clearwater hydrofoil kit $125

[edt]

Anyone tried one of these kits out? Made of wood you supply the epoxy and fiberglass. I have lots of glass & epoxy left over from the sup I just made so was thinking of giving it a try.

http://www.clearwaterfoils.com/#intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWgjokpSd8

[oldkiter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVfHU_bfPKw

Built with 25 inch mast for learning. Couple of short sessions with kite.

Currently assembling one with 32-37 inch mast.

[juandesooka]

Seen those ads around for a while, but haven't read any reports of someone setting one up yet.

Their promo video was foiling behind a boat, now at least one under a kite. Looks like it works ok, though he seems to be close to water the whole time (short mast?). Cheap enough to be worth a shot.

[wil]

I bought 2 wings that were fibre glassed. Very light and very good value. I strapped them to a DIY alu mast and fuselage and will try this weekend.
Very quick to respond to emails.

[Pemba]

I bought 2 wings that were fibre glassed. Very light and very good value. I strapped them to a DIY alu mast and fuselage and will try this weekend.
Very quick to respond to emails.

Looking forward to your comments/"review" on that.. It sounds very interesting.

[Horace01]

I bought 2 wings that were fibre glassed. Very light and very good value. I strapped them to a DIY alu mast and fuselage and will try this weekend.
Very quick to respond to emails.

How about an update/ How did you get on?

[wil]

not so good. I went out in more than chest height water but struck a sand bank when the back of the board dropped down. the back wing did not survive. Snapped in half but I am in the process of fixing it up with some glass and perhaps a strip of carbon. Will update when I get it to go. Should work though.

[IainMacaskill]

I bought a Clearwater kit earlier this year and happy to report it works really well. I haven't done any wood work since school under the guidance of my techy teachers who were scary and more skilled than BA Baracus.

I bought the kit as I fancied the challenge as I'd never worked with fiberglass and it looked a fun project.

In total I've spend about £200 to build the Clearwater, including all the kit, delivery, resin and glass. As the project went on I learnt better methods and techniques. The main one being the use of a paint roller try to wet the cloth before laying it on the wood rather than pouring resin on the cloth laid over there wood.

The pain is getting everything straight and the mess of sanding fiberglass, you'll want a dust mask, an apron and boxes of gloves.

Starter kit

The kit from Clearwater

Glass doesn't stick to bin bags

Glassing the wings

Glassing the fuselage

Working out the base plate

Shaving before sanding

Obsessing over straightness

cutting the mast down to 60 for low tide

Comparison with the Zeeko wing

Cutting the mast down

Hayling Island

[faklord]

Can you compare how it rides with anything else & why did you cut the mast down?

[Pemba]

I also built one. I had some minor issues with building it as might be expected. Using It is certainly a lot more difficult than the Sroka foil, and the length of the mast might actually well be one of the difficulties there but I am a total beginner so apart from that, I will refrain from commenting on its qualities for now.