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I Love Sailing

As my user name implies I AM a sailor. I have sailed for over forty years and I own several boats, a keelboat and a high speed hydrofoil. We live on board the keelboat in the summers at an island based club. I maintain and repair the boats pretty much myself and I am rather good at it. I have never decided what I liked more, maintaining / improving the boats or sailing them - there is simply not much about it that I don't like. It is on the boats that I am most at home.

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pdqsailor1 · 61-69, M

There are different types of hydrofoil sailboats. Most are like a Moth which has a foil on the daggerboard and the rudder and these require body placement for stability. My observation of these boats is that they have two modes - full tilt speed and swimming. These moth's have incidence controls by trailing wands but they lack stability. Others like catamarans of a style like the AC boats use three foils - twin rudders and one forward daggerboard down. The problem with these boats is they require manual incidence control to maintain ride height and optimum foil angles. The C class boats are also indicative of this style of foiler. These boats have stability but are difficult to keep going at speeds because of manual incidence controls - the Angle of attack of the foils. I own a Hobie Trifoiler - it has both stability - resting on three foils one rudder and two spread forward foils AND it has automatic incidence controls - an ingenious mechanical system of forward sensors.

But you asked what it is like to sail. You trim it in displacement speed and when you hit oh seven or so knots you trim it hard and it POPS up on the foils and in a heart beat accelerates to 20 plus knots with insane acceleration then you trim in harder and if it is windy enough it starts going faster - I have sailed mine as fast as 35 knots. What is that like? Scary freaking fast is what that is. Meanwhile the boat is almost bullet proof - a very solid ride and well engineered. Thing is they are no longer being built but Hobie sure supports them well. Oh - and on our boat - you can gybe it at close to full speed - a 180 degree gybe that pulls about 2G's in the turn - head snapping and then you are going the other way at full tilt in a flash. What is it like to sail? It is a BLAST and I am being very polite.

I figured I wanted to get it out of my system and once I went really fast in it that I would sell it - meanwhile I still own it and it is addictive. Look I like keelboat sailing too but for flat out speed and exhilaration - going flat out on a foiler is incredible. I mean how many sailors do you know of that have run their boats at 35 knots?