speeddream - quest to build the world's fastest monohull

2SpeedDream

This issue of SpeedDream is brought to youby www.courseforadventure.com - see backfor more information

“There are no speed limits on

the road to excellence.”

3 Quest for the fastest monohull on the planet

Brian Hancock

COVER PHOTOBoris Herrmann

PHOTO CREDITSBilly Black, Boris Herrmann,

Puma, Merijn van der Vliet, SkipNovak, On-Edition, BrianHancock, Vlad Murnikov

EDITED BYBrian Hancock

GRAPHIC LAYOUTBrian Hancock

TEXTVlad Murnikov

COPYRIGHTSpeedDreem

December 2009

“The cure for everything is salt water -

sweat, tears and the sea.”

Isak Dinesen

SpeedDream

Speed

Dre

am

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THE DREAM - Pg 6

FROM FAZISI FORWARD - Pg 8

THE CONCEPT - Pg 12

TECHNICAL ASPECTS - Pg 14

GOING GREEN - Pg 19

FROM DREAM TO REALITY - Pg 16

CONTENTS


The DreamVlad Murnikov, the driving force behind SpeedDream,

talks about his latest sailing project.

WENTY TEARS AGO Iwas project leader anddesigner for the firstever Russian entry into

the 1989-90 Whitbread Roundthe World Race. Our yachtFAZISI proved to be amongthe fastest offshore monohullsat the time, with her top speedapproaching 30 knots. Duringthe race she accomplished thesecond longest day run of 386nautical miles. That was con-sidered a great feat and manysailors believed it to be theouter limit of monohull speed.

ND YET LESS THANtwo decades later dur-

ing the Volvo OceanRace 2008-09 (the

same Whitbread event under a

proven that they can handlethe speed.

UT WHAT ABOUTmonohulls? So far Volvo70 remains the fastestmonohull on the planet.

With an absolute top speed inexcess of 42 knots, it is in thesame league with the fastestcatamarans and trimarans.However multihulls, with theirneedle-like hull forms can sus-tain higher speed for a sub-stantially longer time thanmuch wider and shorter mono-hulls, which tend to slow downafter each burst of speed.There’s no doubt that eventual-ly solutions to the monohull’sshortcomings will be found andin the future we will see speed

different name) I witnessedyacht ERICSON 4 come withina hair of breaking the 600 milea day barrier with an averagespeed of 25 knots.

T ONLY TOOK TWENTYyears of technicaladvances to move themark from 400 to 600 mile

a day, improving the record byfifty percent. How far mightsailboat performance go in thefuture? Is there any limit afterall? With progress advancing atthe same pace, in twenty yearswe should see daily runs gain-ing another fifty percent andextending to 900 miles in 24hours. In fact, multihulls arealready capable of such per-formance and sailors have

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of these boats increasingsteadily. But what about rightnow? Would it be possibletoday to design and build ayacht capable of covering 900miles in 24 hours? The ques-tion kept nagging me and as adesigner I started looking foranswers.

EXT CAME A CLASSIC“napkin sketch” andsome quick calcula-tions. The more I

toyed with the idea the more Irealized that given today’s

technology and design expert-ise gained in such classes asVolvo 70 and Open 60, as wellin multihull and powerboatdesign, it just might be possi-ble to develop an extremeyacht capable of unthinkablespeed. Capable, in fact, of tak-ing on the 1000 Mile DayChallenge.

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SpeedDream

The SpeedDream was born.

Vlad aboard Il Monstro, the Volvo 70 with skipper Kenny Read

From FAZISI forwardFazisi crewmember Brian Hancock tracks the path from

Whitbread maxi to the world’s fastest monohull.

N 1989, A SCANT 48hours before the start ofthe Whitbread Round theWorld race, I was invited

by Fazisi skipper Skip Novakand project founder VladMurnikov to join the boat forthe first leg of the race fromEngland to Uruguay. I was tobe Sailing Master, to help train

nine months later the SovietUnion had disintegrated. Fazisiwas on the cutting edge of anew Russian revolution, onethat would showcase the inno-vation and creativity of a nationthat for so many years hadbeen behind the iron curtain,and I was thrilled to be a partof it.

an inexperienced crew andprepare them for the rigors ofthe Southern Ocean. It was aunique and humbling experi-ence. None of the Sovietsailors spoke any english, fewhad spent much time offshoreand the boat was new andcompletely untested. By thetime Fazisi returned to England

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BARELY HAD TIME TOlook around the boatbefore we left the dockand on the way out to the

start line I had my first oppor-tunity to size up our competi-tion. I was totally amazed. Thebulk of our competitors weresailing massive, heavy, over-canvassed ketches. Fazisi wastiny by comparison. Our mastheight was barely higher thanthe mizzen masts on many ofthe other boats. They weresailing powerful machines; wewere sailing a toy boat. I won-dered what Vlad Murnikov wasthinking when he designedsuch a radically different boat.It was too late to get off and so

I settled into what I thoughtwas going to be a long andtedious sail to Uruguay. Howwrong I was.

ITHIN 10 MINUTESminutes of the

starting gun firing Irealised that I was

aboard something special.Fazisi might have had a lot lesssail area than the others butthe boat weighed just over halfthat of the big Brice Farrketches. They threw up asmuch sail as they could anddragged their overweight boatsthrough the spectator chop.Fazisi, light and easily driven,was easily as fast and had our

crew been experienced, wewould have been faster. It wasan eye-opening experience notonly from me, but for the manyobservers who had lookeddown their aristocratic noses atthe raggedy Russian team.Murnikovs concept was righton and it was this innovativethinking that guided his careeras a naval architect and hassubsequently led toSpeedDream.

NCE THE WHITBREADwas over Vlad, his wifeTatiana and son Pavelmoved the US. At first

they stayed with me at myhome on Cape Cod but gradu-

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ally got the feeling for the country, the language and the culture.Within a very short time they were fully integrated and living theAmerican dream. Vlad set up shop as a naval architect and start-ed to draw boats that were, as to be expected, very different fromanything else out there. He designed the MX20, a performance“pocket rocket” day sailor that out performed bigger boats yetwas still roomy enough for a weekend away. His real break-through boat was the MX Ray, a tiny dinghy that appeared tobe halfway between a tricycle and a rocket; simple in con-cept yet loaded with power. The MX Ray took off and soonsailors across the country were skipping across lakes and

dams turning heads as they set asymmetrical spinnakersand left all other craft in their wake.

PEEDDREAM IS IN MANY WAYSan oversized MX Ray. Bothboats are a radical departurefrom anything else out there.

Free from rules and class restrictionsMurnikov is able to let his creative

mind go wherever it takes him,and once again it is taking him

to new and innovative places.SpeedDream incorporates

everything known to allowboats to sail fast. A splin-

ter thin hull that piercesthe water rather thanrides on top of it pro-vides minimal dragand when com-bined with amplesail area compen-sated for by amassive cantingkeel, you get apackage thathas low resist-ance yet ism a s s i v e l ypowerful, aw i n n i n gp a c k a g e ,for sure.

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The ConceptHIS PROJECT PROVIDESa unique opportunityto showcase marineindustry by creating

the fastest, most revolutionaryand advanced yacht ever. Itwould grab attention not onlyof the sailing community butof the general public as wellby tackling such formidablesailing challenges as 50 knotspeed record, the fastestAtlantic crossing, sailing 1000mile in 24 hours and finallybreaking the speed record fora circumnavigation under sail.Design and research that willgo into this project and experi-ence gained will benefit futuresailboat design, setting direc-tion for the next generation ofsailing yachts. The impact ofthis project on sailing will befar greater that development

T of record-braking multihulls,simply because the vast major-ity of sailboats are monohulls.

VER THE COURSE OFone year from the initialidea, a design conceptof the record-breaking

boat has evolved. It features anextremely light 100 feet longmonohull weighting only 18tons. A super-slender hull,almost triangular in plan viewand featuring a long and sharpwave-piercing bow has anextremely low resistance andwill cut through waves withoutpitching, slamming or slowingdown. High speed would comeas result of efficiency and lowresistance, not just row power.A canting keel on 18 feet longstrut will provide enough stabil-ity to carry a generous sail plan

Oon a 120 feet carbon fibermast. Very important for thisboat’s performance is deckdesign and layout. Since at highspeed deck frequently gets sub-merged, its shape should beoptimized to reduce resistanceand provide the best protectionfor the crew.

T THIS POINT THIS ISjust an early design

concept. Before itbecomes a real boat

a huge amount of design workhas to be performed. A team ofworld leading designers work-ing on this project will includespecialists with expertise inoffshore racing yachts l ikeVolvo 70 and Open 60, multi-hull and powerboat designers,along with hydrodynamics andstructural engineers.

