bbg
Active member
I don't see how they could do that on a production boat unless they've changed that rule too. No moving appendages are (were?) allowed on production boats except two rudders.
True Ocean Going Foiling
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I don't see how they could do that on a production boat unless they've changed that rule too. No moving appendages are (were?) allowed on production boats except two rudders.
howard easton
N/A
Dream on!. We already have non foiling boats that can easily exceed your 6kt but buyers dont in the main buy them. If speed were the key issue, then why not more high powered soap dish type monos or multis?
Computer controlled foils in a family cruising boat
As for racing them, I cant see it anytime soon on long distance single handed races like the transat. Whats missing is any degree of forgiveness in the handling - you cant race across an ocean on "the edge" all the time. And stability gets less as size goes down
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Woodlouse
New member
I expect a rule change would only require a company willing to produce a boat that required it. With the new Figaros having foils the Open 6.5's have to evolve again in order not to stagnate.
Fantasie 19
Well-known member
Dream on!. We already have non foiling boats that can easily exceed your 6kt but buyers dont in the main buy them. If speed were the key issue, then why not more high powered soap dish type monos or multis?
Computer controlled foils in a family cruising boat
As for racing them, I cant see it anytime soon on long distance single handed races like the transat. Whats missing is any degree of forgiveness in the handling - you cant race across an ocean on "the edge" all the time. And stability gets less as size goes down
I don't disagree with most of that - only one comment to your statement "you cant race across an ocean on "the edge" all the time." - errr.. try telling Alex Thompson that..
bbg
Active member
I haven't been a member of the 6.50 class for several years, so I don't know if a change is in the works for production boats but there was certainly an ethos of having a cutting edge division (where foils are apparently now allowed) and a cheaper, simpler division where there was not an all-out arms race. This was in order to keep costs down.
There were a lot of features on protos that could easily have been applied to production boats, but weren't because of the rules and the ethos. My concern would be that there will be such a big spread of the fleet.
Once they get the foils working properly, I don't see why they wouldn't race them. If the autopilot won't steer, just take the boat off the boil and retract the foils for a couple of hours and get some rest.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Because speed is not the key issue; there are currently too many compromises to be made.
Ridiculous isn't it? You might as well have suggested a few years back that we'd all be using electronic charts, linked to satellite-derived navigation systems, radar and autopilots. But hey, there will always be Westerly Centaurs around.
That's why there will be computer control for the cruising versions.
Beelzebub
Well-known member
Foiling Centaurs! There's a challenge.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
It's not - quite- as daft as it sounds. As a chap from AYRS told me, years ago, it's not too hard to design a hydrofoil which will take, say, 20% of the weight of a yacht at cruising speed, and that's all weight that doesn't need to displace water, with wetted area and so on. Of course it would bring a separate set of problems.
NormanB
Well-known member
I don't disagree with most of that - only one comment to your statement "you cant race across an ocean on "the edge" all the time." - errr.. try telling Alex Thompson that..
Alex though, would agree with that proposition wholeheartedly.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Just nail a scaffold board between the bilge keels & fix a sticker with a different Number range over the log dial
Job done
Can you imagine the bearded wonder Westerley bar pundits after a force 4 reach with that one
20Kts under bare poles & the peak of the skippers hat ???
Try telling kids of today that - they would never believe you
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howard easton
N/A
As you say, perhaps a bit condescendingly, there will always be Centaurs around . The family cruising boat market is very conservative. How else do you explain the 35 ft Bavaria/ Hanse/ Benny, when buyers could instead be sailing a tri or even a First? And the fondness for long keels and heavy displacement?And thats before you even take into account the extra cost of the technology. Or the average age of new boat buyers.
I dont see high tech foiling monos as being the family cruising boat of choice in my lifetime if it exists at all.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
What fondness for long keels and heavy displacement? That sort of boat hasn't been built in any significant numbers for decades. Family cruisers from the makes you list are light, high tech hulls stuffed with electronics, roller furling systems and generally high-techery these days.
As it happens, I sail a forty year old long keeled design, but I don't delude myself into thinking that it's more than a minority interest now, and I don't ignore the possibilities of further technical advance.
Fantasie 19
Well-known member
spotted this on the Anarchy site.. foiling and a wing mast .. :ambivalence: From http://laloumulti.fr/site/
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flaming
Well-known member
matt1
Well-known member
Attractive as foiling would be, surely the issue with foiling on a cruising boat is just one of displacement. Very unlikely you could build a cruising boat light enough to foil, let alone still being able to carry the inevitable cruising paraphernalia. Love the idea though
Fantasie 19
Well-known member
Attractive as foiling would be, surely the issue with foiling on a cruising boat is just one of displacement. Very unlikely you could build a cruising boat light enough to foil, let alone still being able to carry the inevitable cruising paraphernalia. Love the idea though
I suspect that like the cross over between F1 and the car on your drive, it is about degrees of change... as an example of what I'm thinking, a lot of cars now have wind spoilers, but they are not as extreme as the one's on a F1 car... in the same way I think we would see less extreme versions of those foils on production boats.. improvements in speed but not full foiling?
Seajet
...
Right, at this point I have to say it; I was once, really, seriously told by the teenage son of a Fantasie 19 owner that he could get it to rise up and plane on the tips of the twin keels !
This was decades ago and is still a standard phrase between self and my chum who heard this claim - we quickly decided that whatever this character was on, we didn't want even a small sample - haven't seen this speed freak for a very long time, funnily enough.
And it wasn't our friend ' Fantasie 19 ' here - though I have seen him going along at a fair clip.
This was decades ago and is still a standard phrase between self and my chum who heard this claim - we quickly decided that whatever this character was on, we didn't want even a small sample - haven't seen this speed freak for a very long time, funnily enough.
And it wasn't our friend ' Fantasie 19 ' here - though I have seen him going along at a fair clip.
