Quant 23 Foiler Scow

Quant 23 Foiling Scow Keelboat

From Seahorse Magazine and Quant Boats:

 

Be neat if it was at least removable and raise-able, for easy launching and use as shallow water boat.

When foiling the drag at the keel/hull intersection wont exist.

 

Q23 Foil System

I think Hugh's foil system has applications on a bunch of different boats particularly small monos and trimarans-without the ballast keel.

 

Dominion 2-HW

Progress on the D2 model which will use the same basic foil system as the Q23: ( http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2434531&page=14 )
click on image-

 

Quant 23

The molds are done and the first production boat has been laid up. This is the deck plug:
click--

 

Quant 23--First Production Boat

Here's a shot of the boat getting some last minute attention:

 

Quant 23 Foiling Scow Keelboat

Video tour of the first production boat-notice anything about the foils? Rudder rake adjustment?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bql6u6EWGA

 

Quant 23/ Hugh Welbourn, designer

Congratulations to Hugh Welbourn for being selected as :

Seahorse Sailor Of The Month

Hugh Welbourn (GBR)
'A National 12 champion in short trousers, two-handed round the world and foiling for the masses in his old age!' - Peter Morton; 'DSS is the best thing in years' - Paul Murphy; 'We need original thinkers' - Jim Dominy; 'The Quant 23 is awesome, I want one' - Norm Casler; 'Who says monohulls can't reach?' - Tim Banks; 'A free thinker in an industry locked into incremental development' - Pete Elkington; 'Finally... I got into Hugh's DSS adventure early, but it still takes time to change the world!' - Michael Aeppli.

 

Quant 23 Foiling Scow Keelboat

From Quant Boats:

First testsail in wet and cold conditions

We sailed the new boat finally on Saturday 23rd of April. It is a big step from the prototype to this boat in many ways. You can feel the quality of how the production boat is built, stiffer and although light and the ergonomics in the cockpit also feels much better and comfortable. We sailed in the light just to see how everything works and i was suprized how much easier this boat is to sail in such conditions, thanks to the riglength added. Ok in the beginning everybody want to go foii the boat - nothing else. But longterm everybody will start to like the Sportsboat Quality of the boat and the possibiltiy to race also without using the foils. Just think of racing against your friends in you club or on your lake etc.

 

Quant 23-First Production Boat on Foils!

Also illustrates the light air foiling capability of this boat: 4kts across the deck around 7-8 at top of rig:

 

WOW

 

Quant 23 Foiling Scow Keelboat

From Quant Boats/ Michi:

The new Q23 opens up a new horizon in light-wind Foiling.
Another day of testing on Lake of Garda without the conditions one would expect. Very light northerly breeze. We went out to do some practicing in the light and to look for speed and angles - also best heel angles - while sailing upwind in displacement mode.
As you all know, good lightwind performance is vital on the lakes of Europe and elsewhere maybe as well - and the development from the proto to the production boat definitely went in the right direction.
We sailed upwind that the day - just the two of us - when Roger suggested to bear away, trying to foil under kite. He obviously did that before, when i got stuck in the office. I thought he is joking - but we did and then somebody took this pic! I estimated 4kts true around my nose - a sailing coach nearby on a RIB told us later about the measured true windspeed in over 2m above waterlevel: 3.5kts!
I am fully aware that you never know about the layers of wind higher up in the rig. But however, foiling in these condtions is new i guess. And A-Cat and Moth-Sailors in the neighbourhood said that there was no way to get up and going (a bit later we actually passed one of the latest type of foiling A-Cat on leeward, coming from behind).
What is different on our new boat and the Q-foil philosophy? It is an interesting question. I think it is not just that we have a good ratio between weight and sail area - it is more about the type of foils: After some practicing and getting used to these big foils, you learn quickly how you can slowly and carefully leave displacement mode, first changing into steady semifoiling mode, getting rid of some drag and then into fully foiling mode loosing even more drag to get the real benefits of the apparent. In conditions like this with flat water it is not even too difficult to learn launching the boat like this.

I have not a lot of experience with high loaded T-foils, but i learned that you have to accelerate quickly to get up and stay there. Developing enough lift while slowly accelerating over maybe 10 to 20seconds is something really difficult on T-foils, as you always run the risk to overloaded and stall your foil section - something low loaded foils like ours can do as well, but it needs much more. Pro sailors may have their own limits when it comes to launch a Moth – i am just talking about experienced Joe Average.
On the other side - in more breeze - smaller, well immersed highloaded foil sections will allow higher speeds. But
if you look at the reality while sailing on Lakes and even in sheltered coastal water - once stronger winds (but not too strong!) sets in - a boat like ours may lie miles ahead by then. All the more, if you take in account that the Q23 also is a quite capable and well performing sportsboat today, also in conditions, where nobody is foiling, on both ends of the wind scale (we still have the ace of DSS up the sleeve, to limp home with comfortable 15kts of speed, once it gets a bit nasty
To look out to a possible future, where more "normal" sailors wish to foil: I guess doing the first steps in the light makes a lot of sense, as there you are able to train your reflexes and instincts. Once, higher up the learning curve, you will recognize quickly, that sailing on any type of foiling boat is hard work, be it on a well balanced boat or on an absolutely unstable centreline-foiler. Maybe nothing for faint hearted characters - but still you will get used to this type of sailing – same way we learned to handle a 200hp motorbike, anybody can buy around the corner today.

Hang loose
Michi

 

Quant 23

Here is a shot of the proto sailing with the first production boat with both hydrofoils on both boats fully retracted:

Note: on most foilers the lateral resistance for the boat is tied into the lifting foil so if you remove the foil, you remove the only lateral resistance for the boat. However, the Quant 23 does not rely on the hydrofoils for lateral resistance so the boat sails just as well upwind without the foils albeit a bit slower depending on the conditions.

 

Quant 23--First Production Boat

Which of these two boats was faster in the conditions shown, hmmmm?

 

Dss 2016

Article from Seahorse and Quant Boats: