Here is an idea that I have been toying with...
Recent foiling-moth designs have shown themselves to be extremely good in the 5kn wind range, with the foils hoisting the boat out of the water. Compare this to a formula board, which wont work until the wind hits about 7-8 knots.
What if we could lower the wind-limit simply by changing the 70cm formula fin, for a moth-like foil...? We have already seen the slalom board that has a foil, but it is hard to ride and it out-paced by an normal board. The idea of putting a moth-foil on a formula board, is simply to lower the wind range... once the wind is more than 10kn, we go back to a standard formula fin.
Thoughts anyone?
Mathew , It,s not quite that simple.
Firstly the reason the Moth foils so early apart from the very efficient T foils is the fact that it,s very narrow hull shape is super slipery in displacement mode. Therefore it gets up to the required speed to lift it onto it's foils in very light winds. A Formula board designed purely as a planing hull is crap slow when it,s not , so won't generate enough speed to get on the foils in the same wind strength . What would be much more efficient would be something like the old Division 2 race boards on foils.
The second and bigger issue is trim . The Moth has a T foil on the centreboard with trim tabs that are self adjusting via a wand at the bow which measures the height of the hull above the water. The trim tab is engaged when the hull is "low riding" to maximise lift then neutralises as the hull lifts to generate less lift off the foil and prevent it coming out of the water.
The second T Foil is on the rudder and the angle of attack ,thus lift, is hand adjusted by twisting the tiller extension.This is used to control pitch ie nose up or down.
On a board with only one T foil and the fact that you are not hanging onto a tiller it will be difficult to control pitch.
I dare say it is not impossible to come up with a foil system that will work but it is definitely not as simple as bolting on a Moth type T foil, there are a whole bunch of issues to solve.
