Hydrofoil

INTRODUCTION

I have been winging since summer of 2020 and being a part of this community has ignited a drive for improvement and new ideas for innovation and speed.
I have had the privilege of testing out all brands of foils, boards, and wings. This gave me so much insight and narrowed down my preferences to what gear best suited my riding
style, comfort, and future goals. Once I became a Naish team rider, I had a whole new world at my fingertips. Racing and speed are where I find myself having the most fun on the water. I wanted to give myself the best chances at keeping up with the gang in drag races up and down the coast. I wanted to be more involved than the "weekend warrior", and I knew that making a foil, or attempting to, would give me more appreciation for the engineers and developers of this new sport.

Nils Rosenblad is the foil designer at Naish International and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to question him on every foil I ride. I constantly ask about sections, aspect ratios, functionality, and so much more. Though I was interested in foil design from the very beginning I asked him to mentor me in designing a foil. It was a very interesting and challenging experience.

We have created a complete foam front foil that I believe will be efficient at high speeds, be maneuverable and I can compete with the competition in a drag race. The foil was designed to, and does, fit my Naish fuselage. At school I also had the privilege to use a CNC machine to shape the foil out of G10 instead of glassing foam prototypes with carbon and epoxy. It is nearly in workable order and I am so stoked to be able to test it out!

WHY THIS PROJECT

When covid hit in early 2020, my family began to wing-foil and we knew that the foils could be much more efficient. Once I was back from summer vacation and had a CNC machine at my disposal at school, I began this project to make a faster foil, learn, and have fun in the process. 

As we are learning more and more about different foil sections involving speed, maneuverability, and the ability to glide, I am driven to create my own foil. The project is still in the works as this sport is constantly evolving. I thought I had a great design, but now I find myself regularly returning to my design programs in order to improve them as best I can. I felt that the early foils I was riding were slow and had room for improvement in order to better suit my riding style and goals. Racing and speed are where I find myself having the most fun on the water. I wanted to give myself the best chances at keeping up with the gang. This forced me to decrease the surface area, foil thickness, and cord so that a higher performance foil could be achieved.  

the process

When I first introduced the idea to my teachers, they really weren't sure what I was doing or even what foiling and winding really were. The more images and drawings I showed them definitely helped them to understand my vision. Then I was able to get the project underway. However, as I gradually found out how complicated this project is, the slower and more detailed the process became.

Due to barriers at school, I was only able to produce a couple different prototypes ready for glassing. Currently, I am waiting on materials and seeing what further information I can gather before committing to any specific shape. I believe the shape I initially created might already be outdated.

TAKEAWAYs

As far as technology and 3D modeling, I was fortunate enough to talk to Nils at Naish who actually designs foils for America's Cup boats. I learned to use 3D modeling programs such as Rhino instead of our school-provided Sketchup. 

Since the project started, I've learned an incredible amount about foils. I learned about shapes, thicknesses, aspect ratios, curvature of the foil itself, hydrodynamics, and much more. I truly understand the difference between power and glide and the difference between straight-line speed and maneuverability. It has been an absolutely exciting and educational experience, and I have loved every second of it!

Our project was featured in Foiling Magazine! Click below to read more about the process.