Dear All,
firstly I would like to thank you very much about your interest for the New Spitfire hydrofoil.
We spend a lot of time to develop it and i hope you'll love it as it change a lot the way of riding.
I checked some of your questions and I'll try to reply to most of them.
gbrungra wrote:Does anyone know if this would be a good foil to learn on? I need a foil to learn and then freeride in the light winds of San Diego...
I like the idea of a canard for learning, because it may help with the "porpoising", since when the front wing breaks the surface and loses lift the whole setup should settle back into the water. Sort of a soft-stall effect.
But, I'm not wild about being a guinea pig on a totally new design, that may end up in the scrap heap of history...
About the Learning you can learn directly with it. But as it is designed for waves, it is a fast turning foil. But without previous hydrofoil experience it is not a problem need a little more time to get used with it as it is not its first program.
All riders with some experience and habits with a traditional foil, they will need some rides to get used with this new feeling and specially the power management driven by the back foot instead of driven by the front foot usually found on a conventionnal foil. For most different is in the turns and tacks and jibes, here this is the back foot which drive, then you need to control with the back foot, this is the opposite as a conventional hydrofoil.
As Peter Frank write often, you need to train your muscle memory. When you get used, this is a new world of feeling for a hydrofoil.
Additionnaly, there is a very good point about the spitfire, the foil never fly away as the main wing is the back one, this is a very good feature. When you train new tricks, you feel safer.
max wrote:Macisback wrote:Hi Nico and Andre!
Will you sell the foil only complete or also an upgrade kit (Wings/Fuselage) for owners of the previous alloy foils?
Great job by the way!
I would also be interested in this . . . but I have noticed that the sum of the individual parts price wise (with their other foils) adds up to more than the whole kit.
Loving my white and blue
Technically it is possible, but all parts except the mast are different to the white and green hydrofoil, then if you order parts separately it will cost more than a completed foil.
geron wrote:the front wing is smaller because the back wing produces lift as well and the lift of both ad to the total lift; is this unique to this foil? Do all the other directional foil's back wing produces negative lift?
We are not the first to design an hydrofoil with both back and front wings producing lift, but we are the first to design a foil able to carve like this.
In fact the 'canard' foil was the only way we found to develop a foil having extrem carving ability. There is some reason about it:
1- in extrem turns, it appear usually the front wing go off the water (at least one part), on a conventional foil this is the main wing that lift you, then you crash.
With the Spitfire, the main wing is more deeply in the water and this is the stabilizer which go off the water you can still keep the control (not all the time of course, but more than a conventional foil). You can see some example on the video at 1:11 and at 3:08, you'll see (this is very quick) a part of the stabilizer going off the water and I still keep the control of the hydrofoil.
2- The best control in turns in most of the sport is driven by the back foot. This is the case in surfboard, snowboard, windsurf, then there is some reason of it. It is easier to control the power by the back leg than by the front leg, this is more natural.
cglazier wrote:Great to see something new being tried.
They say it is for wave riding so I guess it is slower but more maneuverable than other foils.
I'm looking forward to seeing a review.
CG
I fact this is not a slow hydrofoil. It is not as fast as racing foil, but it is not a slow foil. To compare, my max speed with a white and green hydrofoil is about 30knots, with the spitfire my max speed is about 27knots. The geometry of the foil make it starts sooner (when you design it with the same surfaces of wings), but our choice was not to make it starting sooner, but starting the same and with more carving potential.
Also, When you ride waves, you have 2 main ways of riding them:
Slow down your speed and waveride like in le Morne in Mauritius Island or on Capo Verde (off shore winds) or use your kite and ride and carve fast (this is the case with side on or on shore winds), this Spitfire is designed more in this way of riding, even if you can ride also in side off Wind, but the biggest advantage is side on winds (you also turns your kite during bottom turns and rollers).
I had sometimes the question, but on the video, no part of the video is accelerated, there are only speed effects to slowdown the speed of the video sometimes but we never accelerate it;
Also, the foil create the same lift with 30% smaller wing, it makes it creates less drag (drag is affected by the surface of the wing), it makes you feel the foil less draggy than any other foils with the same mast in low end.
Macisback wrote:Hi Nico and Andre!
Is this foil compatible to the 2015 Slash?
(Mounting position, Straps position?)
Will you sell the foil only complete or also an upgrade kit (Wings/Fuselage) for owners of the previous alloy foils?
Great job by the way!
Yes you can use Zeeko boards since 2015.
My tip is if you have your own location of straps, for the first trials I suggest you to move back your straps by 2.5cm (next insert on your board) and when you'll get used with the Spitfire, you'll keep the same straps location as the other zeeko hydrofoil
About the selling, by now this is only completed foil.
geron wrote:It seems the center of rotation in turns is around the rear large wing and therefore it will be easier to do tight turns? (like a surf board)
Yes exactly, the center of rotation as there is neither winglets or vertical fins is more backward, like a surfboard, even we keep the same mast location.
But center of rotation is not center of effort, this is 2 different centers.
ronnie wrote:Peter_Frank wrote:geron wrote:It seems the center of rotation in turns is around the rear large wing and therefore it will be easier to do tight turns? (like a surf board)
I dont think you can deduce/justify like that.
The front wing lifts on a canard, thus the COE is significantly further forward than the rear wings "normal" COE.
And the mast has to be just somewhat behind the COE, if it has to work/feel right, and pretty sure this has been tested so the mast position on the fuselage is spot on to give the same "correct" balance
How it turns ? Only one way to find out
Peter
The one surprising looking thing about it (to me) is that it has a 'mini-mast' under the front wing. My guess was that any vertical part of the fuselage would have been at the back.
It is all so new, that there was very little data available (IMO) to speed up the design, so in a way, it is surprisingly 'normal' looking.
The foil is dedicated for waves, then the target was to make it turns fast and is predictable during carving. This is why there is no winglet. The mini mast is made to have a firm connexion between the fuselage and the front wing.
Best Regards
Nicolas