Just a reminder that you don't need to be on land to go fast

"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi) 04/19/2015 at 06:16 • Filed to: Sailopnik

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I’d love to try out one of these crazy things. Hydrofoils are badass.

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > E. Julius 04/19/2015 at 08:21

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These are cool. Do you know if the foils can retract? Wonder how they go getting these back to shore or the jetty or whatever. Also you would want to be sure of the depth where you sail, must be quiet a few get damaged hitting stuff in the water. I would love to try and sail one of these.

E. Julius > Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast 04/19/2015 at 08:34

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I honestly have no idea if the foils are retractable. I think I’ve seen pictures of them lying on the shore with the foils still out, so if I had to guess I’d say no. This probably makes getting them in and out of the water a bit more of an involved process, like you said. As far as watching the depth though, it doesn’t look like the foil would go too much deeper than the centerboard of a more traditional dinghy. Of course, it’s probably super fragile fiberglass and it doesn’t look like there’s any mechanism preventing it from just breaking if you hit something.

In my family’s 16’ dinghy, the board reaches to down ~4.5-5 feet below the surface, which looks fairly close to the depth of the Moth’s foils, but if you run aground or something ours just gets pushed back up into the hull on its pivot.

E. Julius > Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast 04/19/2015 at 08:39

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I just did a little research, and apparently they’re light enough that you can just carry them into the water (see the beginning of the video). There’s also a pretty neat part in the middle where he talks about how you actually get it to foil, and it sounds like a really cool technique. I would love to get my hands on one of these things.

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > E. Julius 04/19/2015 at 09:17

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Well there’s goes my theory. I pictured them sailing straight at the shore, timing it just right to catch some air off the shore break and landing with just the right amount of force to dig the foil into the sand while disembarking the vessel, grabbing a cool beer off your lovley assistant, before landing on your towel, gotta dream big.

nafsucof > E. Julius 04/19/2015 at 09:27

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How fast in mph do they go??

E. Julius > Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast 04/19/2015 at 09:31

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I only said you carry them into the water. Getting them out is more like this:

E. Julius > nafsucof 04/19/2015 at 09:33

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I just read they can hit speed just above 30 knots, which is close to 35 mph. Pretty damn quick for a dinghy!

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > E. Julius 04/19/2015 at 09:41

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THATS THE EXACT GIF THAT I GOT MY INSPIRATION FROM!! GETOUTA MY HEAD!!

Grindintosecond > E. Julius 04/19/2015 at 10:34

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Moth

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