need hydrofoil design for 19' power cat

Hi- I'm new to the site and haven't had much luck searching so far.

I just purchased a 19' center-console catamaran-hull boat called a Shoal Cat.

I would like to manufacture and install a hydrofoil system to emulate other boats such as the Corsair Foiler and Hysucat boat.

Can somebody here point me in the right direction to find someone that can actually design this system for me? Someone with, hopefully, some experience in this area? Of course, I've already contacted Hysucat and they are prohibitively expensive.

I'm hoping to make this sort of a fun spring/summer project. The boat is currently in Miami but I will be taking it up to Lake of the Woods, Ontario next June for 5 months. Thanks

 

Get "Hydrofoils Design Build Fly by Ray Vellinga-may be at the library or at Amazon. Vellinga has done many powered foilers and this book has a lot of info for hydrofoil experimenters.

 

Check up with Alexander Sahlin

www.elektrofoil.se

js

 

Try this yard in New Zealand

http://www.teknicraft.com/

 

Thanks guys! I'll check out your recommendations.

 

Can't wait to see some photos of what you come up with.

P.S. how much is prohibitively expensive?

 

The Hysufoil was developed by a Prof. Huppe at Stellenbosch University in South Africa to increase the performance of the poorly-performing South African Navy coastal catamarans. As this development was funded by the government, the budget was substantial, & it cost a lot of time & experimentation to achieve results, hence the cost of purchasing a set of foils from Hysufoil. They are not something you could weld together in your garage.

As explained to me, their success in achieving significant improvements in the existing cats (I think they claimed about 35%) was because the improvement to a poorly or average-designed hull by the addition of the three foils (one wing across the tunnel amidships & two smaller protrusions into the tunnel aft) is substantial, but falls away as the hull design improves.

We were thinking of fitting them to one of our projects, (see
www.javelinmotoryachts.com.au) but at approx. US$25,000 the gain would have been minimal. The designer of the Javelin has also developed a set of foils for this cat, so you could e-mail him as well. Scott Robson – scott@robsondesign.co.nz

They are also used by Stealth Yachts in the USA & South Africa, with Q-speed surface drives.

 

Wonder what were sourced/fitted for this boat
http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/4682

 

I picked up "Hydrofoils, design build, fly." Definitely an interesting read, but not a shred of info that I think could be used for a hysucat-type design. Pretty much all of his hydrofoil experience was for a traditional V-hull boat, with foils in the front for angle of attack control, rather than at the stern, as is the case with the Hysucats.

To answer your question IMP-ish, I read somewhere that to use Prof. Hoppe's hysucat system would cost well over $12,000. I'm hoping to keep this project in the $1-2k range, which I think is possible if I can find a way to engineer the foils, and install them myself.

BPL- thanks for that link- I'm definitely going to try to contact that guy to see how he did it.

 

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Well, I don't agree with that at all... The book is not meant to be a tutorial on the Hysucat system but is replete with the formulas you need to calculate lift and explanations of the requirements for stable hydrofoil flight that can be applied to any number of boats including the Hysucat system.

 

The only hysu-cat foils I've seen had a symmetrical foil section with the widest thickness in the middle, not like an aeroplane wing where the max thickness is about a third from the leading edge. You should be able to fabricate something yourself from stock extrusions, and experiment with different attack angles. I made one from glass years ago and stuck it half way the length of a tunnel hull, it was about 2'6 wide and 6" , maybe an inch thick. supported by a strut bolted through the tunnel roof. It gave more lift, but not more speed as far as I could tell, I know there was a fair bit of extra lift because the boat banked more in turns.

 

I think you might be better off looking for a 2nd hand Hysucat boat than trying to convert what you have.

http://www.boatclassifieds.us/29416/24-Hysucat-Foilcat.html

Here is a bargain @ $12 500 .... just needs engines and a few bits.

 

FoilTwister

Check up the new FoilTwister by Alexander Sahlin.
The FoilTwister solution will also work on a catamaran.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qcUJb5PANM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wrdXw1U0Q0&feature=related

js

 

I wonder if this has been tested in rough water? I don't think the dynamic twisty nature of the hydrofoil will survive this. Will look at the other videos for clues.:?:

 

Of course, the FoilTwister have been tested in rough water. Alexander Sahlin has tested his and several other concepts in all conditions for many years. He is very skilled in hydrodynamics, aerodynamics and carbon fiber composites and knows what he's doing. One of his most famous inventions is the Hoppofoil, copied by many.

You THINK it will not survive, A S KNOWS it will. That's the difference.

js