Tri Foiler Launch

After Matt arrived at Manly the first hurdle was to put the whole thing together. We laid all the parts out like a giant jigsaw and started. Matt had done most of it before in his driveway and despite the apparent complexity it all went together with only minor hiccups and one trip back to the house for a drill and a hacksaw. (FnG the hacksaw has never been the same since I cut that piece of carbon you gave me).



One thing Hobie was good at was easy to use hardware that clicked or slotted together quickly and easily. He understood that, in order to be used a boat has to get in the water quickly. On first look this thing is a cat’s cradle, but I think with a couple of practice runs it could be off the trailer and ready to launch in 15-20 mins.



We had had the obligatory round of Mount Gay to get her wet the three of us carried her into the wet (Gareth Cooke from SubZero Images turned up to help, the good photos are his). I haven’t thought of a way one person could get her into the water, it looks like at least a two man job. That’s not to say someone smarter than me couldn’t come up with an answer.




You need quite a bit of depth to get the rudder and foils locked down and I was waist deep to do it , nearly sacrificing another mobile phone in the process.
Once everything was down Matt got into the pilot’s seat (you sail it sitting prone in the centre hull and steer with foot pedals), sheeted on and pulled the bow down. The boat accelerated a bit like a beach cat, but at around planning speed the bows jumped out of the water about 2 feet. Then the stern followed and I could see air beneath the boat. The acceleration then was dramatic. She took off like a scalded cat. Then crashed back into the water.



By now Matt was already well out into the bay. The boat is fast. It was obvious to those on the beach now that something wasn’t right. After a number of attempts the boat never got up to speed again, and Matt was trying to tack but she wouldn’t get her head around. He was slowly working towards the rocks past Tindalls Bay.

At this time came the low point of the day. The guy who runs the local windsurfing school had his inflatable in the water with the engine running. I asked if he could head over ( maybe ¼ mile) and see if Matt needed help, probably just a matter of nudging the bow through the tack. He told me he was too busy.



Eventually Matt bit the bullet and spun it through a gybe, eating up valuable weather ground, and headed back to NZ. It became obvious he was heading to Tindalls, so after moving his car off the beach I went there, by which time he was unrigging the boat. So back I went for the trailer and our day was over.

So what happened? No biggie. The rudder, with the aft foil, wouldn’t stay locked down. As soon as he got up to flying speed it kicked up. That explained the difficulty tacking with the rudder half up. If he tried to move aft to work on it the bows would drop away and the boat take off at speed again. That was the main issue, and will be an easy fix. Just to add insult to injury, the boom? Between the clews broke in the gybe.

All in all a typical first sail, reminiscent of my first outing on Squid. He’s got it back in the shed and expects to be sailing again in a week or so. And I’m still on the list for a demo sail when everything is sorted.