Originally Posted by Timbo
OK, one 'dumb' question:

Where are the foils? Or are lifting foils not allowed in the C class? I thought I saw a C cat with foils some years ago, did they abandon the concept? I was just watching some You Tube vids of the Moths up on foils and it is obvious that would be the shortest way to going faster, wing or no wing, but get -both- hulls up out of the water. Of course, being a pilot, I am biased towards "flying" being faster than sailing, but the birds figured it out a long time ago, so where is the cat development towards foiling?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BZwM2LDCb4&feature=fvw


The foils actually didn't work out so well as they created too much drag through the water and slowed the boat down. The hulls were able to be airborn but it was still slower than a boat in the water. There's a physical trade-off between the width/length/weight of these boats and building something that can foil without the foils having to work too hard which creating more drag. I'm not sure that they'll be able to create a boat within this length/width parameters that can foil and be faster than building a floating boat to the optimum length and width. There does appear to be some advantages by splitting the difference and having foils that provide ~some~ lift but don't make the boat airborn.


Jake Kohl