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Technical AspectsHE PERFORMANCEpotential of theSpeedDream boatcould be best demon-

strated by comparison to theVolvo 70 – today’s fastestmonohull. A typical Volvo70has Displacement/Length ratioD/L=40 and Length/Beamratio L/B=6. In relative termsSpeedDream is much lighterand longer with an amazingD/L=17 (!) and L/B=10. Thismeans that her resistance athigh speeds will be signifi-

apparent wind (close reach,beam reach and occasionally,broad reach). Boat will alwayssail with a constant heel angle(around 15-20 degrees) andher hull, appendages and sailswill be designed accordingly.

RELIMINARY ESTIMATESshow SpeedDreamcapable of reaching topspeed in excess of 55knots and maintaining

40-45 knots for extended peri-ods of time.

cantly lower, yet she will be40% more stable enabling herto carry a much more powerfulrig.

NLIKE THE VOLVO70that has to performwell in a wide variety ofconditions – light and

heavy winds, upwind anddownwind sail ing – theSpeedDream performanceoptimization will be focused onthe narrow band of wind speed(moderate to heavy) and

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Overall length -100ft

Waterline length -100ft.

Maximum beam -20ft.

Waterline beam -10ft.

Displacement 18 ton

Sail Area (main + genoa) – 480 sq.m

Sail Area downwind – 1100 sq.m

Ballast 9 tons

Technical Data

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16SpeedDream

Course for Adventure,featuring books by Vlad

Murnikov, Cam Lewis &Br ian Hancock, a l l key

members of SpeedDream.

V is i t www.courseforadventure.com .Here you wi l l f ind b logs, books andvideos that wi l l insp i re you to toss thel ines ashore and head for that d istanthor izon.

We inv i te you to jo in our communi ty,subscr ibe to our b logs and watch theon l ine v ideos. There are f ree chaptersand lo ts o f other incent ives to encour-age you to get your sa i l ing f ix f romwww.courseforadventure .com

18SpeedDream

SpeedDream

Going Green


HIGH PROFILEPlanetSolar project is

currently underwayaimed at circum-

navigating the globe on a100 feet vessel powered bysolar panels in order todemonstrate the possibilitiesof clean energy. It’s quite anoble goal, but let’s not forgetthat people have been using

90kW of power (126hp). Sailsof roughly the same area willprovide SpeedDream with theequivalent of 3000hp and pro-pel her through the ocean at50 knots. We hope that ourproject will highlight the factthat sailboat are the most effi-cient, by far the cleanest, andvery nearly the fastest vesselson the planet.

the clean energy of wind forMil lennia, and with greatresults. Our SpeedDream proj-ect will remind the world thatsailboats are, in fact, the ulti-mate clean, no-emission ves-sels, infinitely more efficientthan solar powered ones. The450sq. meter area of solarpanels that powersPlanetSolar could generate

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SpeedDream

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HE ENTIRE PROJECTfrom designing theboat, building, testingand optimizing her to

achieve all objectives in aseries of trans-Atlantic cross-ings should take between 30and 36 months. After this theboat could be further used formore high visibility events likethe record globe circumnavi-gation, participating in famousocean races l ike TransPac,Bermuda Race, Sydney toHobart, Fastnet Race, etc, andin demonstrations and showsworldwide.

ITH PROPERm a r k e t i n g ,

S p e e d D r e a mshould become a

major media event, bringing

a new speed record of cross-ing Atlantic on a powerboat.Not only the super fast vesselcalled Virgin AtlanticChallenger helped generateenough publicity to success-fully launch his airline. It alsopropelled Richard Bransoninto celebrity stardom, makinghim a best-known modernadventurer.

UR PROJECT PROMISESsame benefits forthose brave and ambi-tious individuals and

companies who will becomeour partners in bringingSpeedDream to reality.

invaluable return on invest-ment necessary to finance it.Funding for the project couldbe provided by corporate spon-sorship, or it could be backedby a discriminating sailor orgroup of sailors who haveambition, desire and financialmeans to participate in thisextraordinary venture and toown the fastest and mostadvanced yacht on the planet.

RITISH ENTREPRENEURRichard Branson useda similar project as apromotional tool to win

over business and clients. Inorder to gain maximum public-ity his new airl ine, VirginAtlantic, he set out to establish

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From dream to reality

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SpeedDreamTeam Contact

BOSTON, USAVlad Murnikov

Email: [email protected]: vladsailing1

KIEV, UKRAINEEugene Platon

Email: [email protected]: eugene.platon

MOSCOW, RUSSIAValery Zakhovaev

Email: [email protected]: valeriy_Zakhovaev

MARBLEHEAD, USABrian Hancock

Email: [email protected]: callbrianhancock

22SpeedDream

“Goals are no more than your

dreams with a deadline.”Brian Hancock


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