Wind Tunnel Measurements of the Performance of Canoe Sails from Oceania.

Authors

  • Anne Di Piazza Aix-Marseille Université, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Centre de recherche et de documentation, sur l’Océanie (CREDO)
  • Erik Pearthree
  • François Paillé Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérotechnique

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.123.1.9-28

Keywords:

Oceania, navigation, sailing canoe performance, wind tunnel experiments

Abstract

To understand the sailing performance of traditional canoes in Oceania, we replicated ten sail rigs and tested them in a wind tunnel. Measurements of lift and drag forces demonstrate substantial differences in their performance. At low heading angles, from about 30° to 80° off the wind, three sails (Massim, Ninigo, Santa Cruz) are remarkable for their higher efficiency. Three other sails (Tonga, Hawaii, Tahiti) are remarkable for their lower efficiency from heading angles of about 90 to 130°. In between, four more sails (Arawe, Micronesia, Vanuatu, Marquesas) have roughly similar performance to each other. The ranking of these sails is followed by a description of their distribution with inferences on historical evolution of canoe rigs.

Author Biographies

Anne Di Piazza, Aix-Marseille Université, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Centre de recherche et de documentation, sur l’Océanie (CREDO)

Anne Di Piazza is an archaeologist currently working at CREDO (Centre de recherche et de documentation, sur l’Océanie) in Marseille, France, a research laboratory affiliated with Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS (Centre National de le Recherche Scientifique) and EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales). Her present research is directed towards the understanding of prehistoric navigation and settlement in Oceania, through experimental navigation, computer modelling and wind tunnel tests.

Erik Pearthree

Erik Pearthree is an archaeologist with research interests in prehistoric settlement, past and present canoe technology and maritime history in the Pacific. He currently resides near Marseille, France. An avid sailor, he and co-author Anne Di Piazza built their own Polynesian style voyaging canoe and sailed it from Hawai‘i to the Line and Phoenix Islands. His current research focuses on replication of scale model of canoes and sail rigs.

François Paillé, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérotechnique

François Paillé is a technical engineer at ENSMA (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérodynamique) and works within the Institute Pprime[MSA1] (Recherche et Ingénierie en Matériaux Mécanique et Energétique pour les Transports, l'Energie et l'Environnement) in the department FTC (Fluides, Thermique et Combustion). He is responsible for and conducts the experiments in their wind tunnels. He assists in all research activities in the domains of surface transport and flow control. He also participates in is involved in teaching.

JPS September 2013, Vol. 122 No.3 cover

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Published

2014-08-05

Issue

Vol. 123 No. 1 (2014)

Section

Articles

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