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Old 10th Aug 2011, 23:24
  #23 (permalink)  
boguing
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Dorking
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My sport has been yacht racing. Other than the heading of the entire boat, we constantly adjust AoA, camber and the longitudinal position of max camber. And sometimes change sails to suit wind speeds. (And twist the sails to allow for what we call wind shear and you might call ground effect).

That can occasionally be bizarre. Most of the time the closer to the water, the slower the wind. Which is lucky because it would be very complicated to twist the sail the other way. But on two occasions (both Autumnal with T inversions) the higher breeze was slower. Very odd, and felt like I was hallucinating. Top of the sails working nicely, bottoms just flapping.

There are always beer fuelled debates about wind density, temp/humidity, and its' effect on forward speed (l/d). Problem is that we are all racing in the same stuff, and with so many other variables it's very hard to quantify - so we don't because getting to the bar first is more important.

But I will agree that a damp day seems to help turbulence/not help laminar flow.
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