Hydroptere: A 60ft sailing hydrofoil | Hacker News Reader

Hydroptere: A 60ft sailing hydrofoil

hydrofoilsailing.com

On a smaller and more accessible (hackable!) scale:

http://hydrofoilsailing.com/boats/bladerider.html

And on an even smaller scale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyWMusaDTI

Although that is about $25k as a starting price, so not all that accessible. You can get a boat for $5k that is close and put in another $5k and get it to foil.

According to the website the RX version is listed at US$13,995 which is a bit closer anyway.

I wonder if these things could be made much larger and almost completely automated? If petroleum prices go through the roof, I could see such craft carrying perishable goods.

reminds me of the hobie cat trifoiler, which has a bit of a different design

http://www.hobiecat.com/sailing/models_trifoiler.html

that speed is also pretty amazing considering they're running with the main reefed (it hasn't been fully deployed up the mast). that's usually done to make the boat more manageable in high winds

The hobie trifoiler is vey cool, however its impratical. It draws about 4 feet, which limits the bodies of water on which it can operate.

As a side not I wonder how many people here are into sailing? I have been actively sailing for about a year, and just started racing. I like all the thought that goes into seamanship and sailing.

Ubelievable the speed of that thing...

Someone should make a windsurfboard version of this!

Also the kitesurfing version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv_ofiaTUEg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyWMusaDTI

Doesn't look faster than the regular surfer. Actually he looks slower. Is it because he's stuggling to balance the board?

The foil that's providing the lift is pretty big in terms of surface area, and so is the drag. On a normal board at speed on flat water, probably only about a foot of the board is in the water, and the fin is tiny by comparison. So the idea seems to be reduce drag by getting the hull out of the water, but the size of the foil required to do this seems to have more drag than the hull did.

It does look very smooth through the chop though.

Should it be faster? Maybe the hydrofoil drag is comparable to the drag of the planing board.

balancing shouldn't be an issue - this thing is not affected by waves as hydroplane is under water. steering might be problematic though.

How is that for quick service ;)

Thanks!

I would really love a windsurfer version!

Just broke 60 mph over the weekend, nice.

I wonder what they use for forward looking sonar. The ocean is rather littered with logs, boards, containers (that fall off ships, floating a foot below the surface) and the occasional whale.

Maybe I am missing something obvious, but aren't logs and containers floating a foot below the surface also fatal for non-hydrofoil vessels?

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