Sailboat Velocity Prediction Program

A program to predict the speed of a sailboat at a given wind speed and direction. The VPP is based off of the vpp outlined by Lars Larsson in the book Principles of Yacht Design. It was written largely by me for my team's use in our Ocean Engineering senior design project.

The vpp was based on the flow chart below. It is essentialy an iterative method to find the speed at which the resistant forces acting on the hull of the sailboat balance with the propulsive forces generated by the sail.

The VPP outputs a nice graph, like the one below, as well as tabulated data detailing the boat's performance at various wind speeds and directions. The circular graph below shows predicted boat speeds (radial distance) as a function of wind direction (angle) and wind speed (line color). The other image below is a simplistic rendering, created by the VPP, of what the current boat being run looks like.