Apr 6, 2012 · I've forgotten all the details, but recollect being told by experts that for boats of anything but extreme performance, the NACA 00xx series are within a hair of optimal. For greater stall resistance, go thicker on a rudder than on a board. Damfino's daggerboard is NACA0009 and the rudder is NACA0012.

Mar 3, 2013 · It would be interesting to see if some organization, perhaps a university, could develop some optimized foil shapes specific to sailboat keel design, standardized for use normal sailboat operating conditions.

Mar 23, 2017 · Every type of boat, from dinghy, to cat to keelboat right through to hydrofoil boats perform better with accurate foils. This may not matter to the cruisers (bless their cotton socks!) but if you want you boat to sail really nicely it does make a big difference.

Aug 31, 2017 · So, I'm considering building a simple rudder for a small boat and have a few questions, never having done this --and also not being familiar with NACA (beyond the basics, that I've just read on Wikipedia about it).

Many sail boats have foils based on NACA 4 digit airfoil design, which was defined in 1933 and based on a lot of trial and error by many people in the early years of aviation. Because it was based on small slow airplanes, the range of Reynold's numbers is similar to …

Mar 12, 2004 · NACA profiles just refer to a system for cataloging airfoils. If you use any old NACA profile you could end up with a lot of leeway on one tack and negative leeway on the other. Each profile has unique properties and characteristics which should be considered before picking a profile. I don't know enough about yacht design to say anything more.

Oct 2, 2023 · My boat (Morgan 382) has an encapsulated keel and a NACA foil shape. Listed on the Drawing as NACA 64(sub1)-A012 Streamline. sub1 is a subscript "1", I don't see how to type that on the forum.

Mar 26, 2010 · I have used foil sections for sailboat keels and rudders from 10% to 21%. Rudders often operate at high angles of attack, and you don't want them stalling out at such high angles. Spade rudder designs and some keel designs also need to be very strong and stiff.

An excellent choice for most craft, is a realistically accurate and fair NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) 0012 airfoil, where maximum board thickness is 12% of the fore/aft length (chord length).

Aug 24, 2010 · So, as a good-faith effort to help out my fellow sailors and make our Mac's perform better than other boats out there , I developed a little spreadsheet that will calculate the coordinates of a NACA 00xx symmetrical airfoil for you...