Valhalla’s Tow Boogie & eBuild

What prop is this?..

It was one of the props listed on the prop page. The file name was Racemax 172 0.39 1.1

hey this is mine :slight_smile:

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Super cool project! Makes me want to do the same while I also await my noah board!

Have you thought about making a larger skeg or small keel so that it takes a little more force to turn it or do you really like the ease in which it spins/turns?

I think the turning is the most fun on it. I like being whipped around easily on it.

Will Canada ban it too ?
Damien Leroy in waves using a 12.000usd 5’6 LIFT efoil board as a towing board :roll_eyes:
Yes, he has flipped the plane and uses a dog leash. After having surfed the wave, a surfer who cannot pump would appreciate a remote with a joystick to get his towing board back.

image

Here is my approach.
Motor will be 1:5 geared sss56114 440kv. 12s battery from my efoil.

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It swims :grin:Now finish all glassworks.

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Okay so its been a while. I have been testing a bunch of different iterations and props.

So lets start with props, compared to an efoil the Tow Boogie has different needs. For one you have to deal with constantly getting on plane and the boogie getting pulled BACK into its own cavitation wake from the rider carving back and forth. All this while trying to be efficient and durable. So after researching and making different props on Caeses I came up with a 3 Blade that works very well for this application.

1, One of the first prop iterations was a small 4 blade 136, low pitch prop, low rake. It was just terrible in efficiency and handled the pull back into the cavitation terribly. Just constant loss of power and churning bubbles.

2, next was a 3 blade with a higher area 143 diameter, low pitch, low rake. The blades had so much area the leading edge would overlap with the trailing edge of the last blade. Fantastic punch out, Really good holding a line, and rarely caught the caviation. The downsides? Somewhat inefficient going straight and inefficient while Carving. Also a Ton of broken Prop Pins. My reasoning? The prop just held too much. When you carve you pull the Tow Boogie backwards putting a lot of force on the prop and pins. Having a little bit of “slip” in the prop keeps those pins alive. I also didnt personally like the feel of being so locked in. Also efficiency really wasn’t that great. At best maybe 40-50 amps. That really eats at my riding time.

3, The third major prop breakthrough is the prop I’m using now and I am enjoying it plenty.
A 144mm 3 Blade, Small-Mid Area, Mid Pitch, Mid Rake Prop. So Punch Out is not as good as #2, line holding is looser, and it handled being pulled into its cavitation really well. The best part? Really really good efficiency. Pulling about 30-35amps just cruising around. During carves it allows the craft to be pulled backwards into its own wake (which I enjoy because it allows more unhindered carving). But its cavitation handling is well enough that this isn’t an issue.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4725452

A major part of dealing with cavitation with any prop is throttle modulation. Your throttle skills are tested way more with the Tow Boogie than a an efoil. I’ve had RC experience with water, land, and air craft so I feel pretty accustomed to reading a crafts reactions by sight. Depending on the direction of prop spin the tow boogie will ventilate more on one side than another. If Clockwise Right Turns will cause more ventilation than lefts and vice versa. To help remedy this get off the throttle slightly to level the craft before the rear left of the craft dips too low in the water.

Next major design to the craft is an addition of a trim tab. I had issues with the craft twisting from the torque caused by the prop. Made more noticeable during water starts where the craft is experiencing the most drag from the hull and rider. Also when turning on the “weak” side of the craft. The position of the tab plays a big role. Closer to the edge of hull and its only useful at speed and useless at startup. This also causes more issues with the craft preferring one direction over another. The best position I found was more midline just over the prop with the tab more justified to the side of the hull which is twisting down. I might take a picture later. I’m working on another tow boogie build. If anyone in SoCal is interested in a tow boogie, I’ll sell this one for basically just materials and time spent printing parts.

Sorry if some parts rambled. I like to have some liquid encouragement while working.

So cool Valhalla!
Total noob here trying to figure this out. I ordered a 65161 motor and the 75/300 Vesc but am having trouble finding the two 6s 22ah batteries in stock. Any good source for them?
Any advice for beginners is greatly appreciated I.e. dos/don’t I’m reading as much as I can on the Foilzone but it feels like I end up down rabbit holes sometimes!
Cheers!

Sometimes hobby king will have 20000mAh available. You can’t really mess up a tow boogie build. It’s pretty straightforward I think. You ll have to 3D your own motor mount so make sure it has enough distance between the hull and prop. If there isn’t enough the prop may end up sucking air down into the prop causing ventilation. I’m still playing around with motor mast lengths.

I get a 404 on your thingiverse link

Let’s try again. You have to flip the prop 180 before the print. No supports. I do 6 perimeter and 70 % infill. I print in PETG but I’m sure PLA is fine.

Edit: I had to take this prop down. I screwed up the motor dimensions which led to a bunch of broken pins. If you printed it beware! Fixing when I get access to my computer. Sorry for the inconvenience.

So working on a new project for a friend. A downwind assist system that’ll help him paddle onto foil on downwinders. I also made a remote mount for a paddle for the maytech remote. I’ll post that later as the current one has some issues with ergonomics. It did great in small chop this morning and easily became an efoil if I moved the motor down. The remote was reading 30amps efficiency with the prop I use for the tow device. Didn’t get to test too long bc of work.

Wings used was an Axis 1010 with ultrashort
And the 5’5 Armstrong WingSup board. Battery and control unit strapped at the back of the board.

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Are you still using my 72124 motor? What do you think is the best prop for e-foil using 72124?

No, I have to replace the phase the phase wires. Nm they started taking apart. Have to open the motor and solder new ones on.

I have been doing a lot of testing with the efficiency of the tow device and these numbers just seem too low. How accurate are the readings of current and draw from the VESC 75/300? It just seems a device that’s basically a boat should be way more inefficient.

Finally got some time to do some testing of different props for the efoil. Currently I’m using a makeshift setup for the board and mast. The lines are currently run outside the mast and honestly at my low speed I haven’t noticed any noticeable vibration.

So today the goal was to test a 3D printed folding prop and the Flying Rodeo Prop. Unfortunately the Folding Prop Blew up during startup. The prior ones I printed lasted much longer so I was bummed it didn’t even last. I’ll have to change my printing parameters. The 3D prop was designed by one of the users here. I cant remember but it was in the Printed Folding Prop thread.

Equipment used was a 1010 Front WIng, 340 Stab, and a ultra short fuse. I think I’ll get a larger stab and a longer fuse. It was a bit touchy fore and aft.

The flying rodeo prop worked excellent and was extremely quiet on the water. Only noise was the whirring of the motor.

Only used 10A during this run. Also haven’t filled this VESC box with corrosion X yet so temps will be higher.

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You have a good wing seems averaging around 18 to 20amp. We should ride some day together :call_me_hand:t3: