There's no point, was just curious about how great the light wind performance of foils are against other classes. There's so much hype around them but whats the reality.
In light winds the holes don't need to be very big to lose 50% of your power, would slow and steady win the race.
Once a foil gets going, it will generally do around 15 knots without too much effort. Not sure how fast a D2 is but doubt it could keep up.
Yes once the foil is going its obvious it will have greater straight line speed but over an entire course there is rarely consistent pressure.
In a very light breeze, to light for formula, will the foil be able to keep flying both up and downwind with good angles and produce better vmg than a d2, ie how much better is the performance in reality compared to the hype.
Getting up and flying for a hundred or so metres does not equal awesome light wind performance, flying around the entire course on the foil would, is that a reality in 6 knots.
Foils on long boards has been tried already back in the 80s as well as recently on D2.
(round or flat hull, who cares once board flies?)
You don't need wind to make a foil working...you just need to "marsouin" as dolphin do...see SUPs!
Again, no point to compare a board that flies against another which hull stays on water.....![]()
The boat that does the gate start at the Defi Wind is a pretty low sided inflatable .....so there is a good chance that a foil board that misjudged the start could end up on top of the start boat .....something to look forward to, though the start is pretty crazy already!
Would a D2 or a foil be quicker around a windward/leeward course in 6 knots.
If the foil main wing is large enough to keep the board flying consistently in 6kns then it should be faster around the course than the D2. May need a larger foil than the standard 800mm ones currently on offer, but it will have more drag as speed increases.
On the other end of the spectrum it seems that current windfoils max speed is around 27kns.
This article provides some explanation why:
boards.co.uk/how-to/how-fast-can-we-go-the-science-of-speed.html
"The hope to use hydrofoils in order to get higher speeds is not very realistic.By using an hydrofoil the foil drag increases with the square of speed. This is a big disadvantage compared to a planing surface where the drag is nearly independent of speed."
As soon as the foil is up and flying it would win, but only if its a consistent breeze
Why do you say that? One of the joys of foils is how they glide through lulls that would cause a non-foiling craft to stop.