check this...

Lots of sl*gging off of the foiler on this string. Have any of the people who have made the comments actually ever designed and built any sort of boat at all, even one designed to float, not fly, or maybe just be paddled around a duck pond, and not even sail? As the saying goes, Those who can, do, those who can't, become critics. It is difficult to design a boat which is a development of those which have gone before it, just tweaking ideas to make it go a little faster (ie, how Cherubs and 14s are generally designed) it is far harder to design one which "breaks the mould". And in 99% of cases it will fail. BUT the 1% give us such things as planing boats and hydrofoiling trimarans doing 40+ knots, so it is good that people are out there willing to experiment, isn't it, dispite many people on this forum thinking that a boat is good if it conforms to what is currently fast?

I cant think of many/any "mould breaking" boats off the top of my head
(Jim?!), but the one thing you cannot do is ignore what works. This is what
Doug appears to have missed and tried to make a boat with different
everything on board.
He has then tried to publicise the fact that it works, with no visible evidence
and that it is going to revolutionise sailing for everyone. (I can see why
everyone has either fallen over laughing or put their backs up)

All the designers I know wont try and make that sort of claim, they just get
on quietly improving things... Like the 45 knot trimaran that has been
around for nearly 20 years and has been rebuilt 5 times!

Originally posted by Rupert Lots of sl*gging off of the foiler on this string. Have any of the people who have made the comments actually ever designed and built any sort of boat at all, even one designed to float, not fly, or maybe just be paddled around a duck pond, and not even sail? As the saying goes, Those who can, do, those who can't, become critics. It is difficult to design a boat which is a development of those which have gone before it, just tweaking ideas to make it go a little faster (ie, how Cherubs and 14s are generally designed) it is far harder to design one which "breaks the mould". And in 99% of cases it will fail. BUT the 1% give us such things as planing boats and hydrofoiling trimarans doing 40+ knots, so it is good that people are out there willing to experiment, isn't it, dispite many people on this forum thinking that a boat is good if it conforms to what is currently fast?

Far closer to the 'push around a duck pond' analogy than the hydrofoiling trimaran but il let you know how our 70cm RC yacht goes after easter. Im told Ive been a little 'unconventional' with my design aproach...

Originally posted by turnturtle But I can speak from a strong standpoint that I wouldn't ever own a boat I thought was ugly

When you take a historical view its amazing what has been considered to be ugly in the past... The J Class, for instance, were considered ugly when they came out, hard as it is to believe now... Things that work well have a habit of coming to be regarded as good looking...

Back to the massive looney french hydrofloiler thing..

Presumably if you fall overboard, that's it.....I guess you're looking at about a fortnight to slow the thing down, and then turn it around in waves. Suppose the only other safety issue is finding a chase boat fast enough to pick up the pieces if it ever cartwheels...!!

Of course, that would never happen in the UK, because some health and safety bod would put paid to it...!!

Vive la France - completely potty......