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PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:30 am 
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Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:24 pm
Posts: 780
Location: Houston, TX
I know we have posted trimaran hyrofoils before but this was a new one to me- did't see on this Hobie forum. Check out his video. Not in production and sounds as though it garage built. If I could find good winds with little to no waves I could get into this.

http://youtu.be/p1ADR-Dft6w
Vetgam
Houston, Tx

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:28 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:33 pm
Posts: 338
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Lots of fun and hard work keeping that awsome machine balanced and
up on the foils. If I was invited for a ride or sail I'd be in there in a flash.

Reminds me of my first day out on my first Cat (small and slow). A Nacra
owner on the same lake invited me for a sail and fell off checking the bungs.
I heard him yell from the water "let the main sheet go" as I headed towards
a concrete drain at an amazing speed. "There's no sheets on this boat" was
my naive answer so instead I let that rope go holding the sails :lol:

So will probably stick to a stock single sail TI, unless I see Bob on the water
with his hydrofoils and wing sails.

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Cheers, Brian in South Australia
Tandem Island -
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:32 am 
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Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2011 1:58 am
Posts: 2893
Location: Forster, NSW, Australia
I was once offered a ride on a Seawind 24 racing cat, in sheltered water, but with 25 knot winds. He pulled on the mainsheet and I fell straight over backwards! Wow!
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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 2:31 pm 
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Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:53 am
Posts: 289
Location: Sollentuna, Sweden, Europe
vetgam wrote:
I know we have posted trimaran hyrofoils before but this was a new one to me- did't see on this Hobie forum. Check out his video. Not in production and sounds as though it garage built. If I could find good winds with little to no waves I could get into this.

http://youtu.be/p1ADR-Dft6w
Vetgam
Houston, Tx


Nice video! And some dives that really make complains about AI diving mildly overblown! :lol: :lol: :lol:

br thomas


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 1:31 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:08 pm
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That's how Hydroptere was developed. From models to scale dinghies. Looks like a similar design.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:42 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2011 1:58 am
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Location: Forster, NSW, Australia
Of course, a reality check might be in order here. I will bet that the sail area to weight ratio is hugely greater than our rotomolded Islands, crew weight would be critical, getting it in and out of the water would be a pain etc etc

Good video but.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 9:42 am 
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Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:18 am
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
I think the biggest issue with foils on Islands is more to do with sail area than weight, a standard TI has 90 sq ft of sail, an H16 has around 218 sq ft of sail and an F18 has around 450 sq ft, however the TI is larger than both of those boats. Most of the glass cats are in the 300 to 400 lb range, and the TI is about 200 lbs. With just the standard sail, my standard TI simply doesn't have enough sail area to get enough speed to get up on my foils (even with my 33 sq ft wing jib included), plus you have the dreaded double drag problem, where you have the drag from the hull and the foils in the water before you get up to lift off speed (about 8 mph), even with the foils locked in neutral (zero angle of attack) there is still some drag there. The other problem is the TI hull is a displacement type hull that max's out around 8 mph, above that speed the HP required to propel the boat faster goes up exponentially where with the cats the length to width ratio (L/W) of the hulls is typically greater than 8 to 1 so the displacement hull rules don't apply to cats, they are call modified displacement type hulls and different rules apply (basically it's harder to form a bow wave on a hull with a L/W ratio greater than 8/1 and impossible on anything greater then 16/1.... why cats can go very fast). The boat in the video has very narrow hulls so the displacement hull rules don't apply.
Personally I only like to go out when the water is fairly flat, and the winds are between 4 and 8 mph (typical winds around here). Around here anyway when the winds get above 12 mph, the waves get very large, and it gets very choppy which make riding in the TI very uncomfortable for me so I end up staying home is the winds are over 8 mph. The way my boat is rigged, I get maximum performance from the boat in 4-7 mph winds, where the boat in those winds averages 8-10 mph (about 1.5x to 2x windspeed), which works out very well for me. I still have my hydrofoils and once in a while if the winds are around 15 mph, I throw them on and go out and foil around, but with the setup I have I can only foil down wind, by deploying my 135 sq ft spinnaker (about 260 sq ft of sail total). The downside to spinnakers (why I very seldom use mine anymore) is you cannot go any faster than the wind with a spinnaker, because it works like a parachute. So in order to use my foils the wind has to be over 12 mph, and I can only foil with the wind behind (90 to 270 degrees), so to me since I don't like rough water so much because of my bad back, I never bother with my foils anymore , it was a fun experiment, but not practical for me everyday. If I had something like a wildcat or F18 with a ton of sail area to work with, and really good sails (and boat design) to begin with, I think I would have been way more successful with foils. Just too much to overcome (sail area wise) with a TI and foils in my opinion.
My advise to anyone who wants to mess with foils is, if you have a sailboat that you can get to 20 mph in 10 mph winds (2x windspeed), adding foils can possibly get you up to 3x windspeed (or more), but you have to have the fast boat with efficient sails to start out with, anything else (like trying to foil a TI) your just wasting your time IMO. You can't make a racecar out of a brick (LOL)
As always it's always fun for me to design and build all this stuff, but it's more for something to occupy my mind and hands, than anything practical. Money is another factor, I doubt you can touch any kind of boat like a Wildcat or F18 for less than around $15k to $30k, I just don't have that kind of money. Total cost for all my sails, hydrofoils, and everything was only a few hundred bucks, plus a couple weekends in my garage (I design and make everything myself as part of the hobby).
my 2 cents
Bob


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 7:27 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:33 pm
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Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Although you are correct Bob and Tony, we can still dream. :)


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