Professional BoatBuilder - December-January 2018

DESIGN: Hybrid Wing

58 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER

DESIGN: Hybrid Wing

approved by the FAA [Federal Avia-

tion Administration] for 10-year sun

exposure on airplanes.” Indeed, none

of the challenges of this futuristic proj-

ect seem more daunting than those

confronted by aviation pioneers. “I

think of what we’re doing as being like

the early days of ying,” said Smyth. “It

took them a while to get the basics

right, but then look what happened.”

Also in the shop were the underwa-

ter foils being designed by in-house

hydrofoil specialist Manuel Armeñan-

zas. He shared with us some amazing

cut-o specimens of his mostly carbon

ber T-foils, and some elegant hooked

foils being made for other clients

building sailing foilers.

Research and development for these

endeavors can be astronomically

expensive. It appears that Gonzalez’s

funding is at least adequate for now,

but he asserted that his life savings are

invested in the Fast Forward shop. e

company’s future may involve con-

tracts not only for big-winged hydro-

foiling yachts in their entirety but also

custom wings and foils for other ves-

sels. Furthermore, the company now

welcomes prospective licensees’ inter-

est in producing simplied wings and

foils of stock sizes for OEM and retro-

ts on recreational, commercial, and

even artisanal watercra. Time will

tell if production volume can reduce

the price of these creations suciently

to induce widespread acceptance

among recreational sailors (see “e

People’s Foiler,” PBB No. 166). But

wing sails and hydrofoils already dom-

inate the top end of sailing.

Under Way

On a later visit to Bristol, Scott Brown

and I were able to experience a tran-

scendent ride in Caliente, the 40' cata-

maran with the 62' wing. is boat is

not equipped with hydrofoils, yet under

that wing and its full so element (no

jib), with winds in the mid-teens, she’ll

do 14 knots closehauled to windward at

very tight angles. Reaching with the jib

up, she lopes along easily at speeds in

the mid-20s, and in stronger gusts she’ll

exceed 30 knots, all with crisp control.

so sails, where the main threat to lon-

gevity is sunlight. According to Smyth,

the superlight, glass-clear Clysar-

brand lm currently stretched on their

research wings is tougher than it looks.

“You can punch it, but of course you

could raise havoc with a knife,” he

said. “For longevity, we’ll use some-

thing like the new film recently

to shelter at 9 knots, the rig allowed to

“soak” overnight, and the boat righted

the next day with no leaks in the D-spar.

at experience suggests the potential

for developing wing-equipped, self-

rescuing multihulls.

Surely the wing’s durability chal-

lenges can be no more in question

than fabric-covered aircra or normal

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