Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Making the World's Fastest Kayak

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the love-boats dept.

bart_scriv writes "BusinessWeek looks at the world's fastest kayak, which floats over the water rather than nosing through waves like more typical boats. Named 'Little Wing' for the fore and aft wings that add stability, the kayak is the creation of Ted Warren. An MIT-educated engineer, Warren 'played around for three years with 3-D wire mesh designs on his PC, crunching the numbers for speed and stability, then started building actual models to test in the waters near his Massachusetts home.'"

6 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Not the fastest with me in it by jeremymiles · · Score: 5, Funny
    It isn't going to float over the water in such a delicate fashion when you put 225 pounds of me in it.

    Still, at least the water might not slosh over the side, and into the kayak itself (or worse, the nose bury itself so deep in a wave that it comes over the front).

    --
    GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
  2. Aftermarket enhancements for the kayak by Erectile+Dysfunction · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The addition of the fore and aft wings was a sound decision that earned the kayak approximately an extra 50HP," a California Institute of Technology professor of Aerodynamical Engineering commented adding, "but I am really eager to get one of this into my lab to see how much performance I can squeeze out by adding reducing the coefficient of drag with racing stripes and aft flames as well as introducing a chrome muffler to increase performance by another 25HP."

  3. Nice, but I'd rather have a hydrofoil kayak by PapayaSF · · Score: 5, Informative

    Like this one. And did you all know that Alexander Graham Bell was a pioneer in hydrofoils?

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  4. Overhyped article - a planing hull kayak by truckaxle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are two types of hulls that you'll find in a boat (or kayak) - a planing hull and displacement hull. So this is a planing hull. The fact that it is designed by an MIT graduate using finite element analysis makes this news? And just what criteria are they using to make the claim that it is the "worlds fastest kayak"?

  5. Re:But can it go... by ChetOS.net · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, but can it run Linux?

    That is the real question.

    --
    "If God had intended us to walk he would not have invented roller skates." -- Willy Wonka
  6. Speed and water resistance by pjunold · · Score: 5, Informative

    The expression 'world fastest kayak' is somewhat like 'world fastest running shoes'. Race kayaking is all about the motor and to a much lesser degree about the kayak.

    It makes much more sense to speak about the water resistance of various kayak designs. For some given athlete(balance skills, strength and technique) racing some given distance in some given conditions one could even speak of an optimal design. As a general example - the kayaks used for sprint racing are different from the kayaks used for marathon racing.

    On a related note genetic algorithms have been applied to the problem of finding an optimal hull given a number of constraints: http://www.cyberiad.net/library/kayaks/racing/raci ng.htm
    Nothing revolutionary turned out though.

    /Peter