Span FAQ list


How accurate would Span predict sailing performance for a 1m model yacht?

Span will not predict the sailing performance very accurately for a vessel that small. There are all sorts of empirical equations that assume a full size vessel and extrapolation to a model yacht is not recommended. The upright resistance would probably be reasonably accurate, but the sail forces etc would not.

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Can I save the rigging data?

Yes you can save your rigging data from File | Save Measurement Data as.. This saves a .spd (Span Design) file.

This allows you to open up different rigging sets with different hull models. You can, for example, use the parametric transformation in Maxsurf Pro to develop a series of hulls and then compare the results in Span.

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Can I predict the sailing performance of a catamaran hull in Span?

Span will not work for catamarans, though you should be able to get a resistance curve for your catamaran from Hullspeed using the slender body method.

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