Tomahawk

Jack, its definately a hydrofoil, not a planing surface.  The hydrodynamic principles behind the design are sound, and the photos prove it works, it will be a case of refining the boat as a whole I think, I hope it works out, it could be the closest thing yet to an 'everyman' foiler, game on!

hum3 made the point correctly.

Downwind in waves the mothies have to be careful not to push too hard or the foil can lift out. As the foil leaves the water the lift disappears as does the pitch stability. The rudder suddenly finds itself producing more lift than the dagger T, that linked with the large moment generated from the rig, increases the nose down pitching moment, and the boat submarines. Its not quick!!!

In a real blow in wavy conditions the Tomahawk design should enable the sailor to really put their foot down simply balancing fore-aft pitch with the rig loads with the reduced tendency to crash out of waves.

As has been said, upwind it will struggle to stay with moths and 600ff. It looks like it will need serious 'Veal heel' in order to maintain height upwind as the daggerboard isnt very long, so will rely on horizontal section heeled to windward to generate height.

Interesting boat and it will be even more interesting to see if it catches on.

Does anybody who was at the show have a better explanation of this 'totaly new type of hydrofoil'?

From what ive seen it looks like the ride control is provided by the foil loosing lift within a chord length from the surface and that the stepped section has been optimised for this... but this is hardly new technology and there are lots of claims of 'revolution' that seem hard to back up.

What am I missing?


Edited by Isis

Ross, you just don't get it.

It is a concept, it is not meant to beat Moths, if we wanted to do that we can but you couldn't sail it.  This boat is for the everyman not the skinny chap that wants to go for a swim before he sails (or she)

It can be launched in the normal dinghy manor and sailed by the average Jo, it is meant to be easy and fun, not faster.

Try Launching a moth up here in the depths of winter, you will soon want to make it easier!

 

If it's no faster than 'X' why do it? Other than to prove you can ride a unicycle? To make sense of the foil it has to be the fastest single handed hiker SMOD otherwise why? Or if it isn't it then becomes an arbitrary racing vehicle that proves you are the best at learning a specific technique. Fundamentally there has to be a performance gain for it to make sense. I might add I'm sure there will be.... just not as much as a Moth.