Hi Joe,

This is a sensible approach for slender vessels like the Viola – a single lateral foil horizontal to provide righting moment. But I don’t know enough to implement a solution yet. it would be a shot in the dark.

It seems strange to me that foils are being applied to very fat boats – rather than being used as a chance to make the vessels more slender. Though some of the supermaxis are more slender (eg Wild Oats) and it seems a much faster all round configuration that the wide boats which are one trick ponies – superfast in a narrow range of wind directions and relatively slow in most common wind directions and angles.

But I can imagine publishing an add-on once more information on making the systems and making them work.

The thing I would like to see is to break the nexus between foiling and “hi tech materials”.

Most (if not all) the technical problems for foiling moths were solved when foils were still homebuilt by individuals from wood, glass and a bit (and I mean a little bit) of stainless steel or carbon. And then getting them out to race a few times a week.

That is largely a forgotten history now. And everyone has bought into the idea that it is something that costs a large slab of one or two tens of K.

My friend Ian Henehan in Texas has been foiling for much of this year in a modified Oz Goose with a tricycle setup.

We are about to launch a failed version of a kid’s boat that has been repurposed into a single lateral foil configuration that will be launched in the next weeks. I have no idea if it will work … but we will learn something!

My objective with boat design is to provide solutions in structure design and materials that work well in any part of the world.

Until I can achieve that level of reliability in foils and foil performance I will be unable to provide a stock solution.

But here is some useful information for those wanting to try a lateral stability foil like the Quant 28 (look on youtube) or a tricycle configuration like the Quant 17 (more technically demanding – look at youtube) like Ian Henehan’s goose.

The typical foil setups across the range of design centre around two basic configurations for main lifting foils

1/ A symmetrical foil set up at a 4 degree angle of attack to the horizontal.

2/ An assymmetrical foil set up at a 2 degree angle of attack to the horizontal.

We all know how to make centrecases and foils right … :)

I vote the Viola 14 to start since it’s pretty light and I already have one. :-)

Cheers
Joe