This site serves to introduce my rotor boat project and to explain its meaning in terms of sustainable transport. The site holds various pages dealing with aspects of the project - where it's come from, where it's going, and how a spinning rotor can make a boat sail. Don't be afraid to look at the theory pages as there is no mathematics to be seen. There are various still shots on this page you can download, and some links to video clips on the  video page.  The clips each have their own description, to help sailors and curious landlubbers understand what's going on.

The Rotorboat has sailed most recently at Weymouth Speedweek 07.  I have spent some considerable time this year building an entirely new rotor and rotor drive, and despite problems inevitably associated with lack of time and money, the new gear showed the advance over the previous rotor I was hoping for: she made way on glassy water in the faintest zephyr; hull speed seems to be achieved somewhere between Force 2/3; pointing ability is such that several people (including a committee boat skipper near me in the water) thought I was sailing directly into wind; and the top speed I measured (probably in the lower end of Force 3) was 5.3 kt.  This is of course a very humble value but it exceeds by some margin the rule-of-thumb equation for hull speed at my LWL, and given that this is purely a displacement boat, pleases me. On this point it is important to understand that this project is not designed to demonstrate the possible speed of a rotor boat, but how little energy is required to be fed into the rig to achieve useful speeds in displacement boats.  This to me is the measure of what the technology might mean to larger vessels.

One other accomplishment was the unveiling of a party trick, "reversing".  From sailing forward to sailing backwards into one's own wake takes the squeeze of a brake and the press of a button.  I'd always known that the boat would do this quite happily of course, both from theory and by commanding it in a radio controlled test model in 2002, but was asked for encores this time.

Amusing for sure, but it does illustrate the versatility of the rig.  The party trick of a boat with multiple rotors should be turning on its own vertical axis.  I hope to be able to demonstrate that sometime. . . . .