My attempt at a Homemade Hydrofoil

[zmax]

Just finished my attempt at a homemade hydrofoil.
Big thanks to everyone that has posted their builds on this forum as well as on http://kitefoil.forumactif.org/
As you can see I have a little bit of inspiration from Carafino.

Construction: Made for excess materials I had laying around from various other projects, so a little random on construction.

Mast- Aluminum tube core with Birch wood bent over aluminum to form airfoil shape. Then covered and vacuum bagged. Lay-up starting at the core. 1/8" birch wood, 9oz carbon 45deg, 9oz carbon 0/90, 9oz carbon 45deg, 6oz fiberglass, 4oz fiberglass

Front wing- 1/2" plywood core, 1/8" foam (to help shape top part of airfoil), 2 layers 6oz fiberglass covering top and bottom.

Rear wing- divinycell core, covered top and bottom with 3 layers 0/90 6oz fiberglass, 2 layers 45 deg 6oz.

Fuse- (3) 1/4" thick Polpar glued together and covered in 6oz fiberglass.

Haven't had a chance to try it yet so can't give a ride report. Hopefully it works.

[Hawaiis]

Look Nice, let us know how it goes.

[windfreak74]

great job!!
can you give specs on the mast how thick x wide x long?
So cool!!

[zmax]

Mast is 36" tall x 4.5" wide x 1" thick.
A little on the thick side, since most of the production ones are around 1/2" thick
I'm not too worried about the mast thickness, this foil isn't for racing. Those racing foils are 100% carbon and this being my first attempt, I didn't want to spend all that money on carbon just to find out my foil sucks. I really just wanted to make sure that I got the twist and flex stiff enough. It seems pretty stiff. I think the mast thickness and use of the aluminum tubing in the core helps control the flexing issues without using that much carbon. But I could totally be wrong and this thing could fail horribly. I guess I'll see once i get it in the water.

[zmax]

I got a chance to ride it today. I'd consider it a successful build. I'm new to foiling, but after about 30min I was up and foiling for some pretty good distances. 100 yards or more. What a great feeling. Still getting the occasional nose dive, but I very happy with it so far. Noticed a little vibration in the tail from time to time, I probably should have put some carbon on the rear wing. Learning to jibe and tack will be much more difficult I think. For now I think this foil will be a good learning tool. Thanks again to everyone posting their build and comments on learning to ride a foil. I have no doubt that the forum on how to ride a foil helped me with a quick learning curve to start foiling upwind. Going down wind is a totally different story.