

Hydroptere: A 60ft sailing hydrofoil - RiderOfGiraffes
http://hydrofoilsailing.com/boats/hydroptere.html

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RiderOfGiraffes
On a smaller and more accessible (hackable!) scale:

<http://hydrofoilsailing.com/boats/bladerider.html>

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krschultz
Although that is about $25k as a starting price, so not all that accessible.
You can get a boat for $5k that is close and put in another $5k and get it to
foil.

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skorgu
According to the website the RX version is listed at US$13,995 which is a bit
closer anyway.

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stcredzero
I wonder if these things could be made much larger and almost completely
automated? If petroleum prices go through the roof, I could see such craft
carrying perishable goods.

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matthavener
reminds me of the hobie cat trifoiler, which has a bit of a different design

<http://www.hobiecat.com/sailing/models_trifoiler.html>

that speed is also pretty amazing considering they're running with the main
reefed (it hasn't been fully deployed up the mast). that's usually done to
make the boat more manageable in high winds

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paddy_m
The hobie trifoiler is vey cool, however its impratical. It draws about 4
feet, which limits the bodies of water on which it can operate.

As a side not I wonder how many people here are into sailing? I have been
actively sailing for about a year, and just started racing. I like all the
thought that goes into seamanship and sailing.

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jacquesm
Ubelievable the speed of that thing...

Someone should make a windsurfboard version of this!

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mhb
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyWMusaDTI>

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hcho
Doesn't look faster than the regular surfer. Actually he looks slower. Is it
because he's stuggling to balance the board?

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akronim
The foil that's providing the lift is pretty big in terms of surface area, and
so is the drag. On a normal board at speed on flat water, probably only about
a foot of the board is in the water, and the fin is tiny by comparison. So the
idea seems to be reduce drag by getting the hull out of the water, but the
size of the foil required to do this seems to have more drag than the hull
did.

It does look very smooth through the chop though.

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krschultz
Just broke 60 mph over the weekend, nice.

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sammyo
I wonder what they use for forward looking sonar. The ocean is rather littered
with logs, boards, containers (that fall off ships, floating a foot below the
surface) and the occasional whale.

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TriinT
Maybe I am missing something obvious, but aren't logs and containers floating
a foot below the surface also fatal for non-hydrofoil vessels?

