Curved Lifting Foils on Cruising Cats??

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Doug Lord, Sep 4, 2011.

  1. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 351, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Why not?
    From "Foilers!" and Catana: http://www.catana.com/index.html.en

    New Catana 59. At the forefront of design and performance. After many months of study and research and a long listening to users passionate about the brand, the Catana project, assisted by several architectural firms, is proud to present the new Catana 59. Sleek, cockpit and saloon built at the same level, living room modular and extensible ... The interior design of the Catana 59 innovates to set new standards of comfort and offer a truly unique living space, with its kitchen island, the wider corridors, more spacious cabin ever. An unprecedented level of comfort, always in the service of performance, with the same 360 ° visibility from the helm station, cockpit, the square or the chart table. From the outside, the Catana 59 is particularly elegant with its inverted bows and dagger boards curved inward. Extensively tested and refined, the new hulls have obtained notes still higher than the previous 58 Catana, whose reputation is second to none. At the forefront of the shipbuilding craft, the infusion process and Use of carbon, now adopted for all models, make a boat Catana 59 extremely powerful, as strong as light. Welcome aboard. You stand on the deck of a boat that draws exceptional in every detail the future of luxury performance catamaran, ready to take you ever faster, ever further. Catana The new website will be online soon with a section devoted entirely to the new Catana 59 ...

    click on image:
     

    Attached Files:

  2. masalai
    Joined: Oct 2007
    Posts: 6,818
    Likes: 121, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 1882
    Location: cruising, Australia

    masalai masalai

    Hi Doug Lord,
    Always on the leading edge, which is admirable, but on Cruising cats? Is it necessary there as most cruising is to go look at everything as there is no real hurry... Racing boats? Well that is where that technology should be applied... I do not put racing slicks on my 'town-ride', nor do I supercharge AND turbo-charge the engines on my saildrives...
     
  3. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 351, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Curved foils on cruising cats??

    ======
    Masalai, I discovered this accidently when checking out one of my favorite sites. I guess there must be people with different definitions of "cruising". It probably would not have occured to me to do this but then again I don't know why not. Some people like to cruise in leadbellies, some like to cruise in multies. The more I think about it it may not be such a bad idea-IF it actually has any practical benefit-like increased speed etc-which I'm not convinced of.
    It is interesting, though-at least to me-but I'm still unconvinced.....
     
  4. masalai
    Joined: Oct 2007
    Posts: 6,818
    Likes: 121, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 1882
    Location: cruising, Australia

    masalai masalai

    Hi Doug,
    I too fail to see the merit in this "go-fast-gear" as in cruising mode, I probably will not have the 'deck-apes' available to constantly keep up with the tweaking and adjusting to maximise VMG... Besides I would rather move quietly and stress free to enjoy the journey or appreciate the view as I pass...

    My recent cruise was a solo run of 450 N. Miles out to Sth Percy Island and then back under power (twin 20hp diesel engines) which give a maximum speed of about 7.1knots... Going up I got up to 19 knots by surfing the waves... Coming back, to avoid the seas and headwinds, I snuck close along the shoreline at 4 to 5 knots... With a lot of fancy go-fast gear, I would have missed out on the best part of the trip...
     

    Attached Files:

  5. waikikin
    Joined: Jan 2006
    Posts: 2,439
    Likes: 179, Points: 73, Legacy Rep: 871
    Location: Australia

    waikikin Senior Member

    I think there may be advantage beyond some possible performance in that the boards might intrude a little less to interior & unlike some straight canted boards, when in the "up" position might not hang out past the line of the hull/rubrail. Regards from Jeff
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. daiquiri
    Joined: May 2004
    Posts: 5,371
    Likes: 259, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 3380
    Location: Italy (Garda Lake) and Croatia (Istria)

    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    Good point. If the outer hull walls at the station where foils are located have roughly semi-circular section shape, then foils could run along outer walls with minimal impact on interior living space. Nice example of how the actual reason for a shape of an object can be hidden beyond what appears to be the most obvious one.
    Cheers!
     
