| A monoFOILER™ is a description of a type of boat: a monohull with
hydrofoils lifting it out of the water.
One of the very first sailing hydrofoils was the Monitor
by Baker Mfg. pictured below
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Click on this photo for a larger view |
Photos from International
Hydrofoil Society website
it was a monohull with ladder like foils on each side and foils on the
rudder. It was ingeniously designed to develop its own righting moment
while on foils by varying the angle of incidence of the foils. It was, we
think, not only one of the first hydrofoils but the first monoFOILER™.
More photos and information at the
International Hydrofoil Society website
More recently, the
Moth Class has
experimented with foils using the crew as the sole means of stability with
the foils just doing the lifting.
|
Brett Burvill flying a Moth, Brett stated that this was an early
"lucky" photo and that stability was still an ongoing issue to be
worked out |
Dr. Ian Wards Moth
He sent the follow snippet
Here is a photo of my first bifoiler
("monofoiler-ed"), from some years ago in October 1999, which I am
pretty sure was the first sailing dinghy to ever sail on rudder and
centreboard foils alone!. You may also note the experimental rig,
which is a real winner too. |
Two of the most exciting Moths are Brett Burvil's ,on
the left, sailing on just two foils and Dr. Ian Wards Moth on the right
the FIRST Moth to sail on just two foils .
|
Here's another photo of Dr. Ian Ward's first
bifoiler ("monofoiler-ed") Moth
|
Some interesting and unexpected things happen when
you get foilbourne. The noise of slapping waves is replaced with a
silent, smooth ride and a small swishing hiss as you glide above the
water. It is also amazing when you race into a lull, the boat
actually accelerates and lifts higher as all of the forces pushing
it down are reduced. It then glides ever so sweetly back into the
water. Tacking is also incredible as there is no resistance to
pivoting, you can actually turn 90deg in less than a second. hang on
tight as it can be a handful to stay onboard. |
One of the most exciting Moths was a boat that had two foils on the
daggerboard and one foil on the rudder with the crew for ballast--many
people thought such a concept could never work especially with the skipper
manually controlling altitude (Vectored Lift™- a feature of most
monoFOILER's™)
Up, Up, and ...
David Lugg's International 14 |
way up! |
Another major development taking place about the same
time was the fully flying International 14 featured on recent cover of
Seahorse magazine. That boat has one foil on the daggerboard and one one
the rudder and is the first two person monohull to ever fly on just two
foils.
Designed and built by FASTACRAFT in Perth,
Australia--builder of the aeroSKIFF™ foils
This boat is an early monofoiler™ type boat that sails on two foils WITH a
wand type
altitude control system that you can just make out on the stb bow.
and then of course, comes the aeroSKIFF™,
Keep checking back and see new development's revealed soon! |
