Firsty congrates to those ppl who have seemed to have estabilshed this very cool, fun class of sailboat. I think you’ll find you’ll have a rather large cult following on your hands very shortly,as a few of us down here in Australia are hooked and we havent even finished our boats yet. Our only problem seems to be having trouble getting certain materials over here. Is 3/4 oz r/s nylon too heavy to make sails from ? ppl just look at you funny when asking for mylar. Is fibreglass a substitute for carbon or is it too flexy? and how deep are you making the keels? Any help woud be greatly appreciated
From my almost complete ignorance of Footies.
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I’m pretty sure most materials are too heavy/thick and that high tech will win the day. I may be wrong (see many posts over the last few days).
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I know it’s a hassle but www.freeflightsupplies.co.uk are an Aladdin’s cave for small lightweight bits. If you buy cooperatively, the shipping shouldn’t be too dear either.
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Very good question. Most wisdom (including what I’m trying at the moment) seems to say that only maximum depth is a good idea. Note that this includes the piece of the boat OUT of the water - so increasing freeboard reduces the depth of the fin. On the other hand, it reduces the risk of sinking. Brett’s more modern designs have much lower bows than the original Bobabout.
Hope this helps
A.
Hi Daniel… typical fin depths seem to be 6" to 6.5" from the hull bottom to the bottom of the lead. In the 12" deep ‘footy measuring box’ you could go quite a bit deeper but I have read that increasing fore and aft pendulum effect is a limiting factor.
I am using 0.5oz and 0.75oz ripstop, considering the area involved the actual weight difference is small but the .75oz is a little stiffer. Is that good or bad… another point of conjecture 
I would say that .75 is ok though.
Almost all moulded Footy hulls to date are fibreglass rather than carbon fibre I believe. Brett can answer that better because he has made almost all footy hulls to date
Graham
Hi Daniel,
A couple of layers of light gl;ass is fine.If you make the hull to light you cannot remove it from the mould easily and have issues with pinholes etc.
Angus,
I have tried various bow heights…your statement is not very accurate .80% of my footy designs have not been seen on the web:)
IMO, one 3/4 oz layer of glass cloth would not be as good as two layers of 1/4 oz, for example, because not only do you need to saturate the fibers, but you will need to fill the weave on the outside to get a smooth surface. With the two layers of lighter cloth (or one of carbon maybe) the hull should come out smooth & srong without the extra fill.