The AC

[Jolly Roger]

I guess we will just have to wait and see what spins off these sea-planes. In the meantime would someone please explain to me, (and I suspect a thousand others as well), in simple sailors language, what those guys are doing on their bikes?
Personally I’m peddling backwards as fast as I can with my boat. I use well tried household products whenever I can, because they are cheaper than “marinized” equipment and easy to replace.

[44'cruisingcat]

The guys on the bikes are generating hydraulic pressure to operate the foils and the winches. It's simply a variation/improvement on the grinders.

On the fastest monohulls this is done by large diesel engines which need to run 24/7 while "sailing".

Perhaps you find that preferable?

[longjonsilver]

i just can't believe how troglodyte most sailors are. David A Keiper built a hydrofoil trimaran, Williwaw, back in the 1970's and sailed all over the Pacific Ocean. That is OVER 40 years ago. We never heard anything more about it until recently. i can't for the life of me figure out why he was not copied by dozens of others. Hydrofoil retrofit kits were sold back in the late 70's early 80's for converting a Hobiecat into a hydrofoil. This stuff is not new, but for most people it was too unbelievable so it didn't exist.

Check out "Hydrofoil Voyager" on Amazon.

The basic physics of the matter is that there are two basic types of hydrofoils. Surface piercing and submerged. The submerged foils are faster but the surface piercing ones are more stable. What kind of foils do you think racers use? What kind of foils do you think David Keiper in his cruising boat used? Just basic stuff, really, but we all act like its new. A cruising boat can be built with foils, and be fast and stable and easily controllable.

jon

[Jolly Roger]

Come to think of it, wings are frequently seen now on the bottom of keels, which I think was first fitted on an Australian Americas Cup boat.

[Yellowtulip]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger

Come to think of it, wings are frequently seen now on the bottom of keels, which I think was first fitted on an Australian Americas Cup boat.

You're right they did. But they're seldom seen on new boats now as far as I can tell. None of the racing boats around here (Cowes) have them. (Bulbs, yes, but wings, no.) I don't think they're specified on new production boats either. I wonder if wing keels were one of those things that were more hype than effect?

[SSgtPitt]

Are you guys saying that if I retrofit a submerged foil to my 1982 full keel boat I can go faster and be more stable?
Cuz if you are.....I have a new project.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger

That's all very interesting, very high priced high tech stuff.
But as Yellowtulip says. The thought of an amateur careering around crowded sailing waters in one of those is horrifying.
So I would like to ask the same question I asked previously: what actual benefits will eventually trickle down to the ordinary boat owner?

Off hand?

Waterproofing electronics
More efficient hydrolic systems
Development of solid wing sails
Development of T-Foil rudders for automatic pitch control
Better sailing computers effecting all manner of on board systems
Better GPS technology
Hydrofoil design in general (including keels and rudder shapes)
Carbon fiber production developments
Lighter weight, higher powered, more efficient hydrolic actuators
MEMS sensors to replace current anemometers.

And probably a whole host of stuff non sailing related

-Airbus is already redesigning their planes based on AC derived knowledge to reduce induced drag on wings
-Land Rover is using knowledge gained to advance vehicle control systems
-BMW developed smarter interactive controls that are going to be applied to their car systems
-BMW learned a heaping ton about carbon fiber production which is going into their cars
-Airbus developed new micro sensors that can be embedded into CF laminate and output wind speed and direction. They are small enough and cheap enough they placed them all over the wing, allowing massive increases I need data collection. Basically it allowed them wind tunnel data from the real world. This is likely to end up on all their planes
Airbus has already filed for air worthiness approval on 3D printed parts from methods developed by Oracle.


Plus a lot more we have no idea about right now. Material science, testing fatigue and computer models in the real world...

They push the edge of the science and it takes a while to make its way down to cruisers, but it doesn't happen.