I have a DIY project in mind. An old 90L slalom board is sitting in my garage waiting for a foil to be bolted into the fin box.

Or even bolted in to a new box slightly forward of the fin box.
So I have two burning questions...

1. Does anyone know the ideal placement of a hydrofoil.
2. Where can I get a foil fairly priced for experimenting.

I've seen the AHD videos of their board planning in about 6 knots, but I'm keen to use this in 20!

Thanks...

There's quite a few people building their own foils on kiteforum.com. Most people are following this build: www.seabreeze.com.au/News/Kitesurfing/How-to-make-your-own-Hydrofoil_8649403.aspx

I've been wanting to try a foil for quite some time and also have an old windsurf board in the garage that I wouldn't care about drilling holes through. My biggest concern with that would be losing the foil if it fell off though.

1. I was actually wondering the same thing. The best solution I've seen are the 4-bolt, bolt on foils. You can install two mast tracks on the bottom and have plenty of adjustment for the foil. Manta

2. Liquid Force kite foil is the cheapest solution right now in the kite world. Unless you try to build your own. It's an aluminum foil though, so I'm not sure how well it would take the extra weight of the board. There's another aluminum foil coming out, I forget the brand. They're preselling for $900. Otherwise the rest are carbon and they're all $$$$

I've always been wondering whether it was possible to adapt the system the Moth use on a windsurfing board.

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jusavina said..
I've always been wondering whether it was possible to adapt the system the Moth use on a windsurfing board.

just plug a windsurf rig on the moth and stand up instead of sitting down - that should be interesting Make sure you take some video!

Hi Berowne,
Ed Darmanin at Manly has been sailing a foiling windsurfer for about 5-6 years now. He gets out fairly often on it. You can see him on the harbour side Manly.
His is adjustable (not when sailing though). Took him a while to get it right and in 8knots has it sorted. Rescued him a few times over the years.You are best to talk to him regards size of foils and position etc.
Fez

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sausage said..

jusavina said..
I've always been wondering whether it was possible to adapt the system the Moth use on a windsurfing board.

just plug a windsurf rig on the moth and stand up instead of sitting down - that should be interesting Make sure you take some video!

Just need a boom then, their sail is really similar to a freeride sail.
I wish I could try one even sitting down on it though...

This site might help

kitehydrofoil.com/equipment.html

I like the carbon foils from Horue in France but they are not cheap.
The guys that developed the foil are actually windsurfers which helps.
They have some good video on their website.

Good luck with it.

F4Fin Co suggest moving the fin box forward (and reinforcing) and the mast track back.

Cool someone else is thinking about this! I think copying the moth concept of a wand for keeping the board level makes sense. Right now every video you see with the current ones the guys never look locked in as they try to balance the up and down movement of the board.

I was sketching some ideas, but think it needs some uni students to spend the time building and experimenting

The Horue foil is good because it comes with a deep Tuttle box head and you can unbolt the two foils to fit your own. Worth a look. The video with the 7 sqm Hotsail is using a Horue foil and it is planing in under 10 knots.

So this is just a brief idea of what I was thinking could be cool. The idea is to use the concept of the moths to keep the board level. Also it isn't for very rough water but Formula type winds so the board would sail no more than 1 foot out of the water perhaps. The wand to be connected to the Tfoil or else the front foils. Maybe a T foil the the front would work, but I was thinking make the front foils so they naturally try to self level the board to a degree.

I think the idea is to design something that can use an 8m to outperform a formula board in the ligher conditions. Once the wind gets over 15knots then you get back into regular planning boards if you wish.

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scottydog said..

You would still need a custom board, as the wand needs to connect to the foil.... but your concept looks better than most.

Edit: not sure if it will turn...

There's a number of well priced kite foils on the market.

a lot of them have tuttle or deep tuttle boxes so they fit fine.just hang out until next summer and the choices will be huge.

And even bigger in 2e hand ...