Rode one of these once or twice back in high school when I worked at a yacht club. Amazing piece of engineering, but definitely fussy about conditions. Lake weeds on the foils killed it. But man, on the right day it was an absolute blast!
My family has one on a Lake in Minnesota. I'm the only one that still sails it. When everything is working well it is fabulous and fun. It's quite common that my Sail comes to an end when something breaks. The boat was just not engineered with sufficient strength given the pressures that build on all the fittings as you are pushing 30 miles an hour. A lot of money has been spent repairing the boat. It's an awful lot of work to maintain.
Michael. Looking for a sailing partner/sailboat repairman? I've owned and maintained my Nacra 5.2 since I bought it new in 1977 and here's the best part. I'm in Minneapolis!
I just saw a video about the new Vortex Pod Racer that is priced at $75k. Hobie, you could beat that by a long shot. Please bring back the development of this concept!!
I've seen one on the beach at Key sailing in Pensacola. If was on the beach and the weirdest sailing contraption I have ever seen. It had a speedometer in the cockpit that went up to 50! never saw it sail, still don't fully understand the side by side windsurfer sails, and how they are trimmed. This video shows little sail adjustment by the crew even in tacks? Some crazy vooDoo going on there would love to sail one.
From the other's comments, you need flat water and wind. A hard combo. From what little I know of marketing, there'd have to be orders in place for at least 10 times your numbers if not more. Not sure of the answer unless there are similar crafts out there
It is 2019 now, are TriFoilers still around? or did it give way to newer designs. I have not heard about TriFoilers before. Just happened to see this video.
I'm afraid to find out what that price might be. It would be cool if they took orders, and when they had enough to build 25 or 50 of them they'd build them. Sort of "limited edition" type thing.
I really thought these were going to become really popular and competition would rise.....But due to the complexity of hw setup and portability vs the more traditional cat or monohull, plus the additional cost of the design, it never really took off.... Even though it could take off and leave everyone else behind. How crazy would it be a Fort Lauderdale, FL USA to Bimini, Bahamas crossing? 3 to 6 hours?
What's the draft on one of these with all hulls down? Who owns the rights to the design, and would it be possible to have one custom built,,, for a price?
This wouldn't survive any kind of offshore conditions as it's not designed for that but there are now fully foiling ocean going multihulls though they are much bigger and faster than this one. Two French foiling Ultim class trimarans Gitana 17 and Sodebo 3 did attempts this winter for the new circumnavigation record. Both of them had to abort about third of their way in because of some small breakages but they were well ahead of the previous record and I think they will succeed in near future.
