14' Stunt S9 Foiling Cat

[ita 16]

Yes . It is an interesting data,

The boat can also fly in 5-6 knots, but for raising hulls from the water surface we need 1/2 -1 knots wind more, this is normal in all hydrofoil boats.

One other good data is that UK team have make a test in gusty wind 18-28 knots wind , other team have make test in 16-23 knots wind , but big long 2 m wave plus choppy from different direction .

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Got one boat out today. Fairly stable wind for a change. Best thing I did was have my friend Bill and his sweetie Charlotte chase me around in the ski boat. The boat pitched me off the windward side and capsized on top of me as I was coming in off the wire while still fully foiling. Probably shouldn't do that any more. It drifted faster that I could swim, they saved the boat just before it hit the breakwater. Thanks Bill and Charlotte! Great day for a training sail - about 10-14 mph, not too gusty. I followed some advice from this forum and went with max downhaul, max outhaul, and restricted rotation. Liftoff took a little more speed, but the power was much easier to manage. Simply stepping forward a few inches to anticipate a gust pretty much killed the tendency to hop or launch. Yea! I learned that I cannot tack this boat very well - it just stops in the middle of a tack. I also found out that my 149 pounds is not enough to right the boat. Also learned to discuss rescue procedures and get tow ropes ready BEFORE the sail. Duh. Set a new personal record of 23 mph. 20 seems fairly easy to achieve in these conditions. Weather helm was a bit high - need to rake the rudders forward just a bit. One pic attached. Working on videos, stay tuned.

 

[drew584]

Got one boat out today. Fairly stable wind for a change. Best thing I did was have my friend Bill and his sweetie Charlotte chase me around in the ski boat. The boat pitched me off the windward side and capsized on top of me as I was coming in off the wire while still fully foiling. Probably shouldn't do that any more. It drifted faster that I could swim, they saved the boat just before it hit the breakwater. Thanks Bill and Charlotte! Great day for a training sail - about 10-14 mph, not too gusty. I followed some advice from this forum and went with max downhaul, max outhaul, and restricted rotation. Liftoff took a little more speed, but the power was much easier to manage. Simply stepping forward a few inches to anticipate a gust pretty much killed the tendency to hop or launch. Yea! I learned that I cannot tack this boat very well - it just stops in the middle of a tack. I also found out that my 149 pounds is not enough to right the boat. Also learned to discuss rescue procedures and get tow ropes ready BEFORE the sail. Duh. Set a new personal record of 23 mph. 20 seems fairly easy to achieve in these conditions. Weather helm was a bit high - need to rake the rudders forward just a bit. One pic attached. Working on videos, stay tuned.

Good to meet you today Charlie. It was a great day on the water.

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Thank you drew584. Yes, nice day at the lake, nice to meet you.

The boats will be set up on Friday through Sunday next week if you want to sail one.

Video from first run yesterday. Lightest wind of the day. Third time foiling for me, feeling more comfortable with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB1Lngl9TJU

 

[ita 16]

Really stable , good degrees in downwind ,position creew perfect .

Seems new setup work better.

even you have learn alot in short time .

greath .

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Second run, trying to go more upwind. Learning to handle gusts better (watch course number as gusts hit).

Skimming behavior upwind rather than flying high: is this normal? Felt good, speed looked good, but I don't know if this is optimal (or how to change it).

I tried locking the mainsheet instead of working it (okay, calm down and keep reading).

It didn't kill me, still stable, but it required more attention to weight placement and tiller movement to control heel and pitch changes.

It certainly took a lot less effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPGAlZokWKY

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Three whole seconds at 23 mph!

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Had a discussion with my friend John this afternoon about how to "get off the bus".

Should have had that discussion sooner.

Fast run, faster dismount.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2J3vwrHsOE

 

[Doug Lord]

Good stuff, Charlie-thanks.

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Thank you Doug.

 

[RobG]

Skimming behavior upwind rather than flying high: is this normal? Felt good, speed looked good, but I don't know if this is optimal (or how to change it).

Moths have two primary height controls: a "dial" that changes the length of the horizontal pushrod for more or less flap for a given wand position, and wand length where longer is higher. Higher is faster, but maybe not on a Stunt as they sail flat, so less main strut in the water means more leeway as you go higher. Maybe faster is with a bit more strut in the water, but not much more as there are two of them.

Generally, Moths are set to fly higher upwind than down by changing settings, but the different dynamics mean that the boat sails at about the same height in both directions (depending on conditions). If you're set for maximum height upwind and don't change settings for downwind, chances are you'll come off a wave, ventilate the main foil and go down the mine.

Of course those are generalisations and vary greatly between sailors and conditions. Some guys change just about everything at the top mark, others just fiddle a bit with height and maybe crack the vang.

Rudder settings vary too, but might be a bit more bow up or more bow down depending on how you sail, where you sit/trapeze, what you're upwind settings are for the day and conditions.

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Thank you RobG. We still have a lot to learn. We appreciate your comments.

Without another boat as a "rabbit" it is hard to know what is best.

Next weekend we hope to have two boats racing.

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

New video from chase boat perspective. Unusual attitudes, capsize, recovery, attempted foiling gybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAqkJJ_Wrr4

Sailors are Ian Billings and John Tomko. Chase boat provided by Judson Holt. Thank you Judson!

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

John Tomko with a "flash gybe" on the S9.

Completed the gybe while still up, but crashed down immediately after.

Best watched frame at a time or as slowly as you can get it to play.

Sorry for the poor quality: a hand held camera in a RIB is difficult for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvCatc-4CDQ

 

[Doug Lord]

Charlie, looks to me like he began the gybe with the boat pitched up pretty high-and then it went higher and the foils stalled? Looks like crew weight needs to be way forward thru the gybe? What is your shock cord tension on the wand in that video-low,medium or high?

Thanks for all the video-- great following you guys.......

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Thank you Doug. We've been keeping the shock cord fairly tight - still not enough time on the water to know if that's right or not, in any weather.

The boom is very low at the front. To gybe one must cross over very near the stern, which, as you saw, create an AOA issue.

The whole boat is 13 feet 7 inches long, we actually operate in about 3 feet of that realm.

So far, John is the only one with

a) enough consistent wind to try a foiling gybe (shifty lake winds are the norm here)

and

B) the balls to just push the tiller and do it

Which reminds me:

Early in this process I was a bit concerned that some sailor would harm my babies by executing stupid or inexperienced maneuvers.

John pretty tactfully told me that, if I let him sail the boats, he was not going to baby them.

After a bit of thought, I decided he was right, I would just let my friends go with it, no restrictions.

The boats have been flipped, turtled, launched into the air, dragged their skippers by the trap line bungees, abandoned to sail themselves,

and generally put through the wringer by all 10 skippers.

These are tough little boats - I am amazed at how little maintenance has been required.

Charlie

 

[RedTuna]

What a great science project! Love how you're documenting it.

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Hi RT! Thank you! Where have you been? Are you ready to sail with us?

 

[SimonN]

Interesting side bar to this is that one of the top A Class sailors in Oz believes he will foil tack before he foil gybes.

 

[Charlie P Mayer]

Thank you Simon. Are videos of the attempted maneuvers available?

I'll get some video of both tack and gybe attempts next time we go out.