I started skate sailing at an early age.

I took the advice of the professor

The design and execution of a new concept involves hundreds of decisions with respect to design, selection of materials, identify root of problems, what to try to correct them. And always have the main object in focus: What can I do to increase the speed?

  I had a friend with a pioneering project that went nowhere due to a, according to me, a wrong decision regarding the functionality of the design.

I started skate sailing at an early age.

I sailed dingies from the age of 15. In my club, Stockholms Segelklubb in Sweden, we had a skate sailing section. The older skate sailors were kind to take me to the ice and teach me skate sailing, it including many hard and painful crashes. Also teaching the dangers of natural ice.

  At an age around 25 I designed and tried some variations on the then current skate sail, the "Draksegel", photo above left, e.g. a taller and shorter sail which should aerodynamically improve speed - but lead to unmanable instability. After 70 years of use and development the "Draksegel" had found it best planform, i.e. its shape viewed from the side.  

Some major design change was probably needed to get a faster skate sail.

 I planned to use a vertical sail and hang out from it at an angle near the horisontal. I had to be in a streamlining to get my body air resistance down, to increase the top speed.

  This is the same arrangement the windsurfers use - except I haven't heard of one using streamlining.

  Streamlining is more important when ice sailing as speeds are much higher because the ice friction is very low compared to the the water resistance of the surfboard.

  The advantage compared to the Kite-Shaped Skate Sail, photo uppermost left, of this configuration is that as you hang out near the horizontal, instead of only leaning some 30 degrees, you can resist a three times larger sail force, resulting in a three times larger driving force, which gives a much higher speed. Another advantage is that you can carry a taller, more efficient, sail. which also results in higher speed.

I took the advice of the professor

 I discussed this configuration with Sven-Olof Ridder, professor in aerodynamics, at the Royal Institute of Technology, where I studied for my Master of Science exam. He suggested I should try skate sailing in a wing.

  The concept of hanging out from a sail would have some difficulties: Some arrangement was needed to  allow the sail to be detachably supported on a skate, a cup and a ball?  When tacking or jibing you need to shift the sail to the other side of yourself - not elementary as the wind you are experiencing can be 50 mpg, 80 kmph. The stream lining of body, head, legs and arms must be turned 180 degrees in the maneuver. This can loose you some distance if even practical.

  The sailing in a wing was by comparison very simple. For tacking and jibing just make a some 90 degrees turn. Simply use your usual sailing skates.

  The hang out from the vertical sail or stiff wing  concept has a greater speed potential, especially in light airs, which may beat the Sail-in-Wing concept on a straight course, i.e. without tacking or jibing.

  So, I went for the Sail-in-Wing skate sail!

 "You are waisting your time!"  

When I worked on and developed this new concept there was no lack of people who told me it was not possible to make a faster skate sail. "One guy put aluminum streamlining on his sail. It didn't go faster - but it rattled a lot when he crashed."

"Impossible to make a faster skate sail - speed already very high!"

  I remember an association meeting when I said we should try to make faster sails and an architect - a technically educated person - said he thought it was impossible as the speed of the then current skate sail was already very high at 60 mph, 100 kmph.  

The design and execution of a new concept involves hundreds of decisions with respect to design, selection of materials, identify root of problems, what to try to correct them. And always have the main object in focus: What can I do to increase the speed?

  I had a friend with a pioneering project that went nowhere due to a, according to me, a wrong decision regarding the functionality of the design.

Studied for my Master of Science in Physics

During these years of development I studied for my  Master of Science in Applied Physics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and graduated 1975. It was a nice environment for development of the Sail-in-Wing skate sail.  

  Due to no income through these years budget was meager.

The Vikings skate sailed 1200 years ago!

Skates made of bone has been found where vikings lived. The vikings were good sailors. So they certainly did skate sail! The bone skates were not sharp like todays metal skates so they could presumably only sail downwind. When not skate sailing they probably propelled themself with a pole in each hand. These poles having sharp points of stone at the bottom end.

