Sailboards & Surfboards on Foils

[Doug Halsey]

Check out the great videos on Scuttlebutt today. http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0528

These things look like a lot of fun, but towards the end of the first video, a conventional planing sailboard appears & it's clearly going a lot faster.

[Paul Scott]

Doug, that was the knock on them the first time they appeared, back in the early 80's. It was cool sailing 2.5' above the h2o, though.

Paul

From this mornings Scuttlebutt. I think this system was designed by Dr. Sam Bradfield. I couldn't read the print but if you look just ahead of the daggerboard there appears to be a wand...
Scuttlebutt News: Harken Windsurf Foiler
Address:http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/0604/

[Busman1965]

The Harken foil did not have a wand or any other control system, it was flown by shifting weight fore and aft to control angle of attack on the foil.
It was very difficult to sail, but it did work, once you got the hang of it.
I have seen and sailed the original prototype as I worked for Dr. Bradfield in the early 1990's at Florida Institute of Technology. We developed a number of sailing foil boats during that time, and I spent 100's of hours getting the crap kicked out of me by them. Foils are fun, but very touchy to sail, if they dont have an automatic control system.

[Raggi_Thor]

Yes, Doug and Doug, funny that the conventional sailboard approaches from behind with twice the speed

Originally Posted by Raggi_Thor

Yes, Doug and Doug, funny that the conventional sailboard approaches from behind with twice the speed

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Not at all surprising given the very inefficient foils used on the Rush(airchair) foilboard.Very effective at jumping and re-entering succesfully. I talked to a guy here that built his own using the air chair foil setup and he was slightly faster than about twenty other windsurfers that day when foiling. But the flat water jumps were astounding. He said the sensation of flying and the accompanying quiet was great fun.
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Busman 1965- I worked wih Dr. Sam one summer around 2000 testing his Skat foil setup on a model tri. I could have sworn he said his windsurfer setup used a wand but I could be wrong....