.... the mould is a great idea !
I'll have to try that if / when I ever make a [smaller] winged keel
any chance you can do step by step photos of laying up the foil over it , please , brett ?
cheers
ben
Morning Ben, did you get your landline fixed ?
i figure if the first new foil works then I can reuse the mold to do accurate variations.
Sure I’ll do a step by step.
And to answer your much earlier question about Roy comments, Ive PMed him a dozen or more times about things and he’s encouraged me to continue and over the years his words have given me some great insight into how hydrofoils and boards work too. My teenage sons are absolute disciples of his !! They both want his t-shirts and paipos.
Ben, let me know when your phone is working again.
Few layers of resin over the foam to make it smooth. The 2 coats of car wax and buff off.
Then 1 coat of soapy water as a separating medium.
cut up offcuts of glass into strips that fit the shape. The closer the pieces fit the mold the less grinding later on.
then onto laying it up, not sure how many layers or if I will put some ply in it…
Layed down 6 layers of 6 oz, best to do as many layers as possible while its still wet and soft.
Tomorrow I will have to sand any errant spikes or loops before I put down any more.
Vac bag or hand layup?
By hand and with a slightly diluted resin mix because of the 40 degree C heat here, I thought of going the whole 9 yards with a mm perfect mold, carbon and vacbagging but let’s get this one in the water and see if worth making the extra effort next time 'round.
Looks like it will need about 20 layers.
....cool , thanks for those photos ! please keep them coming !
A couple of questions :
do you make the base / 'stem ' , and attach the two pieces , while the glass is still tacky ?
or ,
[when both pieces are cured ...]
.... do you make , and foil , the base / stem , and the wing [/ 'foil's head' [?] ] .... then , glass the foiled wing on ?
'If' the latter ....
I would be curious / keen to see it foiled [photos?] , as one piece .
I think that is how 'harris' did it , from memory , with the winged keel ?
I might be wrong, though ...it was a WHILE ago , when he told me ...I wonder if he had a photo thread anywhere of the process ??
Also , your foil ....
will it be finbox based , or , maybe , "proboxed" , if a small based , small tipped one ?
[ I ask that , because I 'm remembering the "wavefins"-type scenario / setup ....]
cheers !
ben
Ben, I’m going to stick with several components, so there’s going to be the foil ,
The struts,
And the board.
maybe later do it all as one piece but at the moment it’s easier if I can change any piece fairly easily.
finbox is a good idea. You’re thinking faster than I can build !
cheers !
okay next question , mate ...
will the 'strut[s]' be from a layed-up fin panel[s] ?
I ask ,
because if they will be small 'struts' ,
I have fin panel offcuts , if you'd like to put them to use ?
cheers
ben
Hi Ben, good to see we’re both here at the same time !
The struts, because they’re just flat panels, are just 3mm aluminium, light, strong, and best of all, cheap. and they’re corrosion resistant, easy to spray paint or powdercoat.
I just rounded the leading and trailing edges of the vertical struts and they’re perfect.
With the old foil the struts were 11 inches long but with the new foil, the struts are only 6 inches high…safer, cheaper, lighter.
You’ve got some good ideas to try but because I’ve got limited resources and time, its hard to choose which which way to go to find the best performance.
If I make a few more versions I’ll certainly send you some to test.
cheers
q.1....
how small of a foil head can you have , and how short a strut ,
that it will still lift the board out of the water and still have control , and what sort of speed needs to be reached , to enable that ?
I ask because if I had a version [ that could be] fcs or finbox based , I'd be keen to play with a small version in some autumn or winter waves here .
q. 2....
when you are lying on the boog , ABOVE the water , does it feel kind of 'wobbly' , to balance ,
and
do you know / have you got mates who have tried it , standing up , for a 'wobbliness' [or lack of] comparison , I wonder ?
I would imagine the sensation of balancing ABOVE the wave , as in the laird hamilton footage i've seen , would take a bit of adapting / adjusting to , and I would probably blow quite a few waves to start with ....
Hi Ben,
A1/. the smaller the foil area, that faster you need to go to fly. I tried smaller foils but you have to be on pretty decent wave to get enough speed to fly, but with a larger foil you can lift off instantly as you drop in to the wave.
With the black foil at 250 square inches it lifts at walking speed, and even at the end of the wave you can ride over the back of it still airborne.
With the struts you can choose how high you want to fly, but Im using struts that keep you about 8 to 12 inches above the water. Sure you can go longer but Ive found that the longer the strut over about 18 inches, you lose sensitivity / control.
A2/. theres no wobbliness at all, its like riding a bike where with no speed its hard to balance, but once youre moving its self stabilising. You can push a foilboard in flat water and it will rise and fly forward balancing on its own.
Its one of those things where everyone can clearly see all the problems and knows that it wont work,
cant work,
will never work.
But it does.
Now I'll have to send you a set to try !!
Have you got a board to put it on ??
cheers for the answers brett !
so...
HOW can you modify it , so that it will go in a finbox , fcs plugs , or proboxes ?
because I WOULD be keen , if I could use it in my 6'6 walden , my 6'11 richie west ,
or even , conceivably ...
HOW do you think it would go as a single fin 9'4 " mal's foil ?
..... would it need to be a BIGGER foil / strut [?both?] , in order to counterbalance the extra weight of a mal , and extra length ?
would a fair sized finbox be needed , and perhaps the strut and foil be moved a bit FORWARD , with say a longboard ?
cheers
ben
or , based on your previous comment , perhaps the speed generated on a mal WILL lift a smaller foil quickly out of the water ??
HAVE you used it , or seen footage [anyone ?] of a foil 'longboard' being surfed ?
cheers
ben
... I'm guessing if ANYONE HAD [done it] , it would be Laird Hamilton and / or HIS surfing mates ?
FCS or boxes will be an option but the plugs will need to be anchored into something more stable than foam. The foils that Laird and the skiers on the Airchair use are bolted into the bottom of the board.
im putting a ply skin on the bottom of a shortboard and screw the flat plate on the strut into that.
Tried the glass foil today, I did about 30 layers of 6 oz and epoxy, It’s about 12 mm thick and that’s about the maximum thickness I’d recommend. It’s spent several days hardening.
But it wasn’t strong enought to hold its shape under the pressures of the wave. The design and planing area feels adequate and in the right configuration and at low speeds it was all going perfectly until I took a bigger wave and I could feel it warp and lose control at high speed.
So I need to look at other materials to make the hydrofoils… A few years ago I made a lot out of aluminium so I’m going back to that. Aluminium is cheap, light and strong and its also quick.
I can make a foil in a day, well 2 days to do it accurately !
More pics tomorrow…
Here’s a handplane version my youngest son made. Lifts at very slow speeds and doesn’t flex in 3-4’ waves. No glass, just varnish over balsa/ply.
PeteC, good to see your sons foil, what an interesting idea to make a foiled hand plane !
I finished the aluminium foil…
With the 12 in struts it can lift up to 16 inches and the higher the lift, the less control. And to my eye it just looks too high.
This looks better…
I think I’ll make shorter struts which will make it safer, ultimately I think the foils could be made in plastic so they would be safer than aluminium or even fibreglass.
Struts around 5 inches will do , it can still rise to 9 inches above the water with the shorter struts.
Now I’ll foil the edges and give it a surf…
Hey Brett
Once again up with a great concept!! Looks great! Be interested to see in action!
Been flat out! Catch up soon
Cheers