Moth Hydrofoiling: The Future...
20th August 2004

I think it is still early days yet for what potentional the hydrofoils hold for the Moth class, only recently at the Europeans has there been a majority of sailors extremely excited about the use of them on their boats, so there is still a lot development that could be done by these sailors and not to mention the numerous other potential olympic, international and recreational sailors that have contacted the Moth class association recently and wanted to know how to get their hands on a Moth with or without foils!

At the moment, Moth hull and foil specialists (Fastacraft in Western Australia and Full Force in the UK) are inundated with enquires for new gear to be made, plus good second hand boats are ususally not on the market for that long either.

One of the main reasons for the acceptance of hydrofoils in the Moth fleet, is that it has been proved my a few handy mothies, that any Moth (whether it be scow or skiff) can be fitted with hydrofoils for next to nothing in cost or experience by the builder. Obviously the professionally built hydrofoils (like the hulls) will perform better and last longer, but not everyone can afford new gear, however the 'home-builder' can still have a go at it if they like.

Now that we have the basic configuration and setup working successfully around the entire course, and in most conditions, now we are just refining angles and minimising drag underwater and in the air. The hull has little windage already, but the wing frame does stick out a bit, and hence the Full Force wing set now uses aero shaped sections.

A new sail has been developed by KA Sail Australia for hydrofoiling Moths as well. This sail was used by myself in the European Championships and uses a lot less seam shape down low, but a lot more luff round, and very similar in shape to current Formula windsurfer sails.

The next major development we will probably see will be in the mast and rigging. Ideally the mast would be better further forward, as so we can move the centreboard case further forward and increase the distance between the two foils, in an effort to improve stability. We may one day end up going to an unstayed rig, however this has been tried before by a few people without significant improvements.

Increasing stability and control in chop, waves and at speed is also something that we will be refining over the next year or so, however practise and more practise seems to overcome most problems we encounter.

Personally I am very pleased to now see a clear majority of mothies willing to give the hydrofoils a go, as I was worried that there would be some mothies that wanted to ban them without giving them a go first. And from my personal experience, there has not been one person so far that has not enjoyed their first sail on a hydrofoiled moth, could not wipe the smile off their face or has not wanted a second go on one.

The technology seems to fit right within our class, however it may not be suited to all other classes. Instead what I think we will be seeing is a few new classes emerge using similar principles and technology to the Moth, ie fully hydrofoiled boats, or the application of a few principles used on current Moth's in current classes, ie winged rudders with adjustable trim tabs, or cambered sails.

Maybe one day a hydrofoiled single-hander class might emerge with the potential for olympic status and literally blow the dated laser or finn away in terms of speed, excitement and spectator viewing.

As we have already proven, a hydrofoiled Moth can sail 'higher', 'lower' and 'faster' than almost any other single or double hander dinghy in the world today (I have personally clocked 21.8 knots on my GPS but know that I have gone faster at other times), but is the Moth a class for the olympics? I doubt it and nor would I or the majority of other mothies want it to be, but there is the possibility there to show the ISAF and the IOC that hydrofoils may have a place on an olympic boat somewhere, somehow, sometime. Just can't wait for that day tho!