Sailing Yacht Research Foundation moving forward

(July 29, 2014) – The Sailing Yacht Research Foundation (SYRF) has appointed two new members to the Board of Directors and a new member to the SYRF Advisory Council. These new members will help strengthen both the resources and scientific reach of the organization’s mission to support the science of sailing through research and education.

New Board member Dina Kowalyshyn has a strong technical background in the sport, being a Naval Architect for CDI Marine, a Maryland-based firm that specializes in the design of high-speed craft for the US Navy and US Coast Guard, and the Vice Chairman of the ISAF Equipment Committee. But prior to this she worked for Hydronautics, where in the 1980’s and 1990’s she was a test engineer for America’s Cups programs, most notably Bill Koch’s America3 program where her expertise was on appendage design.

“What excites me about joining the Board for SYRF is an opportunity to interact with the design community at the highest levels,” said Kowalyshyn. “I hope to be able to steer support into projects that will help expand the sport.”

Chuck Hawley comes to the Board at SYRF with a more specific focus: the role of safety in offshore sailing. With decades of offshore sailing experience and as the Chairman of the US Sailing Safety at Sea Committee, California-based Hawley has been a tireless promoter of the topic and is a nationally-known speaker and prolific author of articles and videos on safety and seamanship.

“I am interested in improving offshore safety in sailing yachts, and I think that SYRF can be part of that effort,” said Hawley. “I am also interested in improving the perception of yacht racing as being as fair as possible.”

SYRF’s latest addition to its Technical Advisory Council is Claudio Fassardi, who is also from the US. With a background in naval architecture and mechanical engineering, Fassardi has been on several America’s Cup design programs in every cycle from 1992 to 2007, with a specialty in tank testing, prototype instrumentation and performance prediction. Fassardi’s expertise will be used in assisting SYRF with the Reference Library project.

Another important project for SYRF is the Wide Light Boats Project being conducted by a panel of experts in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), where six research teams are using CFD tools to describe the flow characteristics around a base model provided by SYRF. Initial results from five of these teams, which includes the Wolfson Unit at the University of Southampton, are now received, so the next step is to evaluate these results and decide which need further validation through a test tank program.

“Our plan is to meet in early September and evaluate these results from the teams,” said Myles Cornwell, Technical Director at SYRF. “We are also very close to finishing the structure of our online Reference Library, where these results can reside and be viewed by anyone interested in the process.”

“The addition of our new Board members, the progress of the Wide Light study, the start to the building of the research library, and our involvement with several other initiatives makes these exciting times for SYRF,” said SYRF Chairman Steve Benjamin. “The enthusiasm and new ideas generated from our contributors and advisors has led us to explore new and innovative ways we can pursue our mission to support the science of sailing.

“The ongoing generous support from our donors has really helped get these projects off the ground and starting to take shape.”

For more information on SYRF: www.sailyachtresearch.org