Version one was years ago. I had molds made by a friend of a friend who had a CNC machine. Progress will be faster now that I have my own.
Dude, that’s very cool! I love outside of the box projects! As a sailor interested in the America’s Cup, foils are of great interest to me and I love making stuff out of carbon fiber. Keep up the great work! One of the reasons I wanted an XC-1000 was to be able to make NACA blades for dinghy racing and this is very closely related.
You have GOT to put a hydrofoil on one of those things. Like the foiling Moth or the Hydroptere. I was using a friend’s hydrofoil yesterday, and managed to get up and flying on the foil a few times. Its an amazing feeling.
My foil needs some redesigning. I know I made the stabilizer too small.
And I have a few other hydrofoil projects in mind. Maybe something with a small 10 hp motor to get around the lake with. Hydrofoils for a big race windsurfer. A hydrofoil bike. I could do that!
The previous stabilizer was too small. The board wasn’t stable enough. So I rescaled it, carved a new set of molds on my X-Carve on July 4, and they are ready to lay up carbon fiber and epoxy today after work. This machine is really making this project go much faster. I will have achieved 3-4 days from finished design on the computer to finished product ready to go on the board. LOVE IT!
can’t wait to see you onboard a working craft. go get em!
So far it worked pretty good. This is my prototype, so its not as good as the commercially available hydrofoils available. But I got some rides in.
Next I will be redesigning a lower aspect front wing. This, along with a longer, better fuselage should make a much steadier ride. An issue with the old windsurfer as a board is the convex deck. This makes it harder to prevent roll. It was harder to apply pressure to the board to keep it from rolling sideways.
I will be building an entire new board from scratch. This includes the mast (vertical strut) which is far too flexible, the fuselage, and the front wing. I think the stabilizer turned out perfect, so I may not need to make a new one.
Can’t like this enough. Awesome shots. Congratulations on building your dream!
Definitely one of the coolest things on this site! Thanks for sharing!
Nice vid and idea!
the howl from the wind through the lines is haunting, I might use it for halloween this year
This gives “getting it up” a whole new meaning!
Please keep us posted on your progress.
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. keep it up!
I just cut a mold for a lower aspect front wing.
I just made a new fuselage based on my experience that the joints between these parts should be flat surfaces. You can see that the top half of the mold has a flat area to connect to the fuselage.
This just keeps getting cooler!
Can you model a saddle into the wings to increase the bonding area?
Wow.
What bits are you using on the foam?
I have not tried Styrofoam before.
What foam? I haven’t used foam except doing a few test cuts. Those I did were with a 1/8 straight cut bit, and they turned out great.
I am planning an entire new board, and intend to cut the foam for the core with the X-Carve, just to make sure everything is straight and clean, to minimize the amount of adhesive and filler I need to use. But for that I will probably need a much longer bit. I have one from my Dremel kit that looks good.
https://www.dremel.com/en_US/products/-/show-product/tools/561-multipurpose-cutting-bit
The material I am using for the molds is a PVC sold as an artificial wood sold under the name of either Azek or Veranda.
MidnightMaker: I tried complicated connections, but found that what works best is just a flat surface to flat surface joint. And they are not bonded by any adhesive. They are held together with screws.
It took a while, but I finally got it together, and out on the water. Still needs a lot of work. I am going to build an entirely new mast, and probably a stabilizer. Then next, and entire new board.
I’m getting much better with the hydrofoil. I think the part that needs the most work now is the one between the board and the kite control bar.
But still, next is a larger front wing, maybe a bigger stabilizer, and a new board. This one is HEAVY!
I’m getting ready to carve molds for a new front wing. This one is going to be bigger, to get me up in lighter winds. The previous wing was 230 X 442 mm. This one is going to be 230 X 550 mm.
The top mold is so thick I will have to glue two sheets of PVC together, a 3/4" and a 1/2".
Very cool project I would love to make one is there anyway you could share the files thanks