LSRAR-,tS-:ES The Hydrodynamics of Sailboat Bailing Devices

This paper outlines the design and construction of an experiment to establish the relative performance characteristics of sailboat bailing devices. Data was obtained for a series of production bailers, newly designed prototypes and production bailer variations allowing classification of their relative performance with regard to flow rate, minimum speed of bailing inception and drag. These results were non-dimensionalized and this information used to examine the effects of bailer geometry on performance in these critical categories. The experimental data conclusively show that a prototype developed from the current generation of production bailers produces in excess of three times the flow rate of the parent production bailer and is capable of operation at a significantly lower speeds. This bailer has an acceptable increase in measured drag over the production bailer baseline. A theory is advanced as to the reasons for these dramatic improvements in performance and this corroborated with visual observations of the bailer in operation. A study of operational considerations is also incorporated and these observations used in defining design requirements for a production version of the best prototype. A propose