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Reply to: FULL foiling for $18k Stunt S9. super light weight!

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[quote=wlrottge]Damon,

So, I think all of the foiling platforms that aren't the Vampire, or a boat with a top-load foil (A-cat) are going to have the same challenges with foil "handling" so to speak.  Beach launches/landings are a bit of a challenge, sail away from the beach slowly for two reasons; first, have to be more careful to not hit anything with the daggers.  I suspect that the little bulb on the front of the foils is less forgiving than a typical rounded or blunt dagger board, it would suck to rip a T-foil off and/or break it.  Second, with the T-foil on the bottom of the rudder, you can't go very fast with the rudders not locked down... you might rip the T-foil off of the bottom.  The vertical dagger style rudder wins in this regard, but pivoting rudders seem to be more convenient.

The S9 can have the foils inserted from the top or bottom, but with a caveat; inserting from the top means sitting and attaching the T-foils.

As far as tying up to a dock or other boat, with the foils up, that's a no-go.  Charlie has built a couple of little floating docks out of PVC and padded them with carpet; they tie them to the dock to hold the boats off with the foils up.  So long as they are down, you're fine.... assuming that there aren't any mooring cables or other extended structures to hit.

With regards to weeds, there are others who have experience with that, but I personally don't yet.  Based on what I've seen and been told, clearing J/L foils is a pain and T's are even worse.  Since foiling is more about efficiency than brute power, any additional drag from weeds is a killer.  Look at the difference in resistance (and therefore speed) when a boat goes from displacement to foiling mode; since lift/drag vary as the square of the velocity, with the significantly decreased drag profile while foiling, even a little bit of trash on a board/rudder would amount to a significant percentage of the total drag and be a killer to both lift and speed for a beach cat.  The systems are more integrated so to speak, add drag from junk on foils, go slower, which adds more drag due to foil lift and/or displacement; it's a big circle.  You can really feel the effect of trash on the boards/rudders on the Tornado and the CFR, nice thing is that clearing the boards is a very quick and easy process.  Hoping to have more experience foiling in more diverse conditions over the next year...

Since I've sailed at "the butt" plenty of times, that lake would scare me on a foiling boat!  Small, muddy, sticks, logs, shallow spots, dead bodies...

I am really curious to see the UFO, not sure when it is supposed to arrive.  I think the next batch of S9's will be here this week or next.[/quote]

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