The Control Sticks

Rudder Test

The good news is that all the hard work that went into the ailerons has payed off. During the recent test, roll control was effective and powerful even at low speeds. The bad news is that the new rudder board and AOA beam still need a lot of work. I'll update more soon.

Progress Report

The Board is Watertight!

The board is all sealed up and ready to have the rudder bolted in place. In the pictures you can see the shoe being tested while the rudder is temporarily in place.

Fiberglassing Chaos!

Literally.

Gluing Pintles and Gudgeons to the Shoe

Setting the hardware into the shoe using West System epoxy thickened with colloidal silica.

Adding Pintles and Gudgeons to the Shoe

This part of the boat will hold the rudder and board while allowing them to pivot. Pintles and Gudgeons allow easy removal.

Terminology

When building a boat that is as unconventional as this one it seems that there are all sorts of boat parts that don't have appropriate names. For example, the rudder/surfboard combination at the bow is a real struggle to name. It's not technically a canard, even though the boat is in a canard configuration. "Ama" doesn't really work either. "Float" sounds like a pontoon boat and doesn't do it justice. Maybe "rudder board"? Anybody got any ideas?

The Canard

We have finally worked out the bearings and hinges for the front end of the hydrofoil. Now it's just a matter of putting in the hours to finish it.

How hard can it be?

"I'll just give it a rudder attached to a surfboard at the bow on an articulating arm on the end of a 12 foot sprit." Simple! In the end, there are dozens of tiny parts that need to be fabricated. From bearings to spars to bulkheads it all adds up. Every day progress is visible!

Foilboarding

Here is the current state of the foilboard that I designed and built. I don't jump it anymore since the t-bar has broken twice now when landing. It's still insane amounts of fun!

10 Years in 10 Minutes

I managed to capture some of my adventures from the past decade on film. I edited the footage into this short video with good music.