OK, so how long until we start putting these things on our cats? I know there was a guy up in Melborne,FL (I think) who was doing some research about 8-10 years ago. He added a set of foils to a Hobie 18 that were mounted at about the front beam and could be retracted. What ever happened to him and that boat?
I'm thinking "What if..." when I see those Moths foiling around. What IF someone were to build daggerboards with foils at the bottom, put them in the slots, then add some foils to the rudders, would it work? Or are the slots too far back? And don't you have to control the angle of attack of the foils some how? Or could you do it by shifting your weight back and forth like the chair and board guys?
There is the future of faster sailing, no doubt. But are we ready for it? I think someday we might look back at cats with no foils the same way we look back at the pre-spinnaker boats. "Nice but slow..."
Is there some kind of formula (there must be) that tells you how much foil surface area you need to lift XXX amount of weight up off the water, at say 10knots? Would the foils have to be too big to be practicle? Those T foils under the Hobie Tri-Foiler are wide.
