No such thing as a ridiculous idea

James Casey using CO2 to re-inflate the wing. Got the pain right, got the approach wrong? James joins Kai as elite member of the no such thing as a ridiculous idea club

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I made a foil drive out of an old Milwaukee battery drill. Took the trigger & battery unit out of the handle & ran a lead between the drill & makeshift trigger assembly, siliconed it up wrapped in plastic bag. Got an old propellor out of an extract fan & put it in the chuck. duct taped it to the mast. It went VRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRr

there is also functionality in that scooter enables you to run upright vs. crouched over when using a dock to start pumping.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_qXBP1IlKi/

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Two bad ideas and a real big idea:

Breakaway cart for dock starting down boat launches. Probably not very safe.

Skids or underwater wheels for beach starting without damaging your wing. You’d probably crack your mast if you jumped on wrong though.

30l-50l volume foil and 30l volume board, easy to get up, you can use the buoyancy of the foil for lift, as well as the lifting body like a traditional foil. Really slow, but enables endless pumping, and you can simply float down to water level to rest.

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I can picture the first one - I think the cart will come to a dead stop as soon as the wheel hit the water, and the foil is only in 20cm of water.

RCTestFlight looks like he is doing a massive wing in his latest video.

This is possibly the most ridiculous thing on this thread

The material is reportedly so buoyant, that a boat made from one pound (454 grams) of it could carry about 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of cargo (Aerogel)

Love the idea of riding a complete foil set up on top of a skateboard down a boat ramp to launch. Someone do this please.

Listening to everyone wax on about voyaging, I wondered what it would take to actually voyage with a foil.

This guy doing 15k mile arctic expeditions on a windsurfer made a downwind send in the Med summer seem like a walk in the park. 800km self supported downwinder across Greece to Turkey anyone? What would it take to be self supported? +10kg of deck weight with some gear still viable to foil?

Harder angle

Easy angle

Wind is reliable through the summer. Where else would these be viable and “fun”?
image

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I’m not sure, but I think if you really are carrying everything you need to voyage, it may be best to carry it in a drybag backpack rather than strapped on a board. Pumping a light board with a backpack must be easier than pumping a heavy board. Gear durability is a real concern. I think if it is possible to stop for the night onshore along the way, it seems quite possible. I can’t imagine trying to do it non-stop unsupported.

Build a vertical storage tube on the deck of the board and put all your gear in there. Then when you’re already going on foil, use it as handlebars like the scooter foil guys do!

add a parawing to the top of a long paddle… suddenly it’s a foil yacht! ha

Yeah I can’t foil when it gets dark, I would have imagined pretty impossible to foil through the night but that seems not to be the case for everyone (eg this guy sending into the night)

That region is super warm and lots of beaches to camp, lots of marinas and places to stop. Would be more of a cruise with a few big sends

Parawing “sock” on the deck of the board similar to modern skiffs (I-14, 49er,etc) that allows you to pull a line to retrieve and stow the kite on the deck of the board.

49er sock in yellow below:

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I have been thinking about this lately. Use my small Peak to go upwind, then swap for Parawing. I think this is the future for long distance self sustained down wind foiling

What size peak do you use?

Could peak up wind, then paddle up down. Would be the equivalent of a deflate down wind, but prob a bit harder to relaunch in the water.

4m Peak. Smaller would be even better, as above 15 knots the 4m Peak is almost to much to handle with a modern high aspect foil in the 1000 to 1400 cm2 range. No paddle up skills yet, thus in favor of the parawing / modified peak with ultrashort lines.