Sellers are rather people who have had changes in their personal live (change of job, a birth....) and have no time to go to sailing. Or also people who have a health problem
@Gilles29 is right for many/most cases. I've also met folks who had bought the boat on a mistaken understanding – a good female catamaran sailor thought the UFO was close to a Hobie 14, able to easily sail not on foils, beach launched through modest breakers, and then optionally try foiling.
That is a good point. My main sailing location would be beach launched(and stored) but on the bay side, so not much in the way of breakers. It does stay fairly shallow for a little ways and I would need to keep the main foil full up and the rudder only partial down till I get past the artificial shore erosion barriers, then put everything into place.
Yes, I launch from a protected beach. Needs some technique but entirely doable.
Also curious about this. Looking at Bristol Yacht Clubs Tuesday Foiling Serie (in the Fulcrums backyard...) looks like there are 21 Wingfoilers participating and not a single foiling boat? What gives? Is the cost and "complexity" for dinghy foiling too much vs wingfoiling? Are people foiling for awhile and then going back to their displacement/planing boats?
Hello, I am sorry - I feel quite silly right now for answering with the lake location. I should have thought more about my reply! (I guess its because of people like me that there is a market for t-shirts that say "its in the syllabus"). As DRC said, these foils are strong, and I was actually really suprised the foil even survived given the hard impact it incurred.I suspect DRC meant where on the foilWhen you reviewed the foil after the impact, were there markings showing what part of the foil had made impact? Or other hints – you say the "mount" was bent - is that the metal tang that is integral to the foil horizontal? Are there pics of how it was bent? How did you straighten it?
(Myself, I destroyed a mainfoil after 4+ years of violent groundings against soft sand/grass bottom. Generally speaking, these things can take a beating. But also, my foil looked ok (just scratched) until one day it "cracked" and bent 45 degrees during a foil run. Most likely I broke something inside the foil in a prior run, but wasn't visible externally.)
Hi, as a new UFO owner, who incidentally bought from someone who exactly said that, I can relate to this. I'd like to mention that I found the handling of the boat at light wind rather difficult to learn, and not like anything I have experienced on other boats. In particular, the phase of launch/return to shore with only partial rudder is tricky. Tacking is really unique, and I am still learning how to complete the tack swiftly. And finally, being stuck in irons for 15 minutes under strong wind, was another whole experience in itself that puzzled me.
Thank you, this was very interesting to read!
Love the attitude! There's both sets of videos in YT - the glam look-ma-no-hands and the "here's a boring tack" except it's not boring, watch closely and it's showing the subtleties of the technique of... a tack.
-- but f it's worth it.
My advice, from a UFO nubee…Love the attitude! There's both sets of videos in YT - the glam look-ma-no-hands and the "here's a boring tack" except it's not boring, watch closely and it's showing the subtleties of the technique of... a tack.
All foilers entail a steep learning curve to foil. If you buy a laser or a sunfish, you're initially content with just sailing it. You wouldn't get frustrated that you're not gracefully planing in big waves in-a gusty downwind on your second outing. But on a foiler, that's what you've seen in the cool videos and that's what you want.
Then in reality you have to spend some time learning to rig it, launch it, return (with those painfully long foils), learn to sail it, control it, learn the quirks, then learn to sail it fast. And once you can sail it fast, which would be the start of the big rewards on a regular dinghy, that's the start of the steep learning curve. And the first thing you get is the nasal cleansing
@tdj_sailing , fwiw, I was experiencing many of the same frustrations you’ve described; and one day I mentally threw a switch in my brain to start treating this like an airplane instead of a sailboat. Literally within minutes, I was up and flying in control — all self-taught. So I wince when I hear folks talking about “the learning curve” in the context of the UFO because it depends on which curve you’re operating: on a sailing curve or a flying curve. I think it’s a mistake to think about or treat this like a Laser on steroids. (My mental image is an open-cockpit Stearman biplane.)
It depends on how many times I’ve submarined that session. If none, then I’ll possibly have nothing dripping out of either drain hole. In Bristol with heavy conditions and several submarine events, I had about 20 solid secs of drainage to get rid of.
I just ripped around today with 3 knockdowns, 2 full submarines that I drove out of and no turtles. Very little drainage. It must have something to do with capsizing. Thanks KF!
You should be dreading going downwind because it’s unstable and crash-prone, not because going upwind is hard.
What Kelly said. Once you're good dw and uw, both are super fast fun. Dw has much better VMG so you sail upwind for longer but it's not a drag...
