Vic Smeed Wing Ray

[kgurdParticipant @kgurd]

I,ve been trying to obtain the plans for this unusual craft for some time. I think the plan was No. MM1311 but not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 kgurd.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hello kgurd

I’m not sure about Wing Ray but Vic Smeed did design a hydroplane model called “Zing Ray” perhaps this is what you have been looking for, anyway I have attached a copy of the plan so that you can check.

Hope this helps

Paul

[kgurdParticipant @kgurd]

Thankyou for your reply. Wing Ray is a sailboat with a single foil for a sail. The sail is constructed from balsa and tissue being of the same construction as a balsa aircraft wing. The plan was often in the MM plan list in the early eighties. Thats about all i really know about this craft.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hello Kgurd

I have looked through all my library and back copies of magazines and can’t find any reference to the Wing Ray.

I understand what you are looking for now that you have explained about the foil sail, I have sent an email to a friend who knows more about the subject of wing sailing as there is just a chance that he might know where to look.

Paul

[kgurdParticipant @kgurd]

Thanks again Paul for your help. Found this advert in an 1981 Model Boats mag. Hoping that some member might have come across it.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Kgurd.

I not had a reply from Sam yet but he is working out in Dubai and has spasmodic access to the internet but hopefully, when he doe’s get on line, he will read my email and check out this thread.

Paul

[Mike DavidsonParticipant @mikedavidson22772]

Paul,  The aircraft wing mounted vertically toact as a sail reminds me of the Clifton Flasher which took part in the John Player world speed sailing record attempt in POrtland harbour  the year that Timothy Coleman Won with his flying proa Crossbow, and doctor Gronogo was sailing an experimental catamaran with an aerofoil mast. That was a fascinating event with sailing craft lifting up on to hydrofoils, and sailboarders overtaking my car going from Portland to Weymouth, which reminds me, there is a theory that the foresail on a bermuda rig boat acts just like the slotted leading edge of an aircraft’s mainplane directing the airflow over the main aerofoil  giving considerably greater lift. We haven’t got round to blown flaps yet in boats, but I have seen an air compressor employed to blow a curtain of bubbles out at the bow to create a boundary layerwhich reduces the drag of the hull as it cuts through the water thus increasing the boat’s speed for a given power input. I remember putting some of this to the test when I was racing sailing dinghy’s, and certainly the boat went fastest when the foresail was trimmed so that the trailing edge was not flapping. p.s. The Clifton Flasher had four or five aerofoil wingsvertically arranged like a venetian blind, and she did not hang about either, it was a very good boat, a likely subject for a  very interesting model

[kgurdParticipant @kgurd]

[NashyParticipant @nashy]

As this thread is coming up for its 5th Anniversary I wonder if anyone is still looking for details on the Vic Smeed "Wing Ray"? Or perhaps our recently, accidentally aquired yacht is the last in existence?

We have one almost complete sheet of plans (unsure if there would have been more than one page?) and a more-or-less complete Yacht with 3 sails.

Currently starting restoration (Which will include changing the sail colour to something a little more 'period'

Could this be the last!

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