Winged Rudders

We have had t-foils in the Cherub fleet for a few years now, and ALL of the top boats have them. We have the difference that we move slightly faster and also can get behind the t-foil on the racks which dramatically improves performance in all but the lightest airs.

Personally I feel the speed increase is most noticeable upwind when planing, and also downwind in light airs.

Not sure I see the link to the foil being more effective with rocker either.

There are a variety of control systems on the boats, most have a course rope adjustment to set the angle, others have twist grip to fine tune on the fly... (at high speed you normally don't have a spare hand to adjust it all the time!).

We haven't had much time in the boat in the last couple of years so tend to adjust the foil less than some. We find it quicker to set it about right, and then trim using body weight. You definitely know when it is set right as you can feel the speed increase. Downwind, we point noticeably lower with the t-foil. I have experimented with letting the foil off when trying to pinch to make a mark and it does work.

Regards to making tacking harder, we find they actually make the manoeuvres easier as they make the boat much more stable. In some cases, foil wings are wider than the hull width!

Just my thoughts anyway. Kevin Elway wrote an excellent piece on t-foils which was published in Y&Y which has many more numbers rather than 'thoughts'! It is available to Cherub Class members on the website.

In our I14 we always pulled the foil on fully upwind regardless of wind strength, with the crew moving back in the boat as the breeze built. Down wind we pulled as much foil on as the conditions allowed i.e. fully on in light winds/flat water, all off helping to lift the bow for a safer ride when honking and waves.

Biggest faff is launching. On our M12 the stock was always attached to the hull, therefore the rudder had to be inserted from below meaning the boat had to be rolled over before launching to insert and the same once sailing was finished.

I always felt following a tack it took several boat lengths for the foil to start working properly - the bow would sit up - but then taking well in any boat is a skill that comes with practice. Obviously this is less of an issue with a I14 as you generally are sailing on bigger water and tacking infrequently, however N12's are likely to be sailing on smaller stretches and therefore the effect may be more noticeable? Would be interesting to see a DCB race against a fast un-winged N12 on our stretch of river to see how much tacking is slowed by the foil!

I think you have missed Charlies POV peaky.  I crewed for Charlie in the M12 I14 what he is saying the foil took time to work after a tack, until the boat started to gather some boat speed (obvious you may think) He was asking how much advantage a DCB would have over a non T-foil 12 on a narrow river or lake where tacking every 30 seconds may be key.

We did try once, i managed to break both carbon tiller extensions.

Funnily enough Tewkesbury used to have a big fleet of 14's as well as 505's. Charlies Dad even won the POW as a Tewkesbury Member.  This was however back in the 80's!!!

When we started using T-foils on moths ( about 16 yrs ago ), I made a few that were 'double-ended' so you could use them as a normal rudder one way up, or a T foil the other way up. The plain rudders were a tiny bit faster in very light conditions and really flat water, but as soon as there were any waves ( even from another moth ) or more than drifty winds, the T-foil was faster due to the boat pitching less = the rig working better.
The moths used the foil angle fixed, or maybe 2 positions, and always giving downforce to stop nosediveing. In light winds, the effective angle was trimmed to zero by sitting forwards.
Moths and (most?) Cherubs have the foil at the bottom of the blade, making launching easier than having it in the middle.
The Stealth 16 cat uses T-foils too.