I had an idea to try use an exoskeleton of pool noodles to make my Boogie self-righting, and the first try it almost worked, just needed a little push to finish off the rotation, I’ll give it a tweak next year to try getting it working, guess I just stack more noodles on until it works
Finding this all very fascinating
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cooling - possible to use an aluminium box? Seems simpler than mounting a heatsink into a plastic box, but don’t see many options
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Steering - options are rudder or dual prop, wondering what other options have been considered.
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Tow point as low as possible, how about below the water line? wire from the bottom of mast?
Initially it was 100mm below the water, and I kept cutting it shorter and moving up the tow point. I didn’t notice any real handling performance increase by having it lower but the rope coming out of the water and the associated spray looked like crap.
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Anyone play around with the idea of anchoring and taking off while attached to a retractable anchor line? I surf in bigger spots, boogie cannot be loose in surf
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Stability - does a longer mast help? What about a planing V hull? Canoe hull? Fins?
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Is there any benefit in a horizontal stabiliser in the tail tow point that pulls the tail down, resisting tendency to roll over.
best design ever seeing on the forum, very nice work!!
Similar thoughts, I might try a surf kayak, probably a bit long (7ft), but has a few positive aspects - lots of rocker, designed to go fast, flat stable wide tail, fin mounts, robust, protected mounting for battery box.
Downsides are price, size, and need to waterproof the holes / foil mounts or fill with expanding foam or something
Or a freestyle kayak
Ideally you dont want the tail rocker.
Good point. The surf kayaks generally have a flatter tail than the freestyle ones.
The alternative is one of the more high performance soft top surfboards
Look at the design on the zerotow and see if you can find a hullshape similar
Whats your budget for the board?
thinking £250 for a softtop surfboard is about the range, of which there are a few kayaks for sale that might get a looking at
Has anyone tried 3 blade props? Do you get more pull or smoother take-offs? I’m amazed with what can be achieved with what is effectively a $1 part (3D Printed @V_S Prop). Any gains to be made from using 3 blade or stiffer materials ?
I plan to use a normal board for towing.
Here the motor mount which could be useful for others:
25x25mm Alu bar and awesome nano pod from @Bzhwindtalker to use motor for other setups too…
See:
Pod was not my original design, I just added the câble guide
Thinking about using my pump board and under board assist as tow, do you think it could work or geometry is wrong? tow point would need to be further back for stability?
Thanks for the advice ! Trying to test it this weekend with 4’2 board and 1300cm2 foil, 65kg rider.