The Hobie TriFoiler as it was designed for production knowingly had many compromises in the design. The current configuration is geared for two purposes, 1; a very high top end speed. 2, a user friendly boat to rig and sail. The Hobie TriFoiler is an amazing boat, it gives the owner the most speed per dollar of any production boat made in the world. To keep the cost low for a consumer produced recreational boat, no CF was used, nor has there been any serious requests.
The Hobie TriFoiler was designed after Long Shot. Long Shot holds world speed sailing records for her time. The boat was constructed with a lot of carbon fiber. Some of the parts that were not carbon include the Main Hull, amas, and the leading and trailing edges of the foil shaped crossbeam. Long Shot weighed roughly 200 pounds. Although it had a much higher top end speed, the majority of its speed potential came from how small the foils are and aerodynamic features of all the spars. Although Long Shot only weighed 200 pounds, it still required over 10 knots of wind to get air born.
Now we all know that light weight is key to performance, and this is true especially for light wind takeoff speeds. The Moth is a perfect example of the most simplest form of a foiling boat. The class rules for a Moth prevent the boat becoming more lively for a sooner takeoff. The next level in a super moth is called Mirabaud LX, which is a Moth on steroids. 6 knots of wind for take off is quite low. I believe I have managed to sustain flight for a short while in 6, but that was after already getting over the bow wave which required a better than 8 knot gust for 30 seconds. Although it was fun and what I remember most about it, was the total lack of wind noise. I was sailing really deep going about 10 on the speedometer. In hind sight, there is no big deal about sailing 2 times the wind speed of 6 to 8 knots of wind. It just doesn’t seem too exciting after going warp speeds and the roar of the wind blasting through your hair.
Modifying a Hobie TriFoiler for maximum takeoff in my opinion would require extensive changes. The following would have to be bigger: foils, amas, and both sails or convert to hard rigs. I would shape the crossbeam and compression strut into foil shapes and eliminate the booms, and sail link. Hobie Cat is not interested in making custom boat parts. To do it right, would mean new molds, for the low level of demand, we could not justify the time and money to explore this adventure. The next step to sailing fast is in the works. Stay tuned.
_________________ Dan Ketterman I am here to assist TriFoiler owners maintain their boat and answer technical questions.
|