Foiling Nacra F20-the Revolution Continues!

Full Foiling Nacra F20 under development. Found this on SA where it was said that Nacra has announced that this will be a production boat. This video is apparently done without rudder t-foils which I find hard to believe and very amazing! The production boat will have rudder t-foils. The boat in the video is using a single main foil with no rudder foil(!) The production boat will be the AC cofiguration with a single main foil and two rudder foils. No telling if the single main foil will change to a foil similar to the AC foils which would probably have better altitude control.
Fantastic development in any case!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjVEOoNPXWc

 

OMG ... 30+ knots in a 20 foot boat (and a development boat at that)
The genie is definitely out of the bottle now, and that's a good thing.

 

Foiling Cats

Tom, thats fast alright but the current record for the 11' Moth is 32.2 knots!
The Flying Phantom guys are claiming 29 knots for their new production foiler so like you say: the genie(cat) is out of the bag.....

 

Foiling is here to stay?

This is as good a place as any for a link to this Kimball Livingston "summary" article about foiling being mainstream: http://www.sailmagazine.com/racing/taking-flight-foiling-now-mainstream

 

Nacra F20 Foiler

Apparently the new F20 foiler will start being delivered in May 2014. Here is a rendering showing the foil system:
click-

 

Nacra F20 Foiler

More on the foiling F 20 here: http://www.catsailingnews.com/2014/04/nacra-f20c-fcs-interview-with-ferdinand.html#more

The F20 foil:
click--

 

Nacra F20 Foiler

The Nacra won the 2014 Round Texcel-see that thread for the story: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/multihulls/round-texel-race-2014-a-50365.html

 

NACRA F20 Foiler Carbon FCS

From www.catsailingnews.com :

"Round Texel 2014 with the brand new Nacra F20 carbon FCS"

After months of development and hard work we finally received the new main foils on Tuesday afternoon before the Round Texel. The new foils where the last parts needed to complete the first official production model of the Nacra F20 Carbon VCS.

On Wednesday we decided to go to the Haringvliet which is a nice lake in the south of Holland to give us the hard needed training hours on this awesome machine. After one afternoon of sailing which started with a heart rate off 190 and finished with a relaxed crew, who could not get the smile of our faces, it was off to Texel the next day.

Unfortunately the wind was not strong enough to give us some more sailing hours on the boat. With the hours we had on the lake we were more than confident enough to sail her around Texel and go for line honours. The next morning we arrived on the beach under beautifully sailing conditions (10 to 12 knots with 1 meter waves). Below a report of the Round Texel race and how we experienced it.

Start to Lighthouse:

Our strategy was to start with clean air, just above the big group at the low end of the starting line. This all worked well with a good start and we had the boat immediately on her foils, sailing without spinnaker, blasting away from the rest of the boats. Edward and Mischa sailing the modified M20 just above us and Gurvan and Benjamin sailing the FP above the M20, all having a good start. I can't overestimate the fun and excitement of having these foiling boats around you.

Being in a learning curve to sail a boat like this in waves, we didnt have a constant boat speed in the beginning, which resulted in Xander and Stefan, sailing a standard Nacra F20 Carbon, managed to stay close. About one third of the run towards the first gate we found out that we had to lean in a bit more coming out of patches of wind. After this we were able to keep the speed constantly around 24 knots and our angle as lowest of the fleet, to extent quickly from Xander Pols and Stefan Dubbeldam just behind us. We lead the fleet at the first gate at the lighthouse with Xander and Stephan on our tale and the FP together with Eduard and Mischa just behind them.


Lighthouse to VC mark:

We extended our lead on the Nacra F20 carbon and the FP on the 5.2 NM reach to the VC mark. About 2 NM before the VC mark we slowed down to pull up our foils and rudders to sail the shallow waters around the VC mark. After a while, sailing in a slow mode we were overtaken by the Nacra F20 carbon and the FP.

Xander and Stefan pulled up their foils just in front of us and also started to sail in a slow mode. We both sailed carefully through these shallow waters, keeping the boat to around 10-16 knots speed. The FP took a big risk by staying in full foiling mode, in not more than 1 meter deep water, to the VC mark leading the fleet at that time. Surprisingly, they managed to sail to the VC mark without hitting the ground. At the VC mark they needed to go upwind, the boat dropped down and hit the ground when sailing upwind. We quickly closed the gap between us and the FP and started our upwind leg, with Xander and Stefan leading the fleet, sailing together with the FP back to back sailing upwind with the rudders and foils up.


