Sea Slipper

High Performance Catamaran Sailboat Concept

By Johnn ‘Trike’ Schroeder [Wayzata, MN.]

I’m a Mechanical Designer with an electronics background and degree, so I married my work and
hobbies for increased fun and develop new ways to spend my money in strange ways (according to my
wife!)
This is a winter project with an eye towards exploring electronic control to ease the job of the skipper
(be it RC or full-sized), and give them a fast, better controlled boat. The concept came to me as I
developed a flap system for a model rocket car. See Fig. 1 (to keep the dang thing on the ground, instead
of becoming airborne so easy. The last hit Mach 2 eighty feet off the ground!)

The idea is simple as a concept, the ‘wings’ are used to create a counter force to the heeling motion
imparted to the hull by the wind loading the sail/rigging and tilting the boat over. This is usually
countered by a deep bulb keel. If you wanted to sail a RC boat, in say a shallow reflecting pond, the deep
keel boats might not be able to pull it off. To see how this works, let us look at the idea of a simple
pendulum sensor to detect hull motion from side to side, but prevented from swinging fore and aft.

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 As the magnet swings over a hall-effect sensor, the magnetic field is detected, and a signal generated
to tell the control circuit that a positional displacement has taken place. This signal is used to create a
positional displacement of the wing on a hull, to compensate for the roll effect. A left leaning of the hull
would cause the wing to create a right ‘lift’ to counter the displacement. A harder lean would generate a
harder countering force to the right to keep the hull as close to vertical as possible. By how the sensors
are located, and the number of ‘sensing’ steps used, a moderate heeling force would be allowed, and then
a steady correction force can be generated to keep the hull firmly in control.

This same sensor system, using a pendulum fixed to swing only fore and aft, would adjust the wing
sets to assist in smoothing the pitching motions of a small model in ‘non-scale’ waters (i.e. our world!)
Or if used on a full sized boat, it would aid in the ride of increasing wave action. In this manner, 2-axis
control would give the wings a dual action capability that would stabilize the craft and smooth the ride for
better control (and for full-scale boats ease the motion for landlubbers like stabilizers on a cruise ship.)

As can been seen in the drawing of the model in Fig. 3, the craft has both a front and a rear set of split
wings to give rapid easy control to sea conditions. The split wing design allows half the wing to go up
while the other goes down to create the anti-heel response with smaller wing movements. Secondly, for a
pitch correction (up or down) the wings will move together to counter pitch together as if a fixed wing.

Fig. 4 shows a fairly common mechanical mixer used for model aircraft ‘Elverons’ is used to give
this dual action response now adapted to the boat wing set. Basically, one servo moves the wings for heel
control (right servo below marked Ailerons), and another servo, (below marked Elev.) moving the first
servo/linkage set (and so the wings) to give pitch moment control.

See article at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1701659 for better

understanding of the sequence of mixers.
FIG. 5

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 Fig. 8 shows the layout for the placement of the control system components, to allow for ease of
operation and adjustments. The servos are on removable trays to allow easy removal and installation.
The entire top deck of the hulls is removable to allow complete access, and is sealed with a rubber sheet
gasket to prevent water entry from topside. The entire power system is charged while sailing by the deck
mounted solar cell arrays, and the solar charger circuit will maintain a proper battery level for sailing all
day. The sealed radio and power batteries will be kept charged by the solar cell surfaced deck. No real
limit to the day of sailing, except your bladder!

The Receiver will control ONLY the sail winch and the rudders, the Pitch/Heel Controllers will
control the automatic servo units as a separate system. A mast top LED will illuminate a Lucite cone to
indicate that the power supply is above a preset level to insure that in the event of a low battery situation,
you will see the LED go out, indicating you are running on battery alone.

The wings between the hulls are split, so that there is two actual surfaces for activation to create a
counter force to the heeling action of the wind against the sail, giving a deep keel stability to a shallow
water rig. Either or both can lift or descend to generate counter heeling force, as well as help control pitch
action of the hull in waves.

The Phase II design boat will be built next Fall, so that the boat will be controlled by sensors to sense
hull lift and fall, as well as angle of heel to work the surfaces, so the skipper doesn't need to worry about
that as well. On that more elaborate control system, I will be using a simple 4-bit micro-controller to use
simple sensors to pick up wind speed and direction, hull motion, GPS (for true speed over water and
direction) mast loading, and rigging tension (wind effect) and steering changes, the controller would alter
wing position to counter heeling as it is being felt, and shift the rudders to hold fine rudder course settings
with greater accuracy. The sail winch is placed in one of the hulls, and is counterbalanced by the battery
pack in the other.

A self-contained Data Logger will monitor the boat’s performance. This information could then allow
the sail winch, rudder servo, and wing servos to make small changes to maximize the hull's potential
speed continuously, far faster and better then the skipper could, allowing him to concentrate on racing the
craft. I’ll be instrumenting this Phase II craft for full data capture, and using that to redesign Phase III.
This is an RC design, but nothing says it couldn't work for a full-sized craft as well. If I had the money to
rig this in full size, I bet it would fly!

I will be building this Phase I RC craft this winter, (36-40“ LOA) with a thin steamed slat Fir hull, and
add a layer of glass to exterior and interior surfaces to provide immense strength. All through the hull
parts will use O-ring seals and adjustable packing boxes for water control. And a small handmade
powered displacement pump with be used for any bilge inflow if sensed by a small control circuit.

You may have noticed on the bows of the hulls, a pointed structure, similar to the bulbous bow
structure on large ships, used all the way down to an Inuit Kayak (Badarka). It is a wave breaker, a device
to begin moving the water aside before the hull actually gets to the wave. This means less energy needed
to get through a wave, and helps maintain speed. (The same reason such a bow structure is used on full
sized ships.)
Yes, you can tell your friends its to spear fish, sink other boats, snag the bikini off that blond, or to
goose seagulls.

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Fig. 3

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Fig. 8

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 The AMERICAN SCHOONER SAIL PLAN is a sail system not unlike a huge foresail, and has a
strong upward component to the force vectors of the sail plan, that tends to lift the bow, helping in wave
penetration. The masts are formed into an apex supported by the forestay and aft stays under tension.

Rear View

The tubular split mast (with braces) will be in compression under load, and is immensely strong. The
airflow over the sail is smooth and runs the full length of the sail without the usual ‘wind shadow’ one
gets with the mast in front of the sail, (reducing effective sail area.)

If it doesn’t sink, explode, fly off in the wind, commit itself to a suicide run onto any rocks, or
otherwise misbehaves, there will be a further article with photos, circuits, and hopefully full scale plans
for those who are just aching to spend money to build something a bit different for the pond.