wing and wing sailboat

• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

How wingsail technology could revolutionise the shipping industry

• October 26, 2022

Do superyacht designers have the answers to the future of efficient sailing and shipping? Mark Chisnell reports on why variants of wingsail technology could be coming to an ocean near you

On a summer weekend there’s always a bustle of activity on the foreshore at Hamble-le-Rice, on England’s south coast. The whirr of electric air compressors has been the soundtrack to the rise and rise of the inflatable paddleboard . And it may be about to initiate another transformation, simplifying sailing to the point where it returns to its birthplace; commercial shipping.

Matt Sheahan reviewed the Inflatable Wing Sail (IWS) for Yachting World more than three years ago and was impressed by the invention of Edouard Kessi and Laurent de Kalbermatten. Based on an unstayed, telescopic mast, the IWS inflates via an integrated air compressor to a surprisingly low pressure, just two millibars.

It creates a soft, symmetric wingsail with many of the efficiency advantages of a hard wingsail (amply demonstrated in America’s Cup and SailGP racing) but none of the problems – it’s very simple to raise and lower, and just disappears down to the deck when you don’t need it. Matt predicted that the much-simplified handling could mean a significant future for the IWS in superyachts and commercial shipping.

The simple to handle Inflatable Wing Sail (IWS) we featured in 2019

Simplifying the way that sailboat rigs work is far from a new idea. The IWS follows in the wake of many of these initiatives with its unstayed mast, an idea that has its origins in the Chinese junk rig.

Gary Hoyt’s Freedom Yachts utilised this approach in the mid-1970s. Meanwhile in the 1980s, a building beside the very same River Hamble produced the AeroRig, a free-standing mast with a rotating boom on which both headsail and mainsail were set. The forces were easily balanced and controlled by the mainsheet alone.

A descendant of the AeroRig is the Dynarig, developed by Dykstra Naval Architects and built by Magma Structures in the UK for two spectacular superyachts, the Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl . A recent partnership agreement with Southern Spars means that the Dynarig will now be developed with the support of one of the marine world’s most sophisticated technology providers. The rig is targeted at the people who want to keep it simple, and this can include superyacht owners interested in reducing crew numbers and handling issues.

Dykstra has a Wind Assisted Shipping Project (WASP) in process, a multipurpose cargo ship which uses the Dynarig masts as cranes, and is working with Veer on the world’s first emissions free cargo fleet. The Dutch design house, responsible for some of the most iconic superyacht and J Class projects, also tells us that it is currently working on a couple of new classified Dynarig superyacht projects.

This is where most of the momentum is headed with these new technology rigs in the superyacht world. VPLP is perhaps the world’s most successful yacht design groups since Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost set up their business in 1983.

They’ve won the Vendée Globe , the Jules Verne , the Route du Rhum , and in 2010 the America’s Cup with the huge wingsail on BMW Oracle. “Marc [Van Peteghem] saw the potential of that highly efficient automatable wingsail,” explained Simon Watin, president of their maritime division.

“He’s been at the forefront since that period, really pushing in parallel the maritime transportation and the yachting together,” continued Watin. VPLP started drawing the concept in 2016 and built the first Oceanwing to fit on a small trimaran. It’s an automated wingsail that hoists on an unstayed mast – similar to the IWS but using battens to create the wing’s shape, rather than inflation. It’s a two-element rig though, allowing for a more efficient foil and higher performance. VPLP built two 32m2 Oceanwings for Energy Observer , a former racing catamaran now circumnavigating as a technology platform. They also started to pitch eye-catching concept designs into the superyacht community.

“The people we are looking to convince are people that would normally go for a pure motor yacht,” explained Watin, “and who would not be so much interested in the sailing aspect itself.” Watin pointed to the gains in fuel economy, range, comfort and autonomy. The Seaffinity is a streamlined, concept trimaran from VPLP, “with a large main hull and two smaller floats featuring two Oceanwings, one behind the other,” explained Watin. “And this is really an illustration of a new superyacht that could have been a pure motor yacht, but actually benefits from the Oceanwing.”

Dykstra’s Dynarig projects, made famous by Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl (pictured), are being adapted for shipping

Superyacht concepts

Another VPLP/Ayro collaboration has resulted in the radical Nemesis One superyacht concept, a 101m/332ft foiling catamaran capable of 50-knot speeds. The fully automated, push-button craft uses a modified Oceanwings wingsail which can furl and reef and automatically adjusts its angle of attack. There’s no question that this and the Seaffinity are striking vessels, and that the technology could make a significant dent in the operating carbon footprint of yachts that might otherwise have been engine-only.

The first large scale Oceanwing will be a commercial shipping project. The step came when VPLP and the shipping company Alizé successfully bid for Ariane Espace’s tender for a new concept ship that could carry parts of the Ariane 6 rocket from European ports to French Guiana. Once it had the contract, VPLP created Ayro as a separate business to develop the cargo ship Canopée. She is scheduled to launch in late 2022, at 121m long, and will be powered by four 363m² Oceanwings set on 36m masts. VPLP thinks the wingsails will reduce fuel consumption by 15% without compromising speed.

“The technical concept is aerodynamic efficiency with the solid sail with two elements: so reaching maximum lift coefficient. Automation; so no lines, no unnecessary human intervention for trimming, adjusting, hoisting. And much less impact on the deck plan, which is quite major, especially for a superyacht,” said Watin.

The WASP uses its masts as cranes to unload cargo

The difference in the physical and mechanical realisation of the Oceanwing for superyacht and commercial shipping markets is interesting. The version for merchant ships will stick to industrial suppliers as far as possible – electric actuators that would normally mobilise cranes, for instance. The wing will use a reinforced PVC fabric skin, the type of material that would make a truck tarpaulin.

The masts will remain in place in normal use, and the fabric wings will raise and lower on cables powered by electric rams, so the sail area can easily be reduced. A tilting mechanism will allow the mast height to be reduced for ports and bridges.

Unsurprisingly, the superyacht version will be a lot more sophisticated, but is still based on the same self-standing mast and 360° rotation of the sails. “We would use higher technology material, lighter fabrics as well… and for the yachts, we have to be more cautious about the weight of the installation itself, because the sail area is going to be quite a bit larger in comparison to the boat. And obviously, the design is going to be important so we will package all the actuators in a much nicer way – you don’t want a ram sticking out.”

The 48m VPLP design Evidence uses automated and stowable wing sails

Bold initiatives

Ayro is now responsible for all the design and engineering on the Oceanwing, with its own 35-strong design office, but VPLP remains involved. “Ayro has successfully raised quite a bit of funding to sustain its growth,” Watin told me.

It was 2019 when Matt Sheahan made his prediction for the future of the IWS in his Yachting World review, and three years later it appears that the commercial shipping development is also well ahead of the superyacht market.

The WISAMO system is an initiative from Michelin, with two-time Vendée Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux associated with the project and testing. It’s the same concept as IWS, an inflated wingsail, set on an unstayed telescopic mast.

“When I discovered that system, I thought it has checked a lot of boxes compared to other systems,” said Desjoyeaux. “It has a plug and play system which is very easy to install and use, whether it is for a refit, meaning an addition to an existing boat, or for a newly built ship; you lower the mast into the boat, plug it in and off you go. Once you are out of the harbour, you push a button and the machine does everything. It unfurls the wingsail and automatically chooses the correct setting for cargo ships. This is crucial because there aren’t many crewmembers on the bridge, and they don’t necessarily know much about sailboats. They need a system that operates autonomously.”

VPLP Oceanwing projects on Energy Observer

At the beginning of 2022 Michelin announced a partnership deal with Compagnie Maritime Nantaise to test the WISAMO. The system will be fitted to one of their roll-on roll off vessels travelling between Bilbao in Spain and Poole in the UK. The plan is to have the ship in service by the end of this year. Meanwhile, tests with Michel Desjoyeaux’s own boat continued through last winter in the Bay of Biscay.

Michelin are claiming the system could save up to 20% on fuel costs. It’s in the same ballpark as the Oceanwing, and while it sounds good – particularly at today’s fuel prices – it’s actually only half of what the shipping industry needs to achieve by the end of the decade.

Reducing emissions

The shipping industry pumps out a lot of carbon dioxide – the most recent (2012) estimates being that shipping is responsible for 2.2% of global emissions. The International Maritime Organisation, an agency of the United Nations, has published a strategy for reducing carbon. Global shipping must achieve an average 40% reduction by 2030, increasing to 50% by 2050. The European Union is acting to give these targets legal force, and the first deadline is just eight years away. The task is immense, and the clock is ticking. That’s why the money and energy pushing these new sailing technologies forward is coming from commercial shipping.

Radical superyacht concepts such as Seaffinity feature Oceanwing wingsails from VPLP

One thing that’s been learned in the 150 years since sail last dominated the world’s oceans is that changing the world’s merchant shipping fleet takes time. In 1866, the year of the Great Tea Race, an auxiliary steamer left China eight days after the clipper ships and it arrived in London 15 days ahead of them. Steamships already had a significant speed advantage, but it was more than another 80 years before the last sailing ship ceased trading. This is the problem for the shipping industry; ships are built to last. The world once again needs to restock the entire global merchant fleet with a new technology, but this time there’s a deadline.

The same pressure is unlikely to be felt in the superyacht market for a while, and perhaps it never will. Still, once these new technologies have been developed and proven in the highly competitive shipping industry, it seems likely they’ll start to migrate to superyachts.