VC mark to MG-H mark:

After 1.5 NM we were in deep water again and put down our foils and rudders. We were extending from the FP in the upwind easily, for us this proved that our efforts to bring additional upwind speed and angle to the Nacra F20 proved to have worked well with the FCS system and design. After a while we didn’t see them anymore.

We now had a new learning curve, because this was the first time we actually sailed against the fastest production boat, the standard Nacra F20 carbon, in a 12 NM upwind leg. In the beginning the standard Nacra F20 carbons where clearly faster than us and Xander and Stephan extended their lead on us. Oscar and Alex, sailing an Nacra F20 carbon, coming from behind and overtook us as well. After about 3 NM we managed to have the same speed as the standard Nacra F20 carbons.

At that time Sascha and Dennis, with their Nacra F20 carbon, where close to us, so we could use them as a benchmark to find a better sailing mode. After a while of battling with Sascha and Dennis we lowered the boards more and more whereupon we managed to pull away with better boat speed and angle in foiling mode and subsequently where able to reduce the lead of the 2 leading F20 carbons Oscar and Alex and Xander and Stefan .

Mischa and Eduard managed to come in front of us, by making a long run to the mainland, which paid off really well for them. They were just in front of us at mark MG-H at the far south end of the island.

MG-H mark to Finish:

Here we had a reach on the south side of the island which slowly went over in a downwind of 6 NM. The first 3 NM was full reaching with super stable flight.

This was the most amazing experience we ever had. We didn’t touch the water at all and where incredibly fast compared to all boats around us. Clearly we were getting better and better sailing this awesome machine. Going so much faster and fly above the water is a mind-blowing experience. The last 3 NM was downwind in waves, where we also found a much better mode than just after the start of the race. Stable surfing the waves, we extended our lead to the finish where we took the line honours of the 2014 Round Texel.

For Mischa de Munck and me it was the coolest sailing experience we ever had. It was also super successful for Nacra and Performance Sails. The Nacra F20 carbon FCS had line honours, the next 2 boats in were Nacra F20 carbons. We had the first 3 overall prices, the first 3 in the formula 18 and the first 2 in the formula 16. Not bad in such a big event.

Sailing around the island of Texel is a great experience. Not only it is great sailing, this event is also well organized with a laid back beach style atmosphere. Again, they did a great job organizing this event smoothly, so a big thanks for the sponsors and all the people behind the Round Texel. It is absolutely a don’t miss event. So set your start watches for 6th of June 2015.
We have tried to make a boat which is incredibly fast and profoundly easy to sail. We are very excited having felt that we have achieved that goal using the full technological potential available in the sport of sailing."

Peter Vink
"

 

F20 foiler

Nacra F20 FCS video from Nacra UK:
http://vimeo.com/100025068

 

F20 FCS foiler

Good comparative article(with pictures and video) between the Flying Phantom and the NACRA F20 foiler:
http://www.catsailingnews.com/2014/05/nacra-f20-fcs-vs-flying-phantom.html#more

 

NACRA F20 Foiler Carbon FCS

The UK representative posted the picture below on SA this morning. Among other things it says:
1) 10 knot boat speed.......NF. Which is shown to mean "non foiling / semi foiling".
That seems like a pretty high speed to not be foiling.
2) It shows that the rudder("Elevator") rake is changed from 0 to .5 as the boat speeds up.
That probably means the AOI of the rudder is decreased to create downforce but it doesn't say.
I've asked the UK Rep about that and have received no answer so far.

click to read the info-very interesting:

 

F20

Another F2o video:
http://vimeo.com/104993936

 

Nacra Carbon 20FCS

Another video from the Nacra guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAe1FWNuEpQ

 

Nacra Carbon 20FCS

The British Challenger for the Americas Cup sailing the Nacra:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=671325656319440&fref=nf

 

Nacra 20FCS

Turns out there was a little missing from that video-a pitchpole that sent the crew flying, and I do mean flying. Don't know the cause but the suddenness of it is similar to what happens when a foil ventilates:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...cbf4f358446df01bd&utm_source=Email Newsletter

--This is what is in the video: