Can Hydrofoils Be Attached to a Kayak?

[bomba923]

Hey, would it be possible to attach hydrofoils onto a kayak---to have the padder row about a foot or more above the water level? Or have the entire kayak elevated above the water level?

Then again, would the weight of the kayak and the paddler be too difficult to offset? (Though, I currently can't imagine how a heavy person/weak paddler might offset his/her weight...but if it was a strong and lightweight paddler, would my idea work?)

 

[Pengwuino]

I believe a single human cannot generate enough speed to make a hydrofoil useful... but i may be wrong.

 

[bomba923]

Darn...
looks like the hydrofoil kayak has already been invented/patened!

See The "Flyak"
(click the link)

 

[Pengwuino]

haha well if you make it that bare-bones, i suppose you can.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Okay here's one for you. I used to know an engineer who talked about gyros and how you could put them on a bicycle, and that if done right you would have so much stability control that you could actually ride horizontally on a vertical surface, for a short time.

 

[Q_Goest]

Flyak?

That Flyak is pretty amazing. With just upper body strength, the guy has it going almost 17 mph! I wonder how much faster it could go if you had peddels? Maybe you can patent the Flyped!

 

[bomba923]

Well, back in middle school, I thought of attaching hydrofoils to boogie boards. I dumped the idea, b/c hydrofoils would get scraped/damaged/broken when the boards rides to the beach. Also, they would get the rider stuck!

I looked at the videos on Flyak performance...it seems as though the oars barely touch the water. Of course they come "in contact" with the water, but the paddles don't get "submerged"...just skimp on the water throughout the ride.

haha well if you make it that bare-bones, i suppose you can.

Bare-bones? I do notice that some Flyaks lack fuselages as large as those on regular kayaks. Sometimes it's just one or two boards!

(Anyhow, I want a Flyak right now!)

 

[bomba923]

Speaking of which...is there any particular reason why the Flyak designers chose T-foils (for the hydrofoils), as opposed to V-foils?

Specifically, does 180° (as the angle between two foils) produce the optimal L/D ratio for the Flyak's foils at speeds around 20kts ? Why not use dihedral, or anhedral?