Opposite: the sailor weight continues to creep up in the Moth class as power and righting moment inexorably increase, but as Tom Slingsby demonstrates on Lake Garda you still have to be able to squeeze that bulk across the boat while a similarly maximised rig endplate tries to stop you. Below: FEA modelling of the wing racks. Left: wide-ranging design and engineering talent and a diverse portfolio of work… Paul Bieker is currently head down with a new generation of foiling electric ferries
So Hal produced a new increased camber section which improved our calculated max lift by around 10% with what looked like a minimal performance hit at typical down- wind speeds.
up on developing a competitive mainfoil so we took another shot at it. By this time Mackay Boats in New Zealand had taken over producing the boats, after James started to get overwhelmed by orders at about Hull 9, and they worked closely with Riley Dean to come up with a main foil construction scheme that they felt comfortable with.
While they were working that side of the problem I worked with aerodynamicist Hal Youngren to develop improved sections for an AP mainfoil. I also worked with iXent to develop the foil laminates and deflections so that we could reverse- engineer the foil deflection into the
moulded shape of the foil, so that the flap hinge line would be closer to flat when foiling. The result was our first clearly successful AP mainfoil – the MH-V4. We followed the MH-V4 with a smaller variant for heavy airs (the MH-V5). Seeing that the Moth Worlds would be sailed near the upwind end of Lake Garda, where there was an increased chance of lighter air near the weather mark, Scott (informed by unpleasant experiences coming off the foils in that part of the lake) encouraged us to design a new foil shortly before the regatta to help performance in the marginal condi- tions without compromising performance in better breeze.
We used the MH-V4 planform for this new foil (the MH-V6) to minimise variables in what was essentially a foil section experi- ment. This new foil reached the water shortly before the Worlds and proved to exceed expectations. Most of the top Bieker Moths at the Worlds were running this MH-V6 foil.
From inception to the point where we are now this project has taken about as long as an America’s Cup campaign. It has been a lot of work but for the most part it has been a fun process as we continue to learn and improve the boat and foils. Mackay Boats have worked hard to improve the tooling and construction methodology and we continue to work with iXent to further improve and opti- mise the laminates. I look forward to continued progress!
Paul Bieker, Bieker Boats, Seattle
SEAHORSE 53
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