

The Flying Phantom: $40k sailboat levitates two feet above the waves - radley
http://www.gizmag.com/flying-phantom-hydrofoil-catamaran-sailing/31143/

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eyeareque
I've rode a hydrofoil on an air chair, and on a tow surf board. It is a very
surreal feeling, almost as if you are flying. Choppy water has no effect on
your stability, as long as your foil doesn't pop out of the water. When that
happens you tend to fall pretty hard. I wonder how the sailors are able to
control the use of the foil. If one of the foils was to pop out of the water,
hold on.

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etaque
There is a probe dragging in water at the front of the boat:
[http://www.sailmagazine.com/learning-
fly-0](http://www.sailmagazine.com/learning-fly-0)

When the boat is too high, the probe goes out of water and automatically
adjust the foil angle to lower the boat.

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eyeareque
Ingenious. thanks for the link.

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gammarator
Craziest looking foiling boat I've seen is still the International Moth:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SN1gSkqvy0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SN1gSkqvy0)

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talkingquickly
I had a very early moth (before they put foils on them) which was still
statically unstable. Inland waters with unpredictable winds meant you could go
from strong wind to nothing almost instantly and with very little indication
it was going to happen.

I remember spending a lot of time in the water...

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nl
I leant to sail in a Moth (actually my Dad's).

It was a 1960's tunnel hulled skiff, which he got cheap because they were
banned for being too fast (ironic for what came later to the Moth's class).

It's a great boat - stable, and _fast_ when you want it to be.

~~~
talkingquickly
Very cool. The thing I really like about the early ones was that as an
experimental class, you could get boats that were incredibly different to one
another but still technically "moths". Much like early formula racing, there
really was the latitude to tune the boat as well as your technique.

Not that I ever did with this one, it was about thirty years old and took all
of my effort just to learn how to keep it upright. You also couldn't moor it
anywhere because it would fall over if not moving which meant leaving it on
its side at the jetti...

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nl
Yeah, and the "experimental class" thing was why I never really understood why
they banned the tunnel hulls. It's too bad in a way, because in some
conditions they might have been competitive with the unstable skiffs that
dominated until the foils came along.

I'm in Australia, and we just sail off the beach, and the Scow shape was
perfect for that.

There's an excellent discussion of the design at [1]. I have to say I'd love
to try out a foiling Moth one day though.

[1] [http://www.moth.asn.au/forum/3-hull-
shape/533-scows](http://www.moth.asn.au/forum/3-hull-shape/533-scows)

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polemic
From our office in Auckland we got to watch the massive AC72's trialling in
the harbour before shipping off to SF last year. They're unnaturally fast,
skimming along _much_ faster than the wind. Amazing machines.

~~~
sailfast
That is amazing and I'm jealous you got to see them in person. I wonder how
long it will be before all smaller dinghy races will start to be foiling - I'm
picturing a collegiate dinghy team race on foils and it would be awesome to
watch.

As a side note, I'm extremely happy that today my two loves, technology and
sailing, have come together in a wonderful turn of events.

~~~
adrianpike
That's been happening for a while now. :)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k12ALBjQ7zM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k12ALBjQ7zM)

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LeeHunter
Back in the early 1970s the Canadian navy tested a small hydrofoil ship for
antisubmarine work and coastal patrol. It could travel at 60 knots.
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Bras_d'Or_(FHE_400)](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Bras_d'Or_\(FHE_400\))
At the time it was the fastest unarmed naval vessel in the world.

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codezero
very neat, but s/levitates/hydrofoils

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leobelle
The title takes a reasonably interesting boat and ruins it with inane link
bait. Sometimes when you try to make something great look bigger than it is
you've ruined it.

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bobzimuta
You're right. I was entirely fooled by the creative language in the article's
title. Expectations shattered, I started drinking again after 6 months of
sobriety.

~~~
codezero
:)

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ddeck
TurboJET in Hong Kong use Boeing hydrofoils (Jetfoil) between HK and Macau
[1][2]. They're great. Once you get to cruising speed, they lift out of the
water and the ride becomes incredibly smooth. It's 50 miles and the trip only
takes around an hour.

Unfortunately, they seem to be being slowly replaced by non hydrofoil craft,
presumably due to lower operating costs.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboJET](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboJET)

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rogerbinns
What happens if you are hydrofoiling 2ft above the water and hit a 3ft wave,
especially at speed?

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dclowd9901
[http://youtu.be/sZVIj5TUSKE](http://youtu.be/sZVIj5TUSKE)

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josephlord
As far as I can see this doesn't answer the question.

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dclowd9901
Judging by that video, it seems jarring, but not necessarily catastrophic. I
imagine the space of water that would have to be displaced by pushing the boat
vertically is heavier than the water that manages to hit the hull and affect
its vertical position.

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luka-birsa
I so want to get one of these!

Anybody knows if it is "super hard", "insanely hard" or "do not apply without
an olympic medal" to sail one of these?

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mhb
Hydrofoil kiteboard:

[http://vimeo.com/17754852](http://vimeo.com/17754852)

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iblaine
Looks fun and dangerous. Move the tiller the wrong way at 30 knots and you're
going to have one hell of a crash.

