Kind of like an old-fashioned cuckoo clock uses weights, maybe it would be possible to use wind in the same way? You’d probably need to attach a balloon or something to keep the chute up, and gear the water prop to push more water for less rope unwound (or use a compound pulley system). If you found a way to close the chute, you might be able to set it up so it switches between two chutes - the high-drag open one reeling in the low-drag closed one, thereby making it almost perpetually running. On the other hand, this might be a better project to try out on a land vehicle with more efficient wheeled drive.

Super weird thought: Is it possible to have a cutaway section of a tesla valve on the hull? That way it would in theory promote flow in a direction, and reduce the flow in opposite direction?

Absolutely fantastic! 😁

Bernhard Schmidt, the Estonian inventor of the Schmidt camera used in astronomy, also built a boat propelling itself straight in the wind. This was about 90 years ago.

0:02 Risky perspective

Same issue as covered by Veritasium video about land sail craft traveling faster than the wind.

Glad you credited Rick Cavallaro. He made a post about this on the rcheli forums way back in the day which sparked much debate. That lead to him doing the treadmill demonstration and ultimately the Veritasium video. He went by the name Spork back then if I recall correctly.

Excellent experiment. The older small racing catamarans used dagger boards just outside of each hull near midship. This gave a bite on the water without a full keel. The dagger boards were rounded on the leading edge so as not to foul on debris.

I have always been fascinated by the wind turbine boat idea. I have some ideas and observations. First, an inherent issue may be the air friction(drag) of the wind turbine blades moving at high speed. That's the biggest difference from a stationary sail. So what if, instead, a many-blade low rpm 'high torque' design was tried? The blades would still need to be a very accurate airfoil, but they would be facing almost into the wind. Another issue is the tip vortices and the fact that air near the hub isn't doing much. So looking at the swept disk as 'sail area' you'd want a much bigger diameter rotor. I don't agree that a Darrius style turbine would be better, because this would drastically reduce the 'sail area'. The comments about your airfoils are right, you need a correct airfoil and yes you should be gearing the prop way up or going to a larger prop with a higher angle of attack on the blades. The most efficient water props actually look like airplane propellers, they are instead made stubby to protect them. Then of course there are these new 'loop design' props, which astonishes me that they (supposedly?) work better. Wind turbine boats work well enough to be acceptable in performance and they are Just so cool. Another interesting idea would be a turbine that compresses air instead of turning rotary shaft, and This air would be blasted out of an underwater eductor nozzle for thrust.one last idea: q combined wind turbine and solar electric boat ,Where The solar panel would block The noise and the hazard of the spinning blade and both would simply be connected to a conventional electric trolling motor. Awesome work, thanks for showing us!!!

Excellent, congrats!

I was thinking about this project. It seems to me that, provided the prop is producing ebough torque, increasing the diameter of the water prop and, upping the gearing to 5-1. I d love to see if possible, also twin screws perhaps. Great videos. I absolutely love them.

This so incredibly counterintuitive.

Even if this is inefficient its really cool! Keep going!

Your project curve was really cute!

Love the Project curve.

got me laughing out loud after only three seconds in the video... lol! Well done!

Imagine , 6 vertical windmills, with 6 props underneath :o . Awesome video!

You’re right about the efficiency of wheels vs. a propeller; our Chevy truck had a 5.0 liter V8 and 5 gears. The 20’ Boat had the same engine, but stays in 1st gear the whole time!

This video was really interesting, and Nice rainbow at 13:40

Awesome! Love it! You maybe should increase efficiency by making some twist to wind propeller blades. Should have an optimal angle of attack from root to tip.

I'm Loving it!!!

I always been curious if this was possible, I guess it is! Pretty cool.

The "magic" also resides in the fact water is much more viscous than air, which means the small water propeller has a lot more "grip" into the water than the air turbine has drag. (You also kind of touch this with the land-based Blackbird) Incidentally, that's also why traditional sailboats can go against the wind: their keel/daggerboard/centerboard has enough "grip" into the water to limit the angle the whole boat drifts sideways, despite the lift from the sails being exerted mostly sideways and very little forward. Looking forward to your next experiments. Also to try on the same platform: -vertical wind turbine (one less beveled gearing): Savonius, H-bar, Helical -horizontal wind turbine (lower momentum, and using the wind gradient to your advantage) -inverting the roles with a Flettner rotor (Magnus effect) -autogyro (bonus points if you can use the autogyration to recharge the batteries)

I know on slower rotation speed like you get with human powered, a water prop that looks like an airplane prop is more efficient, with less drag. The boat props are in the 1000s of RPM. Larger vessels may be slower. Greg Willoughby is an engineer from Australia that specializes in fluid dynamics that helped me with mine. I now use a 14" with a 12 inch pitch for my boat. Hope this helps.