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I Present: Valkyrie

Here it is! This is how the Valkyrie looks with all of it's parts in place (except mast). This test was a great success, except for a pinhole leak that let one of the amas fill with water making the boat too heavy to take off. Soon I will have some pictures of it flying!

Success and Some Mistakes

Finally! The steering system works perfect! The Valkyrie can now be turned and controlled with the rudder pedals easily. In fact, it turns a little better than expected. It even handles being towed well now. However, I did mount the AOA beam a few inches too far forward on the rudder board so, as you can see in the pictures, as soon as the boat hits about four or five knots the board takes a sudden nose dive. I should be able to fix this by simply sliding the attachment point aft.

Valkyrie Floating

The boat is in the water complete (except for mast)! Now for some tests of the new steering system...

The Rudderboard --> Shoe Connection

I had to come up with a way to connect the existing shoe to the new windsurfer rudderboard. The connection had to be strong yet able to pivot, and had to be made with parts at hand. The result seems like it will work well and I can remove the whole assembly in less than a minute by removing three nuts so that the board can still be used as a windsurfer! I also added some new leads and attachment points for the rudder cables.

The Rogue Ama

A few weeks ago, while the Valkyrie was tied alongside for the night, something hit the port ama and broke it off. The ama undertook a voyage all by itself during the night and it took me quite a while to find it half buried on a beach on the other side of the bay. It must have had quite a trip as there is a fair bit of damage. Along with fixing the damage I added some drain plugs and inspection port to make accessing the inside possible.

The New Rudder Board

I bought this windsurfer for $75 ec (about $30 us). It will replace the wood board that I built. That one ended up being too heavy and didn't plane quickly enough, but I believe this new board will work MUCH better.

A Couple More Pictures

Floating

The Valkyrie floats! The hull is now complete. You can see the view from the cockpit as the rudder board turns from side to side.

MoreTow Testing

Everything working nicely!

Putting it All Together Part 1

I've made a lot of progress today. All that is left is to attach the rudder board and rudder cables and then launch! Still no mast of course... but hopefull we will have a boat that is able to go in a straight line, turn, and fly under control while being towed. In these pictures you can see the Valkyrie with the wing attached, the amas in place, the sprit and the AOA beam connected, and almost all of the rigging and controls are in place.

Putting it All Together Part 2

The first picture shows the AOA control line coming out of the dashboard and through a jam cleat. You can also see the line that releases the wing (for beaching) so that it can swing up. This line is on the traditional horn cleat so as not to be accidentally released in flight. In the next picture you can see the new turnbuckles on the aileron control lines for precise fine tuning. I also included some more (clearer) pictures of the rudder pedals.

Putting it All Together Part 3

Here is the bungee-assisted-lift mechanism for the AOA beam. Also, you can see the new rudder control lines with turnbuckles and new holes in the hull to pass through.

State of the Hydrofoil Sailboat "Valkyrie"

Well, pretty much all the parts are built now. It seems that all that's left is to put everything together, do a bit of rigging and adjustments, then put her in the water! Of course, I don't have the mast or sails ready yet but that is being taken care of and I can do tow testing in the meantime. Coming soon I'll have some photos of the boat put together.

Painted

The amas, sprit, AOA beam, and rudder-board are painted black now. I mounted the amas on the wing assembly and had to do some work to get the hinging action just right but I'm happy with it now.