A group of GVSU Engineering students will go with the flow this week as they complete a course in fluid dynamics. They'll compete in the annual Wooden Shoe Regatta, which features model racing yachts that serve as practical applications for classroom principles.
The regatta is an educational project designed by GVSU Padnos School of Engineering professor Shirley Fleischmann, who previously taught at the U.S. Naval Academy. Fleischmann organized the regatta at the Naval Academy for six years. This is the tenth year she has run the event at Grand Valley.
The designers and skippers of the boats are junior-level engineering students who have applied what they have learned about fluid dynamics to design the sailboats, says Fleischmann. The tangible result of this project is 21 highly original designs.
Students start with a 2-by-4-by-10-inch block of basswood and build a one-twelfth scale model of a single hull sailboat. They test hull resistance in a 12-foot tank built and donated by S-2 Yachts of Holland, Michigan. Students test the sails, which they made themselves, in a wind tunnel. Based on these tests, students use scaling laws to predict how the hulls and sails of a full-scale boat will perform.
All of this testing and the reasons behind special design features are the technical heart of the project, explains Fleischmann. This is all put into a report which is graded.
The Wooden Shoe Regatta includes competition for style and speed. The speed competition takes place in a tank with an 8-foot course and will be held on Tuesday, August 1, in the Eberhard Center, Room 713 at 1 p.m.
The Wooden Shoe Regatta will be held at the new Keller Engineering Lab in downtown Grand Rapids next year.