No easy options

There are many possible technical solutions but the easy changes – more efficient routing through weather systems for instance – will not get the industry to anything like the 40% required by 2030. The developments that will – new propulsion systems, fuel sources or hull designs – are still in development and/or will require massive capital investment. It’s taken a while, but the shipping industry has finally woken up to the scale and the timescale of the challenge it faces.

“They’ve got a massive problem on their hands,” said Simon Schofield, chief operating officer of BAR Technologies, a spin-off from the British America’s Cup team led by four-times Olympic gold medal winner, Ben Ainslie.

Nemesis One is a 101m foiling supercat concept capable of 50 knot speeds thanks to a fully automated Ayro Oceanwing rig

“In the last two years we’ve seen a marked difference in the industry. Two to three years ago when we were talking about this [wingsail] technology, people were like, ‘Yeah, it’s nice. People have been talking about this for years, but no one really wants sails…’ And now it’s, ‘How quickly can we have wings? What else have you got? We’ve got to move, we’ve got to get going.’”

Unsurprisingly, there is no shortage of people trying to solve this problem. The reward for developing any cost-effective way of reducing a significant chunk of those 40% of emissions will be a massive new business. The scale of the shipping industry is enormous, it’s a global business with a total value of more than US$14 trillion. So, there’s no shortage of ideas either, and kites were early leaders in this field.

The SkySail was a stand-out that got tested at full scale, installed in a custom-built ship, the MV Beluga Skysail , and tested on an Atlantic crossing in 2008 after 10 years of development. It fell at that hurdle, with the company turning instead to developing airborne wind energy systems for power production. The fate of the shipping project is sadly recorded on their website: ‘The SkySails propulsion system for vessels is currently not marketed any more.’ There’s no mistaking the significant risk in these ventures.

Fortunately, risks have never stopped people trying to innovate and there are plenty more projects with potential. The Flettner rotor is a tall, smooth cylinder mounted vertically, that rotates in the airflow passing the ship. It uses the Magnus Effect (the same thing that causes a spinning ball to curve in flight) to generate a force that helps to push the ship along. Norsepower have already installed a rotor on one tanker and it provided just over 8% fuel savings – good, but still nowhere near enough.

Oceanwing projects also shown here on cargo ship Canopée due to launch this year

It’s now the wingsail that seems to be grabbing the bulk of the investment. A Swedish group, led by Wallenius Marine, has formed a joint venture with Swedish industrial company Alfa Laval to develop the Oceanbird, a wind-powered car carrier with fixed wingsails that will stretch an extraordinary 100m into the air.

More sailing ships to come

In France, Neoline have developed a more conventional sailing cargo ship and agreed a letter of interest for its construction. They plan to use the Solid Sail being developed by the French shipbuilding and fleet services company Chantiers de l’Atlantique. It’s a freestanding mast with a rotating boom setting a fabric headsail and solid panel mainsail – panels that Multiplast are building.

There are several projects in the UK. British yacht design firm Humphreys Yacht Design and sailing software tools designer, Dr Graeme Winn, are involved with Smart Green Shipping. In late July, they announced a £5m investment from a mix of private industry and Scottish Enterprise for a three-year R&D project to develop and test their FastRigs wingsail and digital routing software. They plan to put a demonstration unit on a commercial ship by 2023.

Also out of the UK is the Windship project, with a board of directors that includes yacht designer Simon Rogers and former Sparcraft director David Barrow. They’re proposing sets of three vertical wings, each 35m high.

Oceanbird is a Swedish programme with a car carrier in development using folding 40m high wingsails. The company estimates each sail will save around 480,000 litres of diesel per year

“We believe,” Simon Schofield told me, “that wind technology has become mainstream in shipping… we’re seeing announcements almost weekly of new technologies being trialled and fitted to ships and we are set up specifically with a supply chain for volume. We’re doing a run now, but we want to be doing hundreds next year.”

Yes, that’s right. Hundreds. If there is such a thing as first-mover advantage, BAR Technologies appear to have it.

BAR started the WindWing project with a computer simulation, but merchant ships presented new problems. “The ships have a yaw balance [weather or lee helm] problem,” explained Schofield. “They’re not designed for wings. So, you’ve got to monitor rudder limits.” This is exactly the kind of problem that’s fundamental to designing well-behaved, fast and comfortable superyachts, and it’s no surprise the same approach was taken by VPLP with a similar background in elite yacht racing design.

BAR Technologies predicts there will be hundreds of ships using its WindWings by next year

Complications

The problem is even more complex with commercial ships. The leeway the wings induce has other side effects. The loading on the propeller changes, and that impacts its efficiency. “We also needed to model the engine plant, because we are moving engines away from their optimum efficiency points, so their fuel consumption changes,” said Schofield. Eventually, using these tools, they developed the design parameters for the WindWings.

“They are three-element, rigid wingsails,” said Schofield. “The first ones we’re doing are 37.5m aerodynamic span, about 20m in chord and rising to about 45m off the deck. So big bits of kit… We operate in up to 40 knots of true wind speed, with a 25% gust factor on top. So if it’s 40 gusting 50, that’s fine.” After that the WindWings are feathered, much like a wind turbine.

Despite the advanced state of BAR Technologies’ WindWings project, it’s probably too early to predict who the big winners will be in this race. In fact, given the demand from the world’s merchant shipping fleets, it’s likely there’ll be several.

We can also be sure all this energy, innovation and investment is going to produce significant advances in sailing technology. Perhaps, in a few years’ time, the gentle whirr of electric air compressors will have found their way from the paddleboards on the beaches of the River Hamble, to former motoryachts in the river’s many marinas.

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How Does the Winged Keel Work?

The winged keel is a type of keel that features lateral wings on either side of the main keel. It's a perfect choice if you're looking for a sailboat that can handle shallow waters with ease. But how does a winged keel actually work? In this article, we'll take a closer look at the science behind this design and explain how it helps reduce drag and improve performance on the water.

The winged keel works by using a series of wing-like structures on the bottom of the keel to create lift. As the boat moves through the water, the wings generate lift, which reduces the amount of drag. This allows the boat to move through the water more efficiently, leading to faster speeds and better performance.

One advantage of the winged keel over other types of keel, such as the fin keel, is that it can provide better performance in light winds. It can also provide better maneuverability, as the reduced turbulence in the water can make it easier to turn the boat. Below, we'll also compare and contrast winged keels with other types of boat keels.

• The wings of a winged keel create lift by accelerating air over the outer edges of the wings, which creates a pressure differential and helps to counteract the heeling force of the wind on the sails.
• The wings of a winged keel lower the boat's center of gravity and create vortices that stabilize the boat and generate a righting moment to keep the boat upright.
• The lateral wings increase the boat's righting moment, which helps keep the boat upright in heavy winds, but they can also increase the boat's leeway.
• The wings of the winged keel act like winglets on an aircraft, increasing the keel aspect ratio and reducing lift-induced drag.
• The winged keel design has some drawbacks, such as reduced pointing ability and higher drag, which result in worse overall performance if compared to the fin keel.

On this page:

Working principle of winged keels, the design and functionality of winged keels, winged keels vs. other types of keels.

The winged keel is essentially a horizontal foil that extends from the bottom of the boat, providing an additional effective span. The lateral wings of the keel, or "wings," are of moderate aspect ratio and form a nearly horizontal foil.

Each wing acts as a winglet, effectively increasing the keel aspect ratio and thus reducing the lift-induced drag. The following explains how winged keels actually work:

The wings create lift and pressure

The wings of a winged keel work on the same principle as airplane wings. As the boat moves through the water, the wings create lift by accelerating the air over the outer edges of the wings, which creates a pressure differential.

The pressure on the windward side of the keel is lower than the pressure on the leeward side, which creates lift. This lift helps to counteract the heeling force of the wind on the sails.

The wings of a winged keel also provide stability and ballast

The mass of the wings helps lower the boat's center of gravity, which makes it more stable. The wings also create vortices that help stabilize the boat.

As the water flows over the wings, it creates turbulence, which creates a righting moment that helps to keep the boat upright.

The horizontal wings provide an efficient shape that reduces drag

The wings enlarge the keel's surface area, which allows the keel to be shallower than a fin keel on a boat of the same size. This reduces the keel's draft, which makes it easier to navigate shallow water.

The winged keel also reduces the tip vortex that forms at the end of the chord, which reduces drag and increases efficiency. To have a general understanding of how keels work , you can refer to this article.

The winged keel is a unique keel design that has been used in sailing boats since the 1980s. The design is based on the principle of reducing drag and increasing efficiency, especially in shallow waters.

The winged keel consists of two lateral wings that are attached to the bottom of the keel. The wings are of moderate aspect ratio, forming a nearly horizontal foil at the bottom to provide additional effective span, in the same way as the winglets on an aircraft. Each wing acts as a winglet, effectively increasing the keel aspect ratio, therefore reducing the lift-induced drag.

The winged keel design is especially useful when sailing in shallow waters, such as lakes, where water levels are getting lower. The shallow draft of the winged keel allows boats to navigate in waters that would otherwise be inaccessible.

If you want to know more about the pros and cons of a winged keel , you can read this article.

However, the winged keel design has its drawbacks. The boat cannot point as sharp windward as a regular fin keel, and it creates higher drag, offering worse performance overall compared to the fin keel.

The winged keel design also affects the boat's stability. The lateral wings increase the boat's righting moment, which helps keep the boat upright in heavy winds. However, the wings also increase the boat's leeway, which is the sideways movement of the boat caused by the wind. You can see more pros and cons of wing keel in this article.

The winged keel design requires careful consideration of the boat's center of gravity. The wings increase the boat's wet surface, which can affect the boat's speed and efficiency. The boat's ballast must be carefully positioned to balance the added weight of the wings.

