The Complete History of the C-Class Catamaran Challenge Races From 1961 to September 2013. The fastest boats powered by wind - up to 3 times faster than the wind - 27 knots in 9 knots of wind.

Southend-on-Sea, Essex -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/27/2013 -- In 1961 the British Royal Yachting Association challenged the USA to a catamaran 'Challenge Race'. Like the newly reinstated America's Cup, named after the yacht 'America' not the place, it would be a best of 7 match race series.

The Eastern Multihulls Association of the USA accepted this Challenge and set about finding the fastest catamaran not longer than 25 ft with a maximum sail area of 300 sq ft. As luck would have it a west coast team won over the East coast team.

So California raced against the Britain and unexpectedly lost.

For the next 7 years the British kept winning against the Americans and Australians then accepted a Danish Challenge, but this time they lost the trophy: never to regain it.

The trophy stayed in either America or Australia until 2007 when the Canadians won. They repeated the feat again in 2010 but in 2013 the French were victorious.

What is little understood is that these boats are the fastest for their size in the world. They used wings instead of sails as far back as 1974.

Today with only 300 sq ft of sail these catamaran reach speeds of 35 knots and can sail up to 3 times faster than the wind.

Intrigued?

We have written a history of these little known but so influential boats. We now want to get it printed.

The illustrations are unique, the history complete and all that is needed is to turn it from our electronic copy into a real 400 page fully illustrated book. Help us get Crowd Funded at Indiegogo.

Project URL: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/faster-than-the-wind-class-c-catamaran-racing

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Southend-on-Sea, Essex -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/26/2013 -- Over 80 years ago a spectacular aviation competition was held with international interest from America, Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, with throngs of onlookers choking the seafronts to glimpse these most beautiful and curious flying wonders!

The competition, to which these crowds of anywhere up to 1,000,000 strong would flock to see a part of history, was for an all-round accomplished vehicle - an aircraft that could survive on the water and in the air, for these races were a unique and thrilling series purely between seagoing planes!

The impact this short lived series of races had is clear; technical advances in arial manoeuvring, speed, water landing and studies in centrifugal forces - with research and training reports, then in the early 1920s, documenting how these high speeds could affect the pilots with up to 7.8g! (To put the bravery of these men into context; the gees recorded on re-entry within the Apollo 16 module was 7.2g - the pilots needed to figure out and practice how to cope with cornering at high speed so as to not lose time) and then there was the added dangers associated with any unique prototype 'radiator on wings' aircraft; extreme temperatures and melting engines.

Speeds increased 7 fold from 45mph, up to 340 mph (the fastest speed flown by man at the time - and only one of the many records broken throughout the duration of the races), by dare-devil pilots who would frequently push their crafts to the limit, with records showing they drove these machines to within 3% absolute maximum capable speed!

Some of aviation's most colourful characters including Jimmy Doolittle, Harry Hawker, Howard Pixton and Henri Biard vied to win three campaigns consecutively to keep the prestigious Art Nouveau 'Spirit of Flight' trophy.

Had the rate of development in aviation technology continued at the same pace as during this competition, we would have seen planes racing at over 2400mph today!

So the Jacques Schneider races, initiated with the intention of developing passenger carrying aircraft, ended up planes that would win world speed records and later change the tide of war.

This is the story of the 'Schneider Trophy' races, presented in the most engaging visual way with unique illustrations and diagrams; the information amassed into what we believe has the potential become one of the most comprehensive documents on the topic, and certainly one of the most visually engaging as it is illustrated throughout.

We have written the book, we now seeking crowd-backing to bring the first edition to print.

info@animaticmediagroup.com / http://www.aeronauticalraces.com

Project URL: Pl http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/schneider-trophy-float-planes-faster-than-land-planes-art-book/x/4958486Float

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm