John de Vries and his crew (looks like Sacha de Boer in this pic)
Boat was build by Reg White of White formula boats.
The boat is called a John-de-Vries special or White formula special.
The lifting foil appears to be nearly horizontal, right?
Ohh no, it wouldn't be more then angle at 45 degrees. I think it is angled less even. It is not intended for full foiling. Just to partially lift the hulls and reduce wetted surface area. Another benefit that was quoted (by another guy experimenting with a similar setup) was that it stabilizes the platform in fore and aft direction. The boat pitches less.
At speed the lee foil isn't doing a lot of lifting , according to your accompanying pic. Why not?
How do you figure that. Can't see the leeward foils nor do we know how they are angled (rotated) in the horizontal plane.
The Little America's Cup C-class Cogito has been actually lifted clear of the surface by their Bruce foils.... then they become badly frightened and sheet out, I believe.
They used curved daggerboards don't they ? Then they could have solved the issue by raising these a little.
Fortunately our smaller foil boats are less fragile (and less expensive) so we don't care, and continue on!
And these tinkers will always have my outmost respect.
Have you seen the video were an ORMA 60 tri is lifted out of the water by its angled foils ?
It happened during a speed trail between boats and boards of all makes. The ORMA boys won that contest with 33 knots of speed. But the skipper said during the interview that they were working hard to keep the boat going through the water and not fly above it. The last looks spectacular but was found to be actually slower then sailing partly through the water.
I'll see if I can find the clip again.
So what is next from Europe? Where sailing innovation occurs.
Well, we still have the planing cat (ORMA 60) by Yves Pallier. But we shouldn't forget about Australia. 50 knot record attempt and the foiling moths. There is something brewing in the A-cat scene I think. They are looking for a new development since the flyer of the late 90's. There is some more beach cat consideration going on with respect to T-foil rudders. Also we have the development of a cross between spinnaker and kite down under in Aus. Carbon boat fashion in Europe has stopped somewhat, kevlar is coming in season.
Wouter
