We’ve been working with the COAST lab in Plymouth for many years now and the team there are brilliant, they really take our stuff to the next level and help us improve on everything we do. We’ve just completed a 2-year government funded research scheme, covering off several projects, one of which was the V–Hull testing.
For people that don’t know about the COAST lab, it’s an artificial wave generating facility that really focuses on marine related research and it just happens to be down the road from our HQ! One experiment we undertook was placing our boards in centre of the large wave tanks with lots of trackers attached. These trackers are picked up by cameras which are linked to several computers so we can capture data to post process and analyse. It’s the same principle used in CGI, computer games or movies with actors in suits with ping pong balls all over them!
Ultimately, we were able to see how the V-Hull acted in the water as the waves flowed over and around it compared to a flat–bottomed board to measure the effectiveness of it in a controlled scientific environment.