Well today was another completely disheartening day sailing the “semi-foiler” that I have. After installing the new gantry, I managed to get out for a few runs before the race. With little success I asked resident foiler test pilot Luka Damic to jump aboard an help sort out the set-up. The results were … interesting.

Luka after the first couple of runs came back in and hesitated before he spoke; “You aren’t going to like this, it feels like a fat boat. It’s very heavy and it just is not behaving like the new boats do.” Luka knows that I would rather hear the truth than some sugar coated answer, even if it is hard to take, and I think his assessment is bang on. The wings for my boat are double sleeved alloy and way something like 15-18KG by themselves, so this doesn’t not come as a huge shock.

The boat did foil though. Luka managed to get it out 5 times, however the results are anything but pleasing. To get VR flying you need to seriously hang right down the rear to get any altitude. The hull is simply not designed to be sailed like that, and the wings drag in the water, which slows things down. When the boat does get out of the water, the flap isn’t reducing the lift as intended, so the boat will rise until it ventilates and crashes back down.

So what are the solutions? To solve the weight problem, a new low freeboard hull is required with carbon wings. I will need to get this happening sooner rather than later, budget permitting. Whilst I could add carbon wings to the current hull, I am not too keen to invest anything more in the current boat when I am planning to build a new one in the near future.

To solve the wing dragging problem, I think the best approach will be to add some more angle of attack to the front foil. One possibility is that our measurement was incorrect and we are still running with the angle of attack slightly the wrong way. That is an easy fix with my current setup.

To solve the height adjustment problem, I will need to go back to the geometry of the wand, and change the setup so that it reduces lift more aggressively. With more angle of attack on the main foil, I should need less flap anyway.

I also had a minor problem with the new gantry, which caused a DNF, but it can easily be fixed. I must say though it was much easier to adjust than the previous version, and looks like it will do the trick.