Comparison between winged keel and fin keel

The winged keel is shaped like a wing, with a curved surface on the top and a flat surface on the bottom. The curved surface on the top of the keel creates lift, while the flat surface on the bottom reduces drag. The winged keel is designed to reduce turbulence in the water, which helps to increase the boat's speed and maneuverability.

A fin keel, on the other hand, is a long, narrow keel that extends deep into the water. The fin keel is designed to provide a large amount of lateral resistance, which helps to keep the boat from sliding sideways when sailing upwind. The fin keel is also designed to reduce drag, which helps to increase the boat's speed.

One advantage of the winged keel over the fin keel is that it can provide better performance in light winds. The winged keel's shape creates lift, which can help to keep the boat moving even in light winds. It can also provide better maneuverability, as the reduced turbulence in the water can make it easier to turn the boat.

The fin keel, on the other hand, provides better performance in heavy winds. The fin keel's deep draft provides a large amount of lateral resistance, which helps to keep the boat stable in rough water. It can also provide better upwind performance, as it can help prevent the boat from sliding sideways when sailing upwind.

Comparison between winged keel and bulb keel

Aside from shape differences, the winged keel and bulb keel differ also in what they can offer. The winged keel provides better performance in light winds because it is shaped like a wing, with a curved surface on the top and a flat surface on the bottom.

The bulb keel, on the other hand, has a bulb-shaped weight at the bottom of the keel. For this reason, this keel type provides better stability in rough water.

The bulb-shaped weight at the bottom of the keel helps to lower the boat's center of gravity, which increases its stability and reduces the risk of capsizing. The bulb also helps to reduce drag, which improves the boat's speed.

The full keel and the winged keel are two types of keels used in boats that differ not only in shape but also in function due to their design. The full keel provides lateral resistance and reduces drag, making it stable in rough water and easier to steer.

You can read more about the pros and cons of full keel in this article as compared to fin keel.

The winged keel, on the other hand, creates lift and reduces turbulence, making it better for light winds and maneuverability. The full keel is better for stability, while the winged keel is better for performance in light winds and maneuverability.

The birth of winged keel

Below is a table showing the series of events between 1980 - 1983 that birthed the first-ever wing-keeled boat:

The winged keel was first fitted on the 12-metre class yacht, Australia II, the winner of the 1983 America's Cup. The winged keel was designed by Ben Lexcen, a renowned Australian yacht designer, and it played a significant role in Australia II's victory.

The story of the winged keel began in 1980 when Alan Bond, an Australian businessman, decided to challenge the New York Yacht Club's 132-year winning streak in the America's Cup.

Bond assembled a team of experts, including Lexcen, and they began working on a new yacht design that could beat the Americans. They named their team "Australia II" and set out to create an innovative yacht that would change the game.

Lexcen was known for his creative approach to yacht design, and he came up with the idea of the winged keel. The winged keel was a radical departure from traditional yacht design, which used a long, narrow keel to stabilize the boat.

Instead, the winged keel had two horizontal wings attached to the bottom of the keel, which increased the keel's surface area and provided better stability.

The New York Yacht Club challenged the legality of the winged keel, but after extensive testing, it was deemed legal. The final race of America's Cup was held in Newport, Rhode Island, and it was a nail-biting finish. Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, won the race by just 41 seconds, and the winged keel had played a crucial role in their victory.

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Sportboat Wing-on-Wing Guide

• By Steve Hunt
• July 11, 2023

if conditions warrant, some boats, like J/70s, FJs, Collegiate 420s and Snipes, successfully wing for the entire run. And for other boats that carry asymmetric spinnakers, such as J/105s and Melges 20s, brief moments of winging can present gains, such as when jibing, (a late-main jibe), coming into a leeward mark gaining an overlap, or shooting the downwind finish line. It’s a powerful technique to have in your toolbox these days, so let’s dive deeper into the art of the wing, how to do it and when to do it.

There’s usually no ­question when in the middle wind ranges—from 8 to 14 knots—where the wing technique works well. By doing so, you’ll sail less distance without sacrificing much speed, getting you to the leeward mark sooner than someone who reaches back and forth. But in light air, it’s often too slow to wing, and the jib or kite doesn’t have enough pressure to fly well. Also, when the wind is light, the main falls into the middle of the boat, causing an unintentional jibe. You need enough pressure to hold the sails firmly in the winging ­configuration to make it work.

In the crossover zone, when you are unsure if winging will work, it can pay to give it a shot. If it doesn’t feel powered up and fast, abort the wing by continuing your turn, jibing the boom, and flattening onto the new jibe. The cool thing with this move is that you can get a boost of speed during the flatten, especially in a dinghy. Experiment with winging in the crossover wind range, then aborting, ­making it a late-main jibe.

At the other end of the spectrum, when it gets super windy, boats like the FJ, 420 and Snipe are still winging and might even plane on the wing. For heavier boats that wing, like the J/70, there comes a time to abandon the wing and start planing on the reach. It’s all about your best VMG to the mark, knowing your boat, and understanding when to transition as the breeze changes. In puffy conditions in the planing crossover range, 14 to 18 knots, the true masters of downwind morph from one mode to the next, putting hundreds of meters on the competition.

When winging, you must have a big lane behind you because winging is difficult in bad air. Also, boats behind you that are also winging throw a big wind shadow. Always work to find a nice lane before winging. Some people call this a seam in the fleet, a corridor of nice pressure with no boats behind you.

Winging Angles

For those unfamiliar with ­winging and the angle changes created by doing so, one way to think about it is to compare it to a symmetric spinnaker boat, such as an Etchells or Lightning, that can square the pole back in a medium breeze. In light air, those boats reach back and forth with the pole near the headstay. Once the breeze increases enough, they square the pole back and sail deep. This is a similar angle to winging. A boat with the spinnaker squared back is basically the same as being wing-on-wing. When in this mode, you’ll jibe through about 20 to 30 degrees.

I always look forward, toward the gate marks or finish line, to determine if I am sailing the least distance. Visualize your new angle if you were to jibe and question whether it would be closer to the mark. If so, and the lanes are free, do it. Usually when winging, I want to see the leeward mark right over the bow or just between the jib or spinnaker and the mainsail. While doing this, let’s say you get a lift. The jib or spinnaker suddenly feels less powerful, so you head up to get to the optimal angle again with the sheets pulling. Now the gate or finish line has dropped out of your field of vision, behind the main. That tells you it’s time to jibe. Conversely, if you get a big header while aiming at the gate and now appear overstood, abandon the wing and go back to a reach. The key is to point the boat at the gate or finish line in whatever configuration you need to be in for the given wind conditions, assuming you have a good lane.

Tactical Winging

A key to sailing well downwind in any boat is to satisfy two basic rules: Sail the jibe that takes you most directly toward the ­leeward mark, and sail in the most breeze. If you can sail toward the mark while in nice pressure and in a big lane, you’ll hit a tactical home run. When you are in a boat that has various modes, like reaching and winging, always use the most appropriate mode to help you. Here are a few examples:

A. You round the weather mark in a left shift and want to go straight downwind on the header. It’s blowing 10 knots, so winging will provide the best VMG. After rounding the weather mark, you reach for a bit until a lane opens up. Now you have to decide which jibe to be on while winging. You could simply wing on the starboard jibe, or jibe over to port and then wing. Because you are headed and happy, the correct move is to simply bear away and wing, staying on starboard.

B. You round the weather mark in a lift, so the game plan is to jibe to port. But there’s a cone of bad air at the top of the course. You reach for 30 seconds to a minute, eager to jibe and go the other way. With a train of boats sailing straight out of the mark with you, winging away would put you in bad air. So, the best move is to jibe onto a port reach to quickly exit the train of boats and their dirty breeze. Once clear of the bad-air zone, let’s say 50 to 100 meters, go into winging mode to sail the header toward the leeward mark on the port jibe. You’ll be in a nice lane, sailing low and fast toward the leeward gate.

C. You’re leading a tight race or might be just ahead of a group of boats, and you round the weather mark. Don’t immediately wing. If you do, you’ll likely get covered. Here, the move is to round the weather mark, reach for a while, and be patient. Once the boats behind you wing, then you can establish a nice lane and wing. If you reach for a while and feel like you should be winging, but no one around you is, and you want to get away from nearby boats, jibe to port, as mentioned earlier, reach for a little bit to get away from the group, and then wing into a nice lane.

D. If you round the weather mark in a lift and have no boats to worry about behind you threatening to steal your wind, a technique unique to the J/70 is you can get into a wing by bearing away and slowly jibing the boom. It allows you to quickly sail the other way downwind, as if you had completed a full jibe and then winged the kite. On smaller boats that accelerate more during maneuvers, it’s faster to jibe, flatten, and then wing the jib.

Practicing and Speed

Winging well takes practice and communicating to your team about the next move. It’s key that everyone is on the same page. With all the tactical options in the J/70, the fleet has developed its own lingo about turning while winging, “left turn 1 degree here” or “right turn 1 degree,” because up and down can get confusing with sails on both sides of the boat. For winging or exiting the wing in a J/70, identify the sail you are jibing. For example, say, “jibing boom to a wing,” “jibing kite to a wing,” or “exiting wing with boom over and a left turn.” In small boats, it’s a little more straightforward, but communications need to be defined regardless. A few examples are: “Let’s wing here,” “let’s jibe then wing,” and “let’s do a wing-on-wing jibe.” And to exit the wing, “jibing the boom to a reach.”

Sailing fast while winging is critical, so let’s discuss what you should focus on. The short version is, once you have winged a jib or a spinnaker, sail slightly up toward the jib or spinnaker on a broad reach, or a “high wing,” as some call it. You’re trying to not sail dead downwind because it’s faster to be slightly up toward the forward sail in a high wing. There’s a sweet spot, which is where the sail would want to fall in toward the boat and assume a reaching position, if you were to head up a few more degrees toward the jib or spinnaker. If you see that happening, bear away a few degrees until it’s stable and happy. At that angle, the jib or spinnaker will be powered up.

If you’re holding the sheet, you can feel the sail pulling nicely. Bear away a few more degrees to a dead downwind angle and the sail will lose a little pressure. Bear away a little more and you will feel the slowest winging situation possible—by the lee where the sheet pulls the least because the main starts covering the jib or spinnaker. I see a lot of kids doing this in the FJs and 420s, and sometimes adults in the J/70s. You can end up there by turning down accidentally, having a wave push the bow down, or possibly by a windshift lifting you. To avoid sailing too low or two high, stick to the rule of sailing high on the foresail, but not so high that it wants to collapse in on itself. This powered-up mode is fast. To keep it here, you need to constantly test the ups, look at the telltales and masthead fly, and feel the power in the sheet.

If you are at the perfect wing angle and notice a lift (the masthead fly goes from the weather corner of your boat to the center of the stern), the sheet loses pressure, or you just feel like the boat has lost pressure, head up if you want to continue straight. Or immediately jibe to a reach, throwing the boom over, flattening with extra speed onto a header, then bear away and wing again. The jibe maneuver when lifted is super-fast and allows you to quickly sail the header downwind. If performed before others around you, it allows you to lead on the new, long, headed tack. All of this is tactical gold.

Now that you know how and when it’s best to go wing-on-wing, let’s explore seven top winging moves that can make your race.

Cut the corner. Typically, everyone sails out of the weather mark on starboard, reaching, unless conditions call for an immediate jibe set. If you can wing before the boat in front of you, you cut the corner on them and still maintain a starboard-­tack advantage. The boat in front ends up in a difficult situation in that they want to jibe to aim for the gates, but you have borne away inside them and cut them off, and you’re still on starboard. I love using that move in a J/70. I’ve been passed by it, and I’ve passed boats using it.

Be the first to wing. If you round the weather mark with a big enough lead or a gap behind you and instantly wing, you can gain huge on the boats that have not yet done so. Doing that while leading can instantly break the race open. While others are reaching and waiting for the opportunity to wing, you’re already sailing deep, headed straight for the leeward mark, and you’re gone. You can end up winning the race by hundreds of meters. And if you happen to have a gap behind you, winging before the group ahead allows you to cut the corner on them.

Paint the competition into a corner. In the same realm of cutting the corner, this move occurs in the corner, near the layline. Let’s say you’re going downwind, reaching on port jibe, and following someone who is also reaching. As you approach the left corner (looking downwind), knowing they will jibe soon, wing behind them. Now you’re sailing deeper and cutting the corner. When they jibe, you now have a perfectly matched racing setup to jump them and steal their breeze. As the boats converge, watch their masthead fly to see where their wind is coming from, and then jibe over by simply throwing your boom with a right turn and flattening onto their breeze. It’s a quick move and takes the wind out of their sails, literally and figuratively. From here, either you roll them, or they’re forced to jibe back into the corner, reducing their options and forcing more maneuvers. You can also “paint into a corner” against groups of boats.

If in the back of the fleet, wing immediately. Another time to go right into the wing mode is when you’re doing poorly. Maybe you were OCS and went back now to find yourself in last place, desperately hoping to catch up. Wing-on-wing can give you that opportunity. Once rounding in last, you can always lighten the mood by pointing out the good news of having a massive lane, and then instantly wing. I’ve seen a lot of people in that position catch up a ton downwind just by getting into the wing and keeping it the whole run, sailing less distance.

Sail perpendicular. When coming into the finish line or a leeward gate, sail perpendicular to reduce distance. By winging, you cut the corner on any boats ahead that are reaching. I think of it as sailing one side of a triangle while they sail two, by extending forward, jibing and reaching back. You can get to the finish line sooner with this move, even if the wind is a little light to wing.

There is also a specific scenario coming into a gate where you can use it to get room. If you are closely trailing an opponent and both of you approach the gate just outside the zone (aiming at the middle of the gates), you can wing behind them toward the mark to enter the zone first while they extend forward, then jibe to head back and round the gate. You are now inside and have room. Their jibe opens their stern, and you have entered the zone first and inside. This doesn’t happen often, but it feels nice when it does. It leaves you in a much stronger rounding position to start the next leg.

Ping the competition. You’re on the port jibe near the layline, approaching the right-hand gate (looking downwind), and there are other port-jibe boats overlapped to your right. They’re going to have room on you, probably leaving you on the outside of a big pinwheel around the gate mark. In this situation, you can jibe to starboard and reach toward those boats to take them out past the layline, then lead them back clear ahead and rounding ahead. Chances are, they might not anticipate you doing this, but even if they do, they have to stay clear. For safety within the rules, do this well before the three-boatlength zone, maybe as far out as five or six lengths so there’s no question you’re outside the zone. The boats you’re reaching toward can even be winging on the starboard jibe, but they have to either head up or jibe if on port because you’re the leeward boat. In a classic match-racing move, you’ve reached them off the racecourse, forcing them to overstand. They’re typically flailing at this point and probably starting to yell; bear away once you feel the geometry is correct and jibe toward the mark, breaking the overlap with them and entering the zone clear ahead. We call this the ping move. It can also be done at a ­downwind ­finish line.

Vary modes to manage your lane. If you’re wing-on-wing and someone is sailing at a different angle, about to encroach on your breeze, go into reach mode until you find another clean lane. Then bear off and wing again. If you maximize your time in big seams or lanes, you can do some damage downwind.

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A cargo ship with 123-foot ‘WindWing’ sails has just departed on its maiden voyage

Retrofitted with 123-foot ‘WindWings,' 'Pyxis Ocean' is testing two giant sails on its six-week journey from China to Brazil.

By Andrew Paul | Published Aug 21, 2023 2:30 PM EDT

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A massive cargo ship retrofitted with a pair of nearly 125-foot-tall “wing sails” has set out on its maiden voyage, potentially providing a new template for wind-powered ocean liners. Chartered by shipping firm Cargill, the Pyxis Ocean ’s journey will take it from China to Brazil in a test of its two, rigid “WindWings” constructed from the same material as wind turbines. According to the BBC on Monday, the design harkening back to traditional boat propulsion methods could reduce the vessel’s lifetime emissions by as much as 30 percent.

Per an official announcement on August 21, Pyxis Ocean ’s WindWings can save 1.5 tonnes of fuel per wing, per day. Combined with alternative fuel sources, that number could rise. During its estimated six week travels, the cargo ship’s sails will be closely monitored in the hopes of scaling the technology across both Cargill’s fleet, as well as the larger shipping industry. Speaking with BBC , one project collaborator estimated a ship using four such wings could save as much as 20 tonnes of CO2 every day.

[Related: These massive, wing-like ‘sails’ could add wind power to cargo ships .]

“Wind is a near marginal cost-free fuel and the opportunity for reducing emissions, alongside significant efficiency gains in vessel operating costs, is substantial,” explained John Cooper, CEO of project collaborator, BAR Technologies.

In addition to being a zero emission propulsion source, wind power is both a non-depleting resource as well as predictable. Such factors could prove extremely promising in an industry responsible for around 2-3 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions—around 837 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Less than 100 cargo ships currently utilize some form of wind-assisted technology, a fraction of the over 110,000 operational vessels throughout the world. Depending on Pyxis Ocean ’s performance, the massive WindWings could help spur increased green tech retrofitting, as well as new builds already coming equipped with the proper systems.

Elsewhere, similar wind-based vessel projects are already underway. Earlier this year, the Swedish company Oceanbird began construction on a set of 40-meter high, 200 metric ton sails to be retrofitted on the 14-year-old car carrier, Wallenius Tirranna . According to the trade publication Offshore Energy , one of Oceanbird’s sails could cut down emissions by 10 percent, saving around 675,000 liters of diesel per year.

“The maritime industry is on a journey to decarbonize—it’s not an easy one, but it is an exciting one,” said Jan Bieleman, president of Cargill’s ocean transportation business.

Andrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work also featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He lives outside Indianapolis.

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Revealing the new wing design

The new Oceanbird wing sail is pushing the edge even further. The wing consists of a main sail and a flap, optimizing the aerodynamics forces. It is half the size but shows the same performance as previous design, allowing a smaller footprint: both environmental and on deck.

To keep up with a tight time plan, and developing truly sustainable propulsion for the shipping industry, the engineers at Oceanbird needed to rethink previous design. Instead of a telescopic solution to allow the vessel to pass under bridges and reduce the power in hard weather, the new wing can be folded and tilted.

“The two-segment wing sail is aerodynamically optimized and provides a high propulsive power in relation to the wing area. The smaller segment, which we call flap, folds to the main sail before the whole wing is tilted, and therefore demanding less space on deck when it is not being used” says Mikael Razola , Technical Director at Oceanbird.

How is it more sustainable?

Sustainability is key in the Oceanbird concept. This new design are 40 meters high instead of 80 and therefore requires less material. A larger part of the wing sail is made of material that can be recycled. It is also more robust and long-lasting with less sensitive elements that can cause problems.

“We have visited suppliers, had a close dialogue with our potential customers and are now confident in that this is the way to move forward”, says Mikael Razola.

One wing saves 7-10 % on optimal routes

Each wing sail on an existing RoRo vessel will save around half a million-liter fuel (480,000 liter), equal to 3,000 barrels diesel a year on main trading routes.

On optimal routes in normal speed, one wing sail could reduce fuel consumption from main engine with 7-10 %. This means a saving of approx. 675,000 liters of diesel per year, which corresponds to approx. 1920 tonnes of CO 2  per year.

The whole Oceanbird concept, including special designed hull, wing sails and speed/route recommendations, will reduce even more.

“We are proud over this design, which have the potential to revolutionize the shipping industry”, says Niclas Dahl , Managing Director at Oceanbird.

Reduced payback time

Another dimension of sustainability is financial. If we develop a product that drastically reduces emissions from shipping, but shipowners can’t justify the purchase, then we have not made an environmentally friendly product. Therefore, it was important to also reduce the payback time for the ship owners.

“For vessel owners who needs to comply with new emission legislation, for example CII , this solution can’t come soon enough. Not only we, but everyone in shipping, have a sense of urgency. This is a huge step closer in making the Oceanbird concept a reality,” says Niclas Dahl.

Oceanbird is evaluating different suppliers and will place an order for the first wing sail during the second half of 2022. Prototype testing will take place under 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, Oceanbird is investigating solutions for placing wing sails on existing vessels in several shipping segments.

The first vessel with fully wind propulsion, is planned to sail in 2027.

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Wing Keel Sailboats Explained – History, Purpose, Advantages & Disadvantages

Sailboat keels are more complex than many people give them credit for. Most people intuitively realize that the weight of the heavy keel keeps the sailboat upright and counters the force of the wind against the sails. But the keel does a lot more than that. For example, did you know that it is an airfoil that creates lift, just like the wing of an airplane? 

Besides keeping the boat upright, a sailboat’s keel counters leeway—the drifting downwind a boat makes while being pushed by the wind. So the sails and the keel must work together to pull a boat windward. 

Not surprisingly, as designers have embraced lessons learned on the water and in the air, keel design has grown into quite the science over the years. There are now dozens of different keel designs, and walking around a big boatyard can provide views of all sorts of interesting things attached to the bottom of boats.

Table of Contents

What is a sailboat keel and how does it work, full keel cruising boats, wing keel boat vs regular fin keel, when was the wing keel first used, what is the purpose of wing keels, disadvantages of winged keels, other types of keels, deep thoughts about sailboat design.

The keel of a sailboat is the underwater profile of the boat that gives it its ability to sail. 

A boat sailing downwind is pushed along like a leaf on the surface of the water. But modern sailboats are designed to sail into the wind as well, and to do that, they must embrace some basics of aero- and hydrodynamics. 

The sails of a boat sailing upwind work like an airplane’s wings. Their curved shape acts as an airfoil. Air is accelerated over the outer edges, which makes lift thanks to Bernoulli’s Principle.

But there are two problems. Firstly, the boat will heel over as the wind pushes on the sails. Without a significant amount of ballast to counter the force on the sails, the boat will capsize. So the most basic job of the sailboat’s keel is to provide a heavyweight as low in the boat as possible to keep it upright in all conditions.

Of course, the weight could be added without a keel. Early schooners were loaded with stones for ballast. These vessels were very deep but more or less flat-bottomed. They couldn’t sail to windward very well because the entire vessel drifted downwind as the wind pushed on the sails. This drift is known as leeway. 

To counter leeway, a keel employs yet another airfoil shape to make lift. This one is underwater, and then the lift it makes is created by the water passing over it as the boat sails along. This lift helps pull the boat to windward and reduces leeway. The more lifting force the keel can make, the better the boat can sail into the wind.

No sailboat can sail directly into the wind. If the boat is close to the wind, it is said to be “in irons.” That means that the air is not flowing smoothly over the sails. The better a boat is at sailing upwind, the closer to the wind it can get. Like those used on racing boats, high aspect ratio fin keels can sail 30 degrees or less to the wind. Most cruising boats must be 45 degrees or more off the wind before they can effectively sail.

History of Sailboat Keel Design

Traditional offshore sailboats began with full deep keel designs. Shallow draft near-shore workboats often feature flat-bottomed variations that use centerboards, leeboards, or other means to fight leeway and work upwind. 

The first progression toward modern keels was the encapsulated deep fin keel. This was a natural progression as designers began working out ways to shrink a full keel down. 

Racing boats began tinkering with high aspect ratio fins. Eventually, this technology filtered down to the cruising boat world. These fins were generally cast directly from lead or iron and bolted to the hull. This construction results in some extra maintenance and care that must be taken. A bolted-on keel can be damaged in a grounding in ways that an encapsulated keel cannot. They were and are very robustly built, but they are nonetheless attached with bolts that can be bent.

With the wide adoption of bolt-on keels, designers could better tinker with their designs. Freed from the limits of what could be molded and encapsulated, the keel could take any shape at all. 

One disadvantage of the fin keel is its deep draft. A shorter shoal draft keel is one way to fix the problem, but it will require more ballast, and its performance will suffer. 

Bulb and wing keel designs came next. These are extra weights attached to the bottom of the keel to increase its effectiveness. Torpedo-shaped bulbs add weight low down, whereas wings provide an opposing lifting force to counter leeway. 

Many of the shapes of keels in the winged keel group are descendants of the bulb keel. In many cases, winged keel designs are often built into the cast bulb. 

Like many innovations in yachting and sailing, the winged keel was first used as an attempt to gain an advantage during a famous yacht race. 

In 1851, the schooner America was sailed to the UK to compete for the 100 Guinea Cup . The ornate and elaborate trophy spent the next 132 years defended successfully by America, to the extent that it became known as the America’s Cup. It is the oldest sporting trophy still contested in the entire world. 

With so many wins under their belt, America was sure to lose at least one eventually. And that’s precisely what happened in 1983 when the Australian challengers succeeded with their yacht Australia II. 

How did they do it? The same way that yacht designers have been innovating and creating before and since, of course. They look at the rule book and find ways to make a better boat within those rules. At the time, the 12-meter class rules were used for the race. The amount of sail area allowed was an inverse function to the boat’s length and weight. 

Designer Ben Lexcen used the rules to his advantage. By figuring out how to make a shorter yet more effective keel design, he could make the yacht lighter while still carrying more sail area. The boat had a great design all around, with effective sails and rig. The combined total effect was that Australia II beat the defenders by an average of one minute on every upwind leg.

The technology and idea trickled down into even run-of-the-mill sailboats. But those sailboats don’t use their wing keels to win races; they use them to carry shorter keels. A shallow draft is an important consideration for many sailboat owners. Perhaps their home ports have shallow entrances, or perhaps they just like exploring shallow waters. Whatever the reason, the difference between a 4’6″ draft sailboat and a 6’6″ keel is enormous. 

It’s not all good news for wings, though. There are some distinct downsides to having one of these hanging off the bottom of your boat. Two operational considerations should be weighed beside the initial cost of casting such a complex shape.

Firstly, what if you run aground? Winged keels are more or less flat on the bottom. Should you accidentally calibrate your depth sounder by grounding on a sandbar or mudflat, wing keels will be more challenging to get off than conventional fins. Not only does heeling the boat over have less effect on freeing you, but the shape of the keel itself can also create a suction in the mud.

Secondly, wing and bulb keels can get tangled in things. The most likely suspect that comes to mind is errant fishing gear, but the more likely problem will stem from your ground tackle. Boats can swing in every direction when wind opposes current, which can often cause a boat to back over its own chain. Doing so while spinning around can cause a line to foul on the wings. 

There are many other types of sailboats in the world. Some designers have gotten very creative in their efforts to reduce the draft of a sailboat, and some designs are born from one particular use or another for the boat.

A great example is the bilge keel or twin keel sailboat. These boats are popular in the UK, where enormous tidal ranges make it essential for boats to be able to be safely dried out when the tide goes out. The bilge keeler can sit on its two keels perfectly upright until the tide comes back again and then do it all over again in a few hours. Having this feature on your boat means that, at least in the UK, you’ll have many more choices of places where you can moor your boat, and many of those options will be much cheaper. 

Another example of a specialized design with a purpose is the retractable swing keel. What is a swing keel? It’s a heavy, ballasted keel that can retract into the hull. It looks similar to a centerboard keel, only weighted and attached to a larger sailing yacht.

When the boat is offshore and sailing, it has a very effective high aspect ratio airfoil, works great, and has a deep draft. The keel can be retracted entirely in shallow water or if the skipper wants to beach the boat. These boats can explorer areas that most sailboat skippers can only dream of. 

The different types of keels are just one fascinating vignette of the beautiful world of yacht design. If you’d like to learn more about what makes these beautiful boats tick, I highly recommend you check out the book Yacht Design According to Perry. Authored by renowned yacht designer Bob Perry , the book talks about all design aspects and provides insight into sailboats. 

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Matt has been boating around Florida for over 25 years in everything from small powerboats to large cruising catamarans. He currently lives aboard a 38-foot Cabo Rico sailboat with his wife Lucy and adventure dog Chelsea. Together, they cruise between winters in The Bahamas and summers in the Chesapeake Bay.

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Influence of Autonomous Sailboat Dual-Wing Sail Interaction on Lift Coefficients

• Published: 13 May 2022
• Volume 21 , pages 656–668, ( 2022 )

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• Feng Hu 1 , 2 ,
• Jiancheng Yu 1 , 2 ,
• Wentao Zhao 4 &
• Aiqun Zhang 1  

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To analyze the influence of the chord length ratio and angle of attack on lift coefficients and explore the interaction mechanism between the two, we established a calculation model of the pressure distribution coefficient on the airfoil surface and lift coefficient of a dual-wing sail on the basis of the vortex panel method. Computational fluid dynamics was used in auxiliary calculation and analysis. Results revealed a reciprocal interference between the front-wing and rear-wing sails. The total lift coefficient of the dual-sail increased with an increase in the front sail chord length. The lift coefficient of the rear sail decreased with an increase in the front sail chord length or angle of attack. The front sail wake affected the pressure distribution on the upper and lower surfaces of the rear sail leading edge.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all other members of the Seagull Autonomous Sailboat project for their help. The study is supported by the Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Robotics (No. 2020-Z14), the Jiang Xin-song Innovation Foundation (No. Y8F7010701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41906173), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M662874).

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State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

Zhaoyang Sun, Feng Hu, Jiancheng Yu & Aiqun Zhang

Institutes for Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110169, China

Zhaoyang Sun, Feng Hu & Jiancheng Yu

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

Zhaoyang Sun

Shenyang Institute of Automation (Guangzhou), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 511458, China

Wentao Zhao

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Sun, Z., Hu, F., Yu, J. et al. Influence of Autonomous Sailboat Dual-Wing Sail Interaction on Lift Coefficients. J. Ocean Univ. China 21 , 656–668 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-022-4752-5

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Received : 04 September 2020

Revised : 17 March 2021

Accepted : 09 April 2021

Published : 13 May 2022

Issue Date : June 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-022-4752-5

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The dinghy below is a Chinese Junk rig, but instead of one sail surface there are two on the same mast with the leading edges joined together.  Technically, she is a wingsail with several variations of the design having been used all over the world.  What is unique about this rig is that all of the running and standing rigging plus the mast is between the two sail surfaces so they don't interfere with air flow and you don't see the mess of rigging that is a nightmare to view.

News   |  How It Works   |  Materials & Costs   |  Construction   |  Sailing

References   | Links   | Other Designs   | Graphics   | Message Board   | Background Info

The rig was designed by a Chinese fisherman over 100 years ago.  The major modifications the owner made to the rig were the following: increased the aspect ratio, changed the taper ratio.  Some aspects of the construction and size of the parts were determined through trial and error since not every detail was available.  The materials used are different too.  Please use the links above to read the owners construction details.

Рекорд под парусом: крылатые лодки обгоняют ветер  - 21 июля 2004

Xождение под парусом — увлекательная наука. Непосвящённые с трудом представляют себе, как можно двигаться на паруснике против ветра. Изобретатели же придумали очередное чудо — аппараты, способные только за счёт ветра разгоняться намного быстрее, чем бежит толкающий их же поток воздуха.

Лодка Боерна на полном ходу. Пока в компьютере (исллюстрация с сайта dsto.defence.gov.au).

Схема сил, действующих на крылатую лодку (фото с сайта dsto.defence.gov.au).

Tеперь Боерн мечтает построить полноразмерный вариант своей лодки с размахом крыла 8 метров и побить на нём мировой рекорд скорости для парусных судов на воде (есть ещё сухопутные парусные машины).

Yellow Pages Endeavor — мировой рекордсмен (фотографии с сайтов foxxaero.homestead.com и wingsail.neuralfuzz.com).

Прогулочные катамараны с крыльями-парусами пока экзотика, но уже не единичная (фотографии с сайтов sealord6.com и antrimdesign.com)

Пусть они развивают не такие большие скорости, как спортивные машины, может быть, когда-нибудь появятся комфортные прогулочные катамараны, с лёгкостью обгоняющие сам ветер без использования двигателя?

Источник: Membrana.ru

Объявления по теме:

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Водомоторная техника в кредит за 30 минут. Доставка по Москве бесплатно! Лодочные моторы Yamaha, Mercury. Лодки QUICKSILVER.

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Omer wing sail on Maya port side

Wingsail Science on the Web

There are several resources on the internet that give info about the science of wingsails: LUSAS , an engineering software firm, have an analysis of the wingsail ; the US Windsurfing Newsletter has an introduction to marine aerofoils ; this link is a detailed discussion of aerofoils ; and Dynawing offer a comparison of wingsails and conventional sails , as does Wingsail Co . 

Boatek of Felixstowe market a small wingsail boat for single-handed racing. The Cornish firm Ecocats Ltd build environmentally friendly catamarans, which can be fitted with wingsails. Wingsail Charters offer wingsail boats for hire in Portsmouth. Wingsails also offer advantages to disabled sailors . 

Omer Wing Sails

Wings are aerodynamically more efficient than sails. They provide the boat with more lift (Driving Force) while inducing much less drag (Heeling Force), and at the same time, the wing's small Angle of Attack gives Excellent Upwind Performance. "OMER" Wing-Sail is a Soft and Variable Geometry wing-sail , that:

Maya sailing boat equipped with Omer wing sail upwind

OMER Wing Sail LTD. 23 Hohit St. Ramat Hasharon. Israel, 47226.

Tel: +972-3-5401675 Mobile: +972-54-4277617 (Israel) Mobile: +90-506-4228404 (Turkey)

Email: [email protected]

Walker wing sails  - Youtube

Catamaran rotary sail - Youtube

Model rotary sail boat - Youtube

Eloxel rotary sail cruiser - Youtube

The Solar Navigator - SWASSH (Small Waterplane Area Stabilized Single Hull) test model 2012

The latest Solarnavigator is designed to be capable of an autonomous world navigation set for an attempt 

in 2015 if all goes according to schedule.

This website is Copyright © 1999 & 2013 Max Energy Limited, an environmental educational charity working hard for world peace.   The names Solar Navigator™,Blueplanet Ecostar BE3™ and Utopia Tristar™ are trademarks. All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged.

  AUTOMOTIVE    |   BLUEPLANET    |   ELECTRIC CARS    |   ELECTRIC CYCLES    |   SOLAR CARS   |  SOLARNAVIGATOR

Soft wing-sails are the next generation of sails 

Why soft wing-sails .

Why do we keep using sails like the old Dutch windmills rather than wings like the modern wind turbines?

Why do we try to make the sails look like wings rather than using the real thing?

Why do we use sails, knowing that wings are more efficient in terms of driving force and upwind pointing?

​ As a fighter pilot and an enthusiastic sailor for long time, I discovered that there are lots of similarities between flying and sailing, such as driving a machine on fluids, no brakes, windage effects on the bow / stern, the propeller walk, etc., However, the most and remarkable similarity is the use of lift force .

Airplanes use lift force, created on the wing due to the air flow around it, in order to hold the airplane up in the air. Sailing boats can use the same lift force, created on the sails as their driving force.

The answer to the questions "why" above was to make Omer Wing-Sail which is a simple structure wing-sail , easy to use, reliable, and good for all cruisers / cruiser racers in any weather condition.

Extensive sailing with the Omer soft wing-sail, strongly convinced me  that wing-sails are the next step in the evolution of sails.

Omer Wing-Sail

Why free-standing mast?

The idea of a mast without wires is foreign to most people. It is hard to fathom how a sailboat mast can stand, all by itself, without something to hold it up. However, those airplanes that long ago got rid of the wires holding the wings on in exchange for a spar, fly very safely. No one really thinks that the wing spar is not strong enough, and that an  airliner wing will fall apart.

Unstayed masts are designed to take the heeling and sailing loads the same way wing spars take the loads of the airplane.

The unstayed mast is held up by two parts - the heel fitting and the deck fitting. It puts no downward compression loads on the hull, which makes for a lighter hull structure as well as saving chain plates,  shrouds, turnbuckles and other fittings.

There are already many boats sailing out there with free standing masts such as the Superyacht "Black Pearl" that has three 64 meter free standing masts and the "Dwinger" with its 63 meters long free standing rotating mast.

In order to be efficient in almost all wind directions, the wing-sail should be able to freely rotate into the wind and maintain it's 0°-10° angle of attack. A free standing rotating mast is the perfect solution.

Omer wing-sail design

​Omer wing-sail is based on a rotating A frame mast, that supports both sides of the wing, having an accurate wing cross section as well as high moment of inertia. 

The wing is made of three different sails: two main sails and one U shape leading edge sail. All three sails are sliding independently up and down the mast. When all three sails are hoisted, we get a wing that one can reef and drop down like any other conventional sail. 

With the same sails area, we get a 10%-15% faster boat while pointing higher. 

Main design differences between America's cup wing and Omer Wing-sail 

Omer Wing-Sail cross section

AC 40 wing and jib cross section

37' Omer Wing Sail Cruiser

37' omer wing sail racing (optional), america's cup ac40, patents granted: .

US 6863008, 7603958, 8281727

EU 1373064, 2404820

NZ 529216, 586805, 593939

AU 2002236181, 2008344923

SA 2010/04809

OMER Wing Sail Ltd. 

23 Hohit St. Ramat Hasharon,

Israel, 47226

Tel: +972-3-5401675  

Mobile: +972-54-4277617

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Wing on Wing-Asymetric and Genoa

• Thread starter Bill
• Start date Mar 2, 2005
• Forums for All Owners
• Ask All Sailors

Can you go wing on wing with an asymetrical spinnaker and a 153 genoa? My asymetric cannot go dead down wind so I was thinking that going wing on wing with the genoa might work. If it works, then what should I do with the main? Is this something that might work for single handed races?Thanks  

I do it on my 356... I run wing-on-wing with the ASM and a 155%, if the wind is strong enough to get hull speed. I drop the main or bring it back to centerline to keep it from blanketing the other sails.This is legal to the RRS, but you cannot use a whisker or spinnaker pole on the jib is a spinnaker is flying as well. Our class rules do not allow a pole with an ASM. This configuration requires concentration by both sheet trimmers and the helm, with good communication between them to keep the boat moving fast in the slot. I wouldn't recommend it for shorthanded sailing.Steve  

wing on wing we sail our 356 wing on wing with our Doyle UPS (about a 190%) and the main, we've also flown it with the std jib and no main-great for downwind in a sea, fast and easy to steer! However, Steve's right, it does take a lot of concentration to keep the jib winged-we're adding a whisker pole to steady the jib this year.  

What about the performance? How does the performance (speed) compare to sailing with a traditional spinnaker with a pole and the main when going dead down wind?I ask this because I will be racing single and double handed this year against boats who have traditional spinnakers and I do not own one.Thanks  

Jose Venegas

Does PHRF allows it? I have done it while cruising and found that one needs to drop the main to keep both head sails full (at least on low wind conditions). In those conditions I found it helps compared with keeping the main up reaching or going wing on wing.  

PHRF DOES allow it, but... Great post...PHRF does allow it, but only one sail can be poled out.Allen Schweitzers/v FalstaffC-30 Hull #632  

newly anonymous

Wrong! Check RRS 50.3 (c) First of all, PHRF is a handicapping system. They are not a governing body for racing rules. The Racing Rules of Sailing specifically say, "A headsail may be sheeted or attached at its clew to a spinnaker pole or whisker pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set." [RRS 50.3 (c)].  

Am I missing something? Am I missing something? Bill's original post says, "My asymetric cannot go dead down wind ..." Only way I know to go wing-and-wing IS dead downwind.What's up?Tom MonroeCarlyle Lake  

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• Boeing & Aerospace
• Local Business
• FAA halts Sequim wing-walking flights, revokes owner’s pilot license

The Mason Wing Walking business in Sequim that allowed paying thrill-seekers to clamber over the wings of a 1940s Stearman biplane while in flight is no more.

The Federal Aviation Administration has revoked the pilot license of Mike Mason, who flew wing-walking flights for the past 12 years in Sequim in summer and in California in the winter.

The FAA “Administrator has determined that an emergency exists related to safety in air commerce and that immediate action to revoke your Airline Transport Pilot certificate is required,” the federal agency wrote in a March 18 letter to Mason. Mason was barred from piloting any plane, effective immediately.

Though the government has now ruled his operation unsafe, in an interview last August Mason claimed that an FAA inspector had given him the all clear to conduct wing-walking flights when he started flying them in 2012.

He said he was assured he was exempt from the standard regulations governing commercial air carriers under rules specific to flight school, acrobatic and aerial photography missions.

The FAA said then it was investigating this claim. The “emergency order of revocation” letter to Mason cites the outcome.

Based on multiple wing walking flights in Sequim last summer and further such flights in Santa Paula, Calif., in December, “you have advertised or offered passenger-carrying aircraft operations to the public without authorization,” the FAA ruled.

During these flights, each lasting about 25 minutes and costing $1,000 to $1,400 for the thrill ride, the wing walker climbed out of the cockpit, tethered to a cable, at about 3,500 feet up.

He or she strapped into a harness on a fixed rig, standing atop the wings as the bright red biplane performed aerobatics, including flipping upside down so that the person’s head pointed straight down at the ground.

Then, disconnecting from the rig but still tethered to the cable, the wing walker climbed out onto the wings and lie astride a pole fixed horizontally between the upper and lower wings of the biplane, flying Harry Potter-style.

The FAA investigation determined that those flights “were careless or reckless so as to endanger the life or property of another.”

The letter states that in addition to operating his business without authorization, Mason violated air safety regulations by performing acrobatic flight maneuvers when the paying passenger had no parachute.

This conduct “demonstrates you presently lack the degree of care, judgment and responsibility required,” the letter concludes.

Mason was instructed to surrender his revoked pilot certificate to the FAA immediately, subject to a fine of $1,828 per day for each day he fails to surrender it.

Mason and his wife have two children, one of them disabled . The flying business is their livelihood.

The letter says the FAA won’t accept an application for Mason for a new pilot certificate for one year.

Mason has appealed the FAA action, though he remains barred from flying during the appeal process. The FAA will schedule an appeal hearing, likely in April. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Complaints from residents

The FAA ruling kills what had become a controversial business operation.

Originally, Mason flew out of a grass airstrip at the Blue Ribbon Farms development in Sequim, where the family has a home. Many residents there are former airline pilots and have hangars for small private planes beside their houses. 

Blue Ribbon residents are bound by pilot-friendly covenant rules that explicitly allow airplane takeoffs and landings and prohibit noise complaints. But the covenant bars using the airstrip “for commercial purposes.”

The homeowners board heard complaints about the number of flights Mason was conducting causing disruption during the summer. Mason then moved the flights to the nearby Sequim Valley Airport.

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However, Mason’s wife Marilyn continued to give clients preflight ground training at the airplane hangar beside their Blue Ribbon house.

The training ran about three hours before the wing-walkers went up. They learned the footholds and handholds used to climb across the airframe, and how to secure the harness on top.

The dispute intensified when the board in 2022 sued the Masons to try to stop them from operating out of the location entirely.

In filings, the board expressed concern that it might be found liable if an accident were to kill a wing walker. No insurance company will cover wing walking.

In a separate setback that forced another move for the business, last summer the FAA rescinded permission for Mason to fly where he had habitually conducted the wing walking flight: a little offshore over the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The FAA received noise complaints from residents along the shore and withdrew permission to use that area, which it controls because it’s close to airways where other planes regularly fly.

So Mason then switched to flying inland, a few miles south of the airport between the shoreline and the Olympic Mountains, away from any airways so that no FAA permission was required.

But that drew the ire of people living in the new flight area, because the Stearman is a very noisy plane.

Chrysalis Carter, who has lived for 30 years at her quiet rural home on Blue Mountain between Sequim and Port Angeles said Mason was flying low over the property four to six days a week in good weather last summer.

She could see the wing walkers standing on the plane quite clearly. The noise was so disruptive and constant, she said, she and her husband considered moving.

Told of the FAA action Thursday, Carter let out a sigh and said “I’m utterly relieved.”

The court ruling in the Blue Ribbon homeowner case barred the Masons from using either the Blue Ribbon airstrip or their hangar for the wing walking business.

Mason’s appeal of that Clallam County Superior Court judgment is still pending, though unless he wins his appeal of the FAA ruling it may become moot.

In an interview Thursday, Mark Long, chair of the homeowner board, was circumspect about the FAA decision.

Long, a pilot of small airplanes himself, said he and the board took legal action only to force Mason to move the business off its property.

He said the board did not want to complain to the FAA and go after Mason’s license.

“We’re pilots,” Long said. “We feel bad whenever we hear somebody’s had their ticket, their license, revoked.”

“That was never our intent,” he added. “We know it’s his living. We hope he gets it back.”

The forced closure of Mason Wing Walking may remove the last opportunity anywhere for well-off amateurs to take their chances with this daredevil bucket-list stunt.

The U.K.-based Wing Walk Company offers a similar service, although it straps its clients to the rig on top of the plane for takeoff and landing and the duration of the flight. There’s no actual walking on the wing while in the air.

In the U.S., professionals perform wing walking at some small air shows. But Mason’s operation was the only way for a member of the public to sign up for such a ride.

The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.

Right-Wing Media Blames Bridge Collapse on ‘Open Border’ and COVID Lockdowns

While Fox’s Maria Bartiromo tried linking the disaster to border policies, Matt Schlapp suggested it had something to do with post-COVID labor policy.

Justin Baragona

Senior Media Reporter

That didn’t take long.

Hours after a cargo ship destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, right-wing pundits, Fox hosts, and GOP lawmakers found a way to blame the deadly disaster on Democratic policies and their favorite culture-war battles.

According to the conservative media ecosystem, the horrific bridge collapse could be linked to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, the “wide open border,” pandemic-era lockdowns, and companies being forced to hire “drug-addled” employees.

The Dali, a 948-foot Singaporean cargo ship, struck the bridge’s pillar around 1:30 a.m. local time, causing the entire structure to fall into the Patapsco River. A harbor pilot was piloting the ship out of the bay at the time, and it appeared to lose power just before colliding with the bridge.

Six people remained missing as of Tuesday morning and two construction workers were rescued from the frigid waters, with one avoiding injury. A “mayday” call made just before the collision likely saved lives as it allowed bridge operators to halt traffic. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore asserted that there was no indication the crash was intentional, calling it an “accident.” Federal and local authorities concurred that the “catastrophic” disaster didn’t appear to be a terrorist act.

While the U.S. and Singaporean governments announced investigations into the incident and first responders continued searching the waters for potential survivors, right-wingers got right to work floating unhinged conspiracy theories about the bridge collapse.

With Elon Musk’s X awash in baseless claims that corporate diversity initiatives or Israel or globalist cyberattacks were to blame for the crash, conservative cable outlets Newsmax and Fox Business Network decided to dabble in some baseless speculation of their own.

During an interview with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Fox host Maria Bartiromo repeatedly attempted to link border security policies to the bridge collapse. “Maersk is out with comments this morning, the container vessel that collided with the bridge was chartered by Maersk,” she said on her morning show. “You’re on Homeland Security. I want to understand the threats or the potential threats that this country is facing right now given the wide open border, the fact that we don’t know who is in the country. We heard from officials that the FBI is looking into that but this is customary. FBI is always going to look into a situation like this to ensure there was no foul play.”

A once-respected business reporter who has transformed into a MAGA-pilled conspiracy theorist in recent years, Bartiromo continued to tie immigration to the bridge disaster.

“Let me get your take on what’s going on in terms of world affairs. The White House issued a statement on this saying there’s no indication of a nefarious intent in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The ship involved in the collapse of the bridge is 948 feet long and called The Dali, a Singaporean-flagged container,” Bartiromo declared. “Of course, you’ve been talking a lot about wrongdoing or the potential for foul play, given the wide-open border. That is why you have been so adamant. Why have the Republicans had such a hard time securing the border? The president says he’s not going to take executive action. You know that!”

Towards the end of the interview, Bartiromo wondered whether the bridge collapse would “stoke inflation again,” adding that “it’s expensive to be transporting all of these goods and we saw what happened in the Red Sea when the ships were getting attacked.”

Over on Newsmax, meanwhile, one pundit deemed persona non grata at Fox suggested the disaster was caused by supposedly lowered employment standards brought about by COVID-19 and diversity hiring.

“You look at our critical infrastructure and I’m one of these people that believes we’ve never fully come out of all the lockdowns and the COVID issues and you can look…at our air traffic controllers where we have critical mission problems with filling slots,” American Conservation Union president Matt Schlapp said on Tuesday morning.

The CPAC organizer , who was effectively banned from Fox News following accusations of sexual assault and misconduct, went on to admit that he’s “no expert” before giving more of his opinion on the root cause of the collision.

“All I would say is that if you talk to employers in America, they'll tell you that filling slots with employees who aren't drug-addled is a very huge problem, so I'm making no specific charges here because we don't know,” he stated. “But you know anybody who flies in America can see that you're constantly waiting on a tarmac somewhere for some crew to show up. There's more maintenance problems than we've ever had, which I think are euphemisms for the problems that I’ve described.”

Elsewhere on Newsmax, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and the network’s hosts implied that the Biden administration's recent infrastructure bills were to blame for the collapse, claiming that not enough spending was going toward roads and bridges. According to the South Carolina lawmaker, the bill’s climate change initiatives have resulted in “rusting” bridges.

“Look at the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that was done a couple of years ago that the left hails as this massive success, but it was mostly ‘Green New Deal,’” she groused. Actually in that bill, $110 billion went to surface transportation, which is roads and bridges. And of that $110 billion, $70 billion went to public transportation, leaving only $40 billion for traditional roads and bridges, what you and I think about. And if you live along the coast or you live near water, you know that our bridges are rusting out, you know that we have many, many bridges that have to be replaced and upgraded.”

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Detroit Red Wings at Carolina Hurricanes: What time, TV channel is visit to N.C. on?

Detroit Red Wings (36-29-7) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (45-21-7)

When: 7 p.m. Thursday.

Where: PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.

TV: Bally Sports Detroit.

Radio:  WXYT-FM (97.1).

∎ BOX SCORE

Eyes on the ice:  Here's how to  watch the Red Wings this season without Bally Sports Detroit .

CREASE INCREASE: Red Wings' playoff chase has goalie Alex Lyon saying 'I just love this time of year'

Game notes: Whatever offensive issues the Hurricanes had before the trade deadline appear to have vanished with the acquisition of forward Jake Guentzel from Pittsburgh. Averaging 3.3 goals a game over their first 62 contests, the ’Canes have whirled into action with 3.9 goals a game since while going 8-2-1.

Guentzel, who was accused of benefitting overmuch from playing with Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh, has himself become a facilitator for Carolina, with 10 assists (and two goals) in his nine games in red and black, while posting a plus-10 rating. Finnish wonder Sebastian Aho has thrived with Guentzel to draw defensive attention; he has seven goals and eight assists in 11 games, with a plus-13 rating since the deadline. That brings Aho to a team-leading 31 goals and 49 assists, and his plus-28 rating for the season was ninth in the NHL entering Wednesday. Also lighting it up recently: Seth Jarvis. The 22-year-old center has eight goals in 11 games since the deadline, bringing him to 27 on the season.

The Wings, meanwhile, saw their offense bog down against the Hurricanes’ defense; in their two losses to Carolina, they’ve scored just three goals while averaging 19 shots a game — that included a 12-shot effort — TWELVE — in January’s 4-2 loss in Raleigh.

After tonight’s game, the Wings’ gantlet of playoff contenders continues with a visit to the Sunshine State, as they’ll face Atlantic Division foes Florida at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Tampa Bay at 7 p.m. Monday. The ’Canes, meanwhile, have a much easier weekend, with a Saturday visit to Montreal followed by four days off.

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In a showdown full of playoff significance, Caps beat Red Wings in OT

The Washington Capitals have grown comfortable living on a knife-edge, and they’re going to keep living there for a while longer.

Nearly every game, they can sense that their playoff hopes — and, thus, the outlook for their season — hang in the balance. But while each matchup takes on extra significance at this time of year, with three weeks left in the season, no game has seemed more meaningful for Washington than Tuesday night’s meeting with the Detroit Red Wings at Capital One Arena.

The Capitals came into the night holding the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Red Wings in the wild-card race with one game in hand. With a regulation win, Washington would have moved three points clear of Detroit for the second wild-card spot, but a tying goal with just over five minutes left by Detroit’s Patrick Kane forced overtime and gave each team a point.

Dylan Strome made sure Washington got two. His goal at 1:55 of overtime gave the Capitals a 4-3 win and moved them two points clear of the Red Wings, still with a game in hand.

“We just stuck with it,” Strome said. “Kind of what we’ve been doing since the all-star break — just hanging in there, battling and find a way to get it done, whether it’s late or in overtime or whatever it may be.”

Goalie Charlie Lindgren, appearing in his 100th NHL game and making his 38th start of the season, stopped 30 shots for the Capitals (36-26-9, 81 points), who have won three in a row. Alex Lyon made 26 saves for the Red Wings (36-29-7, 79 points). Washington also is just one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers (36-27-10, 82 points) for third place in the Metropolitan Division; the Capitals have two games in hand there.

Detroit had the jump in the first few minutes, including an early power play after defenseman Rasmus Sandin was boxed for interference just 57 seconds in. But once the Capitals found their footing, they began to tilt the ice in their favor. Though it took Washington nearly 11 minutes to register its first shot on goal — a redirection by Alex Ovechkin that nearly sneaked through Lyon’s pads — by the end of the first period, the shots were even at seven apiece and the Capitals had the momentum.

Center Nic Dowd translated that into a go-ahead goal 2:09 into the second, beating Lyon from the high slot through a screen provided by winger Beck Malenstyn. When Washington played in Detroit at the end of February, the Capitals got an up-close look at how the Red Wings can take over a game with their speed and skill during an 8-3 rout . After Dowd scored, it was all Detroit for the rest of the period.

Alex DeBrincat tied the score at 4:53, putting the puck through Lindgren’s legs after beating winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel to the prime real estate in front of the crease. On the first shift after DeBrincat’s goal, the Capitals put pressure on Lyon and threatened to retake the lead, but their response was short-lived.

Detroit racked up 20 shots in the middle frame, and Lindgren did everything he could to keep the game tied and give Washington a chance. Defenseman Martin Fehervary swept a loose puck out of the crease after a shot by Dylan Larkin trickled through Lindgren, but the Red Wings continued to attack.

After Lindgren made five saves in just 39 seconds with Detroit on the power play late in the period, David Perron poked the puck past him on the Red Wings’ sixth try as Lindgren fell over amid the chaos in the crease at 19:17.

“We battled hard,” Strome said. “Chuckie made some unbelievable saves. Even on their second goal there, he makes like three Grade A saves, highlight-of-the-night-type saves, and they get a bounce that goes in.”

“It’s tough,” Coach Spencer Carbery said. “You’re going to go through ebbs and flows in a game. They’re going to carry momentum. They’re going to put you on your heels. I thought they did a good job of battling through that, especially when we needed it into the third period. We ain’t going quietly into the night down 2-1. We’re going to come out and push you, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Just 35 seconds into the third period, center Connor McMichael picked up the puck at the back of the net and tucked it past Lyon to tie the score — and then celebrated with Ovechkin draped over his shoulders, both feeling the significance of McMichael’s 17th goal.

“In between periods, the second and third, we talked about how we needed to get more traffic in front,” McMichael said. “You look at their first two goals — they were both battles in front, and they were a little heavier on their sticks. That’s what we talked about. I just wanted to get to the blue paint.”

Strome needed a little over four minutes to put Washington back in the lead with his career-best 24th goal. A rebound of a shot by defenseman John Carlson landed at Strome’s feet on the back door, and he one-touched a backhander past Lyon.

But with 5:20 remaining, Kane was left alone in the high slot and fired a slap shot off a feed from DeBrincat that sailed over Lindgren and tied the score again. The Capitals didn’t panic.

“It’s kind of what Kane does, right? He scores those big goals,” Strome said.

In overtime, Strome redirected a pass from Carlson over Lyon to increase his goal total to a career-high 25. With his arms outstretched, screaming “Let’s go!” toward the rafters, Strome skated toward a giddy mass of teammates to celebrate what might be Washington’s biggest victory of the season.

Strome is known for keeping up to date on his teammates’ statistical milestones, but he didn’t need any help with his own achievement.

“I knew that one [by] heart,” he said. “Feels good. ... I haven’t scored that much in the second half, but team’s playing well, team’s winning, Ovi’s scoring, right? Happy to chip in and contribute. We’ll take a big two points and go two ahead.”

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