HYDROFOIL -- Harry Larsen's flying Bayliner. Ray Vellinga video

Harry Larsen comes from a family of boat builders, so it is natural for him, following his retirement from Boeing, to build a special boat. About 2000 he fitted hydrofoils to a 24' Bayliner. That was the easy part, he says. Special talent was required to adapt a laptop computer as an autopilot for roll control. Mechanical and hydraulic devices control pitch and height. This is low altitude aviation, and the boat is a pleasure to fly.

To build or understand hydrofoils, check out my latest video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va1bM3hE9yc

Ray Vellinga

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[megasonify]

i wish the camera would move around more; i love contracting vertigo.

[51362879]

@buttcheeseification Probably why they used this one for the experiment, cheap to pick up used, and worth tossing if they don't work....

[monstroth]

@talaria41

OK. I was confusing the skeg on your bow pod for the foil on the far side, making it appear anhedral. It was a side photo of the bow pod retracted.

[talaria41]

It must be an illusion. The bow foil has no anhedral.

[monstroth]

@talaria41 Harry, thanks for the response. One more quick question: I noticed in one of the photos on your Talaria IV website that the boil foil assembly has slight anhedral design. What was the purpose of that as opposed to having it be completely horizontal?

[talaria41]

@monstroth I'm building new foils, designed using xfoil. They are close to the NACA 66 series. The bow foil is of high density unidirectional fiberglass. The aftfoil is currrently machined aluminum. The new aft foil is of carbon and fiberglass. My website has more specifics. Googleing Harry Larsen will bring up the IHS site with a reference to my web site.

[monstroth]

What foil shape did you choose for the foils? I assume it was one of the NACA shapes. Also what was the material and fabrication method? The front foils with the taper look particularly hard to machine.

[pukaman2000]

Yep.  What you can do after you retire from a company that profits from making war machines. Too bad we waste our resources on war otherwise we all could be rich enough to own one of these.

[talaria41]

@alanlad1 About 9 gallons/hour at 30knots

[alanlad1]

how many gallons an hour is that badboy using?

[talaria41]

@EngineeringFun Yes, the Rave and Hobbie Trifoiler are examples of successful submerged foil hydrofoils using all mechanical feedback control systems. In this video Talaria is flown (from 1992 to 2008) using an analog computer for roll and a mechanical surface follower for height - a very reliable system. In video "Hydrofoil Dreamin" she is flown using a digital

[EngineeringFun]

How about when the computer crashes, what happens? Wouldn't be easier to make a very simple but reliable hardware based electronics with either an accelerometer or one or two side surface followers?