  7. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 351, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    If there is extra speed as a result of these foils that would be good for some people but there are also likely to be handling benefits reducing any tendency the hull has to bury, damping the boats motion in "heave", perhaps damping pitch. These are things that have been noticed on beach cats with curved foils.
    One of the main benefits of curved lifting foils vs,say, straight angled foils is adjustability: the angle of incidence of the lifting portion of the foil can be adjusted w/o affecting lateral resistance and the "lift" portion of the foil can be reduced w/o affecting lateral resistance.
    But I'm not sure that anybody cruising on the Catana 59 is going to fool with that-unless, of course, they're racing a Gunboat....
     
  8. Hussong

    Hussong Previous Member

    On target analysis for the question posed by this thread.

    What happens to a cruiser with foils of this type when he pulls into the harbor in Zanzibar with one foil broken off? Does he go to the local boatyard to have one built, or is it a monumental expense to buy one out of the factory and have it flown in?

    There could be angry owners and plunging sales of the design until they go back to boards that can be fabricated just about anywhere.
     
  9. masalai
    Joined: Oct 2007
    Posts: 6,818
    Likes: 121, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 1882
    Location: cruising, Australia

    masalai masalai

    Hi Hussong,
    I just got in, thinking of expressing concerns that the one-off builder, like myself would have great difficulty in building the centreboard case and a smooth moving (especially when the board is working) of the inserted board.
    Alignment would need critical and very careful alignment and positioning, think cantered slightly aft would cause the hull to dip when fully extended ... cantered slightly forward, expect additional lift... and slightly misaligned to the fore/aft line of the hulls ? erk.... - - - - Imagine shoaling waters and the urgent need to lift the boards - Oooops too late... :eek: :eek:

    On that, you have the punch line....
    The world needs more open-&-analytical-minds...
     
  10. waikikin
    Joined: Jan 2006
    Posts: 2,439
    Likes: 179, Points: 73, Legacy Rep: 871
    Location: Australia

    waikikin Senior Member

    Of couse it is possible to break a board, in another light that gives someone something to do in repairing or replacing it. These vessels are quite expensive to start with & when comparing the costs of repacement parts possibly small change(not to me!) to the owner of such a vessel if they can truly afford one. I'm sure that during purchase negotiations a spare could sweeten the deal if its an issue. All the best from Jeff.
     
  11. Steve W
    Joined: Jul 2004
    Posts: 1,871
    Likes: 80, Points: 48, Legacy Rep: 608
    Location: Duluth, Minnesota

    Steve W Senior Member

    Cruisers with multis tend to like the shoal draft aspect and damage to a board is not uncommon, i would think that lifting foils would be difficult and expensive to replace (especially in Zanzibar as Hussong pointed out). I favor symetrical constant chord boards which are interchangable from port to stbd and realativly easy and inexpensive to replace anywhere.
    Steve.
     
  12. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 351, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    There is no reason a constant chord symmetrical or asymetrical curved board couldn't be interchangeable side to side.....
     
  13. Steve W
    Joined: Jul 2004
    Posts: 1,871
    Likes: 80, Points: 48, Legacy Rep: 608
    Location: Duluth, Minnesota

    Steve W Senior Member

    I dont know much about the curved foils at all but it seems to me that in order to be interchangable from side to side they would need to be A/ perfectly semi circular and B/ both ends would need to be finished the same and C/ it wouldnt be able to have any form of recesses in the board itself for lifting tackle as the board would need to be able to be inserted upside down to use on the opposite hull, you cant just turn it around as you would have the trailing edge forward.
    Steve.
     
  14. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 351, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Those are fairly simple requirements easily achieved. The board won't move unless the trunk is part of a circle unless it has a super complex trunk which some small boats have. For a cruising application( where you probably don't need them in the first place) seems like a piece of cake to make them interchangeable.
     

  15. Steve W
    Joined: Jul 2004
    Posts: 1,871
    Likes: 80, Points: 48, Legacy Rep: 608
    Location: Duluth, Minnesota

    Steve W Senior Member

    As long as you are raising and lowering them manually i agree.
    Steve.
     
Loading...
Forum posts represent the experience, opinion, and view of individual users. Boat Design Net does not necessarily endorse nor share the view of each individual post.
When making potentially dangerous or financial decisions, always employ and consult appropriate professionals. Your circumstances or experience may be different.