I looked up what AYRS members have been doing over the years, by going through all the old publications and I have found a few. Of course, there may have been all sorts of other wind turbine projects which nobody ever bothered to tell anyone else about, but I can't mind-read. If anyone here knows of any others that I have not mentioned, please tell me.
First, in 1960, there was William Garnett, who had a little model on wheels which drove the front wheel. It had eight sails, slightly coned, with the hub to windward of the mast but the centre of sail area to leeward. It was also raked to leeward, to provide lateral balance. It went forwards in any wind direction, but unfortunately it did not go as fast as a normal sail. On the other hand, it did stay up in winds where normal sails fell over, so the model could actually have taken a larger wind turbine for the same stability.
AYRS 33 (1960) p.48-50
 AYRS 41 (1962) p.38 |
 AYRS 58 (1966) p.41 |
Then he joined forces with two American members and in 1965 they built a 14' wind turbine on a 12' catamaran, named LUGUBRIOUS I. This certainly sailed directly upwind, and may perhaps have been the first full-size boat since 1920 to do so.
In 1966, AYRS held a model yacht competition at which this boat turned up, which sailed very fast upwind - in fact, I believe it ONLY sailed directly upwind. The person who brought it along was so shy that he disappeared before anybody had found out his name or address - but he was eventually traced and it turned out to be Philip Hansford. Well, he then went on to build record-breaking hydrofoils and seems to have given up on wind turbines.
AYRS 58 (1966) p.43
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