Hydrofoil GF09

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10 mW
Joined
Apr 2, 2014
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After just posting about the commercial Quadrofoil
I thought I should also start a thread on the non-commercial Hydrofoil GF09,
built by Markus Henne at the University Rapperswil in Switzerland:

View attachment 1
Also impressive is the YouTube video:

[youtube]jh_RhkejWLw[/youtube]
I like it even more than the Quadrofoil, because of it's very efficient energy use, and the simplicity and elegance of the build.
Unfortunately there is not too much to be found online in English about this beautiful little project.
Here are some
Technical details:
  • Lightweight Sandwich-constructions for main hull and Swimmers
  • Dimensions: L x W: 3500 mm x 1800 mm
  • Weight (with Batteries): ~ 37 kg (81 pounds)
  • Motor: from RC Model Plane max. 1,8 kW
  • Batteries: Lithium-Ion-Polymer Capacity 10 Ah
  • Max Speed: 28 km/h
  • Energy consumption: ~500W at 17 km/h / 1200W at 25km/h (15.5 mph) !

And here some links:

Here another picture from the doc:

file.php

And one that shows the Energy vs Speed Graph:
You can see nicely how the "Energy consumption" goes up to 1.200W to get the boat out of the water,
then drops to about 600W at 16 Km/h (10 mph)
file.php


One fine day, when I can find enough time between work and my other hobbies,
I will try to build one like this. I started to get interested in electric vehicles last winter,
and wondered if I should start with a boat (the lake is right in front of the door) or a bike.
I figured I would get a quicker success and more use out of the bike, so that's what I did over the summer.
Maybe next summer I will try sth like this boat :)

Cheers,
Ulli

(I hope this has not been posted here before, but I couldn't find it with a couple of searches)
 

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Hi sk8norcal,

yes, I had seen your evolo before, thanks for that!
It seems more tricky to ride and you can't just get into it with dry clothes and expect them to stay dry (on a cold winter day).
But on the other hand it will be more fun on a warm summer day. They might have slightly different audiences.

I would love to see how the GF09 handles waves, as the ability to smooth out waves is one of the prime reasons to use hydrofoils. In the movies I have seen of the GF09, the water is flat. It's a pity this never developed into a commercial product with several real-incarnations out in the wild where one could find more videos.
If I find more time one day between the other projects I will try to contact the designer of this little gem and find out what happened since those days.

Cheers, Ulli
 
An interesting clip of Kotaro Horiuchi's single person hydrofoils. Some great still pictures of past designs at the end of the video.
[youtube]wObflyTPLvM[/youtube]
 
the GF09 (girlfriend#9?) doesn't seem to be efficient.
the graph DOES show a decrease of power-consumption, once the boat is out the water.
but after that it shows a similar graph(shape) as before the lift off.
I would have thought the graph after lift-off should be more flat??
in fact it is even steeper.
my2ct
 
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