Author: Nyx

K2 Test – Oct 5

10/5/12

Great test today—the launching mast and all of the new foils worked well, and we were were able to consistently foil in low wind, the most we have ever foiled in so little wind. It was a beautiful evening as well, with very little chop and lots to see from Fleet Week and the AC World Series races.

K2 Motor Test – Oct 3

10/3/12

We tested the new motors and motor mounts today, a beautiful and warm afternoon. We used two kinds of propellers, standard and high speed. We started the test with the standard props, then switched to the high speed ones, and then switched back again. We used the articulating motor mounts to try the motors at different heights relative to the boat hulls and the water level. We also added two-by-fours to the mounts to act as temporary preventers to keep the motors from rising too high. Overall, the motors looked very cool, and the low-speed maneuvering was excellent. We were able to motor the boat around the various other boats at the dock and to back it up with equal ease. However, we were […more]

K2 Motors and Motor Mounts

10/1/12

Greg and Joe built two articulating transom mounts out of carbon fiber, and today they began fitting them both on K2. They built the mounts to hold two Torqeedo motors that each have 378 lbs of static thrust, which should be enough to get K2 up on the foils. The mounts articulate in order to keep the motors high when the boat hulls are in the water and to lower them as the boat foils higher and higher. The motor shafts themselves are shorter than the foiling boat. Mount adjustment is by ropes on a pulley system located inside the mounts. We also purchased high speed props for the motors. If the motors turn out to be capable of high […more]

K2 Testing Gallery

9/28/12
Foiling near Alcatraz Island, 2016

K2 is our newest completed boat, based on the Kitefoiler prototype. K2 is a 9-meter three-hulled boat. We are currently on our 7th iteration of foils for this boat. Early versions utilized J-foils in the amas and a T-foil at the rudder; the current version uses T-foils for all three hulls. This boat originally utilized the launching mast developed for the Kitefoiler and the winch prototype developed for K1, but it now features an updated winch design, attached to a custom-built kite control chair, and a telescoping launch mast. We originally maneuvered this boat using a tiller, but it now uses hydraulic steering at the mast and on the kite chair. The kite chair is an innovation developed over the lifetime of […more]

Kitefoiler Testing Gallery

9/28/12
Speedy foiling on the east side of Treasure Island, 2011

The Kitefoiler is a quick-build prototype made from three A-class catamaran hulls in order to verify the virtual pivot point system concept. This was the first boat with which we used a rigid launching mast, and we used this platform to develop a successful launch protocol using only the A-frame mast and a winch. The Kitefoiler has external foil enclosures, while K2’s updated foil mechanism is contained within the hulls.

K1 Testing Gallery

9/27/12
Don, Richard, Dudu, and Joe tow back to Alameda after a K1 test, 2011

K1 was the first boat that we built entirely from scratch as a dedicated kite platform, and its unique shape is our own design. For K1, we developed a sophisticated kitearm mechanism, which we also used on Cheyenne and on Nalani, and which we used as a basis for the K2 design. The kitearm allows us to control extremely large kites−up to 110 sqm−with a hydraulic steering wheel. For this boat, we also developed a fully adjustable rudder, which we replicated on the Kitefoiler and on K2, and a winch prototype that we have used on Cheyenne, Nalani, the Kitefoiler, and K2. We also used this platform to explore a variety of foil shapes, experimenting not only with the T-foil but also […more]

Trifoilers Testing Gallery

9/27/12
Don and Joe surf a wave in Maui, 2010

Our Rotating Chair Trifoiler was originally a Hobie TriFoiler, a two-man vessel with a sail over each ama. Our significant modifications included removing the sails and attaching kites ranging from 16-30 sqm, adding a small trampoline, and adding a rotating chair for the kite steerer. That last addition was the most important development made on this boat, because a rotating attachment point reduces time lost during jibing—the rotating chair means that the kite steerer does not have to crawl across the boat, and the resulting savings in momentum allow the boat to complete a turn on its foils.

At our test site in Maui we have a second Hobie TriFoiler, which also we modified for use with a kite. Comparing […more]