Foils History. The first hydrofoils used on a boat is attributed to Alexander Graham Bell and Frederick Walker Baldwin who used a ladder arrangement of surface piercing hydrocurve surfaces that resulted in the highly successful HD-4 built in Canada in 1918. With a new set of engines fitted the HD-4 achieved a world speed record of 70.86 miles per hour on September 9th, 1919. The next Canadian hydrofoil development occurred in 1943 with a high speed hydrofoil smoke layer intended to lay down a smoke screen to protect boats from prying enemy eyes. Then in 1949 the Canadian Defence Research Board was given approval to build a 45' hydrofoil vessel capable of rough water operations. Completed in Quebec in January 1950, the 45' x 8' 6" called the R-100 was moved by train to Halifax where it was launched and moved to Shearwater military base on February 21st, 1950. The all up weight of the vessel was 8,000 lb and was powered by a Packard-Merlin 31 marinized aero-engine developing 1,250 BHP at 3,000 RPM which through the 2:1 step up planetary gearbox gave a shaft speed of 6,000 RPM driving a 15" x 23" prop. With the success and knowledge gained from the R-100 project the Canadian Government approved construction and trial of the R-200 a 130' Fast Patrol boat with a 28' beam and a foilborne power of 16,000 hp providing a top speed of 60 knots. Although very successful this project was eventually curtailed. Experiments and foil variations with different boats continued until 1962 when the early projects were phased out in favor of the Flying Hydrofoil Experimental 400 or FHE-400 also known as the Proteus. Only 33' x 9' the FHE-400 project was undertaken by DeHavilland Canada and many items sub-contracted out with the hull being built in Richmond, BC and the Z-Drive coming from Hydro Drive of Seattle, WA all having to be shipped to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia where the vessel was first sea trialed in May 1973. Research and trials continued for many years with the Canadian Government finally stopping all hydrofoil development and letting its world leading hydrofoil knowledge disappear into the history books. I have a book containing the complete history of Canada's research and development and all the technical details and results on hydrofoils and the boats used if anyone is interested. Graham Captain Graham Pfister President & Principle Designer TrawlerCat Marine Designs -----Original Message----- From: power-catamaran-bounces@lists.samurai.com [mailto:power-catamaran-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of power-catamaran-request@lists.samurai.com Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 9:00 PM To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com Subject: Power-Catamaran Digest, Vol 55, Issue 12 Send Power-Catamaran mailing list submissions to power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/power-catamaran or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to power-catamaran-request@lists.samurai.com You can reach the person managing the list at power-catamaran-owner@lists.samurai.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Power-Catamaran digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Foils and roll motion (Robert Deering) 2. Building in China (John Winter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:32:22 -0900 From: Robert Deering <deering@ak.net> To: PCW List <power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com> Subject: Re: [PCW] Foils and roll motion Message-ID: <C72BF686.5F6F%deering@ak.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII John, Could you define 'skinny' a bit more? What L/B ratio do you feel is optimal, or is there another 'measurement' that you are using? Bob Deering Juneau, Alaska On 11/18/09 12:31 AM, "John Winter" <john@adventurebay.co.nz> wrote: > Personal Observations on Foils and Skinny Hulls. > 3. But by just adding Foils on a slim hull cat will miss a large part > of the hull improvement opportunity. Adding fullness above waterline > in the bows helps reduce bow tunnel pounding and a foil will soften > landings on fast boats, hence our new hull shape was developed after 6 > months pounding across the Pacific in skinny hulls bruising the crew > black and blue. We and the crew of boat-builders all decided future > boats will have less tunnel entrance, 2 months in Tahiti repairing > tunnel delamination and core shear gave us time to think this over. > (Composite originally engineered by a leading composite design house > might I add) > > 4. Further to the crews bruising was the snappy roll motion of skinny > hulls in beam seas. A 16 day voyage from Marquesas to Galapagos with a > naval architect, an engineer and 2 boat-builders aboard gave us time to reflect. > Skinny hulls are for harbour crossings, not real time, confused ocean seas. > Wide hulls we think have slower immersion rates so they don't sink > down quickly to the tunnel buoyancy and stop dead, snapping back when > the arched tunnel is reached. They immerse slower, finish their roll > softer and some weight aloft also helps slow the end of the roll. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:52:03 +1300 From: John Winter <john@adventurebay.co.nz> To: "power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com" <power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com> Subject: [PCW] Building in China Message-ID: <33F7258B-9B9C-4319-8D58-DF330C9EABD4@adventurebay.co.nz> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed; delsp=yes Hi Graham, Before we started building in china we did our research as I was aware of the issues you had been through. I spoke with some of your customers, Brett Crowther & many other designers, your Chinese & US yards, many other Asian & Us yards and with many brands who had success there. Having built Cats to 86ft and monos up to 105ft in NZ, a leading country in boatbuilding & experiencing various issues, I learnt that country of origin is no guarantee of quality. Seen good & bad from every prominent boatbuilding country. The yards we work with in China are Taiwanese owned, their 30 year history seems to have benefits over Chinese run yards. Before letting them build our cats we have learned their strengths & weaknesses by buying 7 of their monohulls, 33-70ft. Similar looking boats to Horizon & Marlow. Nordavn, Selene, Marlow, Defever, Hampton are all examples how Chinese built-Taiwanese owned yards can be succesful but results vary from dealer to dealer depending on their knowledge of boatbuilding and QC steps in place. Our customers here are happy with the price to quality ratio. Taiwan becoming too dear but China is still good. Our hotels are brand new, western owned and better than those I stay at in the US! Certainly no rats! As soon as the recession eases and we move our current demo monohulls we will start a demo 56ft cat to keep for ourself. With Cats its critical to have good design, (50-70k investment) exacting weight study and a yard who knows how to follow it. Seems most our enquiries want wait for the recession & see what we come up with so watch this space! Regards John Winter www.adventurebaypowercats.com Sent from iPhone By the way, anyone else discovered what a handy tool an iPhone is on a boat? An $8 add on for Navionics charting, free electronic level and tides and unit conversion software. highly recommend it! ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Power-Catamaran Mailing List End of Power-Catamaran Digest, Vol 55, Issue 12 ***********************************************