The G4 is pretty impressive. Foiling stably is a fun experience. As well as the speed increase, the motion and lack of wave impact is a big deal.
My problems with foils are:
Cost of the fancy shapes these guys use and the relatively complex controls required.
Impact with the bottom or floating stuff. Not only damage to the foils, but to the cases and the boat. If it goes from 30 knots to zero hitting a log or the bottom, there are also going to be crew injuries.
Difficulty of keeping the foils clean. The boat will have to live on shore, or employ a diver to remove the foils after each race.
High lift off speeds. Heavy boats (relatively speaking) need big foils. 22 knots lift off speed for the G4 will mean foiling is a reasonably rare event in many places and the foils slow the boat when it is not foiling.
My solution to these is externally mounted angled foils. The higher the boat flies, the less foil is immersed. Hit something and they rotate aft. Remove them to keep them clean. Nothing to adjust. Straight, easy to build shapes. Easily controlled pitch adjustment by raising the aft foil.
So far I have tried pretty crude versions on half a dozen kite and wake boards, which have all failed in more or less spectacular fashion and on the hull of Elementarry with a kite attached to the other hull which was a success and one that we will be building on to get the whole boat flying. See the Bucket List build blog for progress reports. Not sure yet how it will go with sails instead of the kite, but once Bucket List is organised, we will probably have a go and see.
I am pretty sure that the Cruiser 60 would not foil effectively as it is too heavy/undercanvassed. Be fun to find out, but that is not really the point of this boat. Anyone with the interest and money to make a foiling proa would be better off starting with a smaller, lighter version.
There will be cleats on the foredeck at the end of the flat section, probably with an endless loop to pull fenders etc out to them without going outside the beams. There will be non slip on the flat sections.
On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 10:44 PM, Peter Mirow petermirow@hotmail.com [harryproa] <harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:
Rob,I think the Harry 60 would look brilliant with a lifting foil.But I would understand that maybe, introducing a lateral thinking concept of the proa is already a daring challenge. Throwing in foils might overburden?I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this, now that the Gunboat G4 is showing some impressive video footage.I would be very interested to hear your thoughts about the topic of hydrofoils.Best regards,Peter
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Posted by: Rob Denney <harryproa@gmail.com>
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