See more info about this boat under the articles section and some pix posted by Chad under this section of the forum or at: www.microsail.com under monohulls.
Well ,hell. Finally was able to take the boat out for its first real test sail in the Intercoastal in Titusville ,Fl. Wind was picking up quickly as I arrived and was about 6-8mph as the boat hit the water. She went about 10’ in a spurt of speed and then pitchpoled in the blink of an eye! Damn! So I figured she must be overpowered and reefed the main. Again , in a somewhat stronger breeze around 10 she went 10’ and whoosh! pitchpoled again. The Power Ballast System worked good for side to side stability but something wasn’t right.
I checked the angle of incidence of the foils: 0 degrees on the rudder T-foil and + 2.5 degrees on the main foil. These settings work very well on the F3 trimaran foiler so I couldn’t understand what was happening.
As I was putting the boat back in the car I looked close at the flap on the main foil:it was UP 3-4 degrees! That’s really bad and I’m surprised I didn’t see it when I checked the basic foil angles. With the flap in the slightly up position the foil developed DOWN force as soon as the boat accelerated causing the immediate pitchpole. So for next test the limits on the main foil flap will be set so that can’t happen. I will test at least once again using this manual flap control system and switch to a wand (automatic altitude control) if this manual system proves to be too much.
Glad I was able to test in shallow water or it could have been a real mess.
Well, I nutured the slim hope that this boat would be like its big sister the F3 and work right the first time-no such luck but I guess you have to expect this sort of thing when doing something never done before…
More tests to follow…
Doug Lord
microsail.com
monofoiler.com
High Technology Sailing/Racing