A runestone mentioning skate sailing has, to my knowledge, not yet been found. But it could read like this

"Speedmund had this stone carved in memory of himself, the fastest of men. May God help the soul of Speedmund, the skate sailor who sailed ten times faster than the horse runs. Åfrid carved this memorial after Vigmund died when sailing into the rocks of Björkö island in a storm."

https://sites.google.com/site/iwskatesailhistory/ 

I, Anders Ansar, participated in a Swedish Champion Ship south east of Stockholm, Sweden. Wind was very strong, over 20 knots, 10 mps. Speeds well over 65 mph, 100 kmph (which we reach in winds of 14 knots, 7 mps.) 

I sailed on the reach at over 65 mph, 100 kmph, and started to turn the leeward flag. The wing practically refused to turn. In front of me was several rocky islands, 500 yards/meters away, 15 seconds away. Could I turn quickly enough? Hitting the rocks would be sure death.  

I pulled the emergency brake: I increased the wings heel until we were sliding on the ice. After some 100 yards/meters we stopped, I got out of the wing, raised it and got in. Now at lower speed there was no control problem. The problem was that the wing was a bit unsymmetrical, no control problem in moderate winds, unmanagable in strong winds.

Another wing builder, former Swedish Air Force pilot and then commercial airline captain, L L, ended up with a wing that made sharp uncommanded turns into the wind.

He countered them with sliding his skates sideways making them scream. The problem was a slightly unsymmetrical wing.

  When I phoned him the conversation could go like this: Shall we crash Wing Sails now on Saturday? No sorry, I can't, I will crash airplanes.

Searching for more speed I made a wing which I could twist - for fabric sail boat sails this comes naturally and the right twist for the conditions is important for best speed when racing.

I adjusted the twist with a handle in front of me. Unexpectedly moving the handle also steered the wing. As it was rigged turning the handle left the wing turned right - opposite to what we are used to.

  I could have change this but thought there was no reason for it. Until I sailed in strong gusty winds coming in from my right so I was heeled some 30 degrees to the right. A really big change in wind direction made my heel increase fast. I instingtly countered by turning the handle anti clockwise - and the wing turned right and lost all the lift that kept me from falling to the right - and me and the wing were violently thrown to the right hard on the ice - I have now - several decades later - a shoulder which sometimes hurts when I sleep on my right side...  

  I made a wing which was shorter than the others, from front to back.

We were out sailing and a wing sailing friend, DT, asked if he could try my wing. He got in, sailed away - and he soon hit the ice with a loud bang. 

  What appened was that the ordinary wings need quite a bit of turning force with your hands and shoulder when you tack them, i.e. making a 90 degrees turn when sailing to windward. This short wing did need only little turning force to tack. 

  When he wanted to tack he gave the wing that for him usual strong turning force. The wing reacted with a very quick tack, making him loose his balance and they were thrown sideways onto the ice. He looked a bit dazed when he got out of the wing: What happened?

  We were sailing on a rainy day. And I crashed because I sailed into too deep water.

When it rains the water doesn't cover the ice with an even thickness of water. Instead it collects in large puddles, maybe with a diameter of 200 yards, m.

  I was sailing at some 40 mph, 65 km/h, when I sailed into one of these collections of water. The front of the wing plowed through the water, creating a great breaking force - and I fell forward with loud bang. Neither wing noor me were damaged.   

  But I got thoroughly soaked laying in the 8 inch, 20 cm, deep water. If one would get unconcious in the fall there could be a drowning risk if the sailor ends up with face under water. 

  To lessen the risk of this kind of fall one sails with the wing higher than usual. There is a line in front of the sailor for adjusting  he wings height.

Skates can make problems!

I made a pair of skates with variable height, 3, 8, 12 inches, 7, 20, 30 cm. That height is about maximum if you should be able to get up on the skates again after a fall. The background was, and is, that in light winds and smooth ice you can sail with tall skates and that enables you to sail with a tall, fast sail. In strong gusty winds, on the other hand, tall skates makes it more likely you will crash - and be left hundreds of yards/m behind your competitors.

  I made such skates. The connection between the skate and the alpine boot wasn't rigid - the skates didn't accurately follow the boots.

  I was sailing at low speed when the skates turned "toe in" - came together at their front tips, and thereby created a hard breaking action making me and wing fall forward. No damage to wing or me.