Scroll to Content
WINNER
of the Excellence in Engineering Design Award
A hydrofoiling sailing dinghy for the disabled sailor
Group Members
Mitchell Campbell, Mary Henderson, Dominic Mortimer, Thomas Nicholls, William Philbedge, Ben Pickering
Supervisors
Dr James Blake, Dr Stephen Boyd
Project Tearaway is a unique project to design a hydrofoiling sailing dinghy specifically for the disabled sailor. Whilst very accessible, the current fleet of specially designed disabled sailing boats is considered over-corrective by some. To quote one questionnaire respondent, disabled sailors want ‘..high performance boats. Having sailed them before, I miss them more than words can explain’. From this, the project was born with the desire to allow disabled sailors the same thrill as is now commonly experienced by their able-bodied counterparts. Suitable for exciting, high-intensity sailing, the ‘Tearaway’ is our solution. It is founded on disabled sailors’ opinions and uses hydrofoils to lift the boat from the water, allowing the sailors to go faster than ever before.

The Tearaway features many innovative design features, permitting a safe and stable platform whilst retaining the exhilarating behaviour typical of a foiling boat. The hydrofoil design showcases pioneering concepts to provide all inherent stability without the sailor having to move, whilst the rig design offers an extremely low centre of effort to reduce the risk of capsizing. These concepts have been validated using the latest engineering technology including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), wind tunnel testing, structural Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and numerical Velocity Performance Prediction (VPP) methods. All this combined with solid naval architecture principles has made the Tearaway the latest development in disabled sailing.
Proposed vessel design.
Wind tunnel testing to assess the impact of fluid interaction between the two sails.
Rudder hydrofoil.