Thursday 8 February 2007

Drag, lift and trim

I came across this picture the other day. It illustrates that while a designer can sweat over formulae concerning lift and drag, all his hard work can come to nought if the boat isn’t trimmed properly.

Trim is about distributing weight around the centre of buoyancy. But if the client—who is always right—takes the choice seat with backrest then the skipper has his work cut out for him. This one has sent the crew up to the bows and told him to act heavy, the crew’s up there looking rather unsteady and wishing he’d had that second portion of paella at lunchtime.

Of the 3 passengers one is barely containing his mirth, the other’s rummaging for his camera while the third, unaware of how he’s affecting the trim and worrying the skipper, is wondering what the skinny guy on the bows is doing. The skipper, knowing that the boat is only staying afloat due to its forward movement, must be opening the throttle and hoping that he can power the boat out of its hole and on to the plane.

3 comments:

pep said...

Best way to trim that boat is throwing la gorda overboard (just kidding).
I've been reading all your posts and I think your sense of humour is great. BTW you can ask the carpenter if he is 'tocat del bolet' or not, as you may know it means crazy in Catalan. Some Amanitas carry powerful hallucinogenics.
One day I'll send some pictures of the boat I'm trying to finish here in Barcelona (in my appartment).
Good luck!

Ben said...

Thanks for stopping by, I'd be interested in seeing pictures of your boat. Si t'ho estas fent al pis i jo al jardí es que aqui estem tots tocats del bolet!

pep said...

Right, nearly all boatbuilders are 'tocats del bolet'. My address is pepcruells (at) gmail.com
Send me an email and I'll send you some pictures. My boat is in two bits, an interesting design, you'll see.