Wow! e-Foil, ultimate low wind...How does it work?

[abel]

Hydrofoils have offered so much promise for boating for decades. It's great that there now so much potential.

Indeed!
Development stalled for some reason.
Only the Russians had a relatively broad spectrum of hydrofoil equipped boats, from small tenders powered by an outboard up to passenger ferries.
We had those (upgraded to German engines) for a decade here in the Netherlands as an alternative for busses.
Unfortunately, their shortcomings caused a serious accident. That was the end of the hydrofoil passenger ferries over here. I loved the sight of such a vessel sailing by with 75km/h!

As a kid I also rode hydrofoil bus boat in a river, and now I noticed the anomaly,... a "better" technology that did not survive?

How come the hydrofoil vessels had shortcoming ? Weren't they more fuel effective and faster?

[Lokihel]

The cost of building a hydrofoil vessel is a lot more than a 'normal' steel vessel.
Also, the craftsmanship required is not the same; a ship can easily be built from bulkheads and steel plates, it is much harder to do so for a hydrofoil.

Essentially the added initial cost is why we don't have hydrofoil ships all over the place.
And don't forget a hydrofoil profile made from steel sheets is nowhere near as accurate as one made from moulded CFRP.

[alkiter]

Or go DIY

https://youtu.be/9iHM6X6uUH8

You meant this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv-Ol6GXTxQ

Yeah, awesome!

[mig27]

As a kid I also rode hydrofoil bus boat in a river, and now I noticed the anomaly,... a "better" technology that did not survive?

How come the hydrofoil vessels had shortcoming ? Weren't they more fuel effective and faster?

Those Russian hydrofoil equipped "busses" are made by the same method as normal boats. Bulkheads and welding sheets of metal. Except they used aluminium to keep things lightweight.

They chose for passive foils: foils which had a fixed pitch and would make the vessel foil by controlling the forward speed.

What went wrong was the self stabilizing V set-up of the wings often referred as "dyhedral".

When a wave would hit in a certain angle the vessel would roll (rocking portside to starboard and back) in an amplifying manner instead of dampening the roll.
This caused the vessel to not respone to the rudder, which resulted in some serious accidents.
There was no profitable solution to fix this design error.

Other manufacturers like Boeing chose for an active system, where the wings could be adjusted on the fly.

All were complex and expensive. And done in an era where materials like carbon fibre and fast computing were not available.

Now that we have better materials, computers and more knowledge it opens the renaissance of the hydrofoils for vessels!

[abel]

....
Now that we have better materials, computers and more knowledge it opens the renaissance of the hydrofoils for vessels!

Hey mig,
Is there a tangible renaissance for hydrofoil vessels? Any examples?

[mig27]

I am on the cell-phone at the moment.
But look at the old laser dinghy being retrofitted with a hydrofoil kit.
Look at the olympic nacra catamaran class being fitted with foils. Electric personal watercraft electric with hydrofoils.
Basically find any boating site and you will find the examples!

[Europ2]

.... look at the old laser dinghy being retrofitted with a hydrofoil kit.
Look at the olympic nacra catamaran class being fitted with foils. Electric personal watercraft electric with hydrofoils.
Basically find any boating site and you will find the examples!

The past, Volga and Molnia from Russia in the 70's, part of small hydrofoil boat history: http://www.volga-hydrofoil.net/


The future, inspired by Volga-like ships, the Hydros from Switzerland https://foiler.com/en/home