boat hydrofoil

Good friend and my boat co-owner Phil way (father of Harry Way who is a national level freestyle junior) took the plunge and bought a Dwarfcraft/NF2 combo, in the meantime the smaller masts have arrived and the wind forecast diminished to that of a dubious hangover fart. So with the calmest of calm seas, we decide to try towing the foil behind the boat with the smallest taxi mast (15”) and see what would happen.

Things we all learned:

  1. The constant pull from the boat is a great for learning and the water start is dead easy, easier than a wake board in fact. The board is quite buoyant and has a massive nose rocker, so pops out very quickly.
  2. The shortest taxi mast is very short and cavitates easily, resulting in some comedy porpoising action.
  3. You need a bit of speed with the boat, but not too much 12-15 knots is more than enough. Once you are up on the wing, there is no resistance and you find yourself overtaking the boat a bit, this de-stabilises you. A constant speed is important.

This proved to be a great way to practise your hydro board skills, eliminate the kite from the equation and I would go as far as saying it was pretty simple. The middle sized mast would have been better, we may well try it tomorrow. Everyone got up on the board, everyone had a big grin.