Plywood Sailboats

I finally started to catch on that the foils were providing a huge increase in stability and the hiking wings were an unnecessary complexity. I left them on the beach for this sail to prove the case. Early in the video, you can see me trying to hike hard and not really having much impact. Later, I stayed in the boat and let the foils work. It was crazy how easy it was to handle, even with the big 105 sq. ft. GIS sail. I was also trying to get the boat up on just the leeward foil, but the rig just doesn't have enough torque to fully get the windward foil out of the water, even pulled up.

Light wind, but enough to take a look at any gains from the foils, while not completely flying the hull. There is a transition from static buoyancy (displacement) to dynamic buoyancy (planing/foils) as speed increases. The drag cost goes down as the weight shifts to the more efficient lift of the foils and less hull is pushed through the water. It seems clear that a speed advantage exists as low as 2-3kts when compared to a Goose with no foils. It's not necessary to fly the hull to have a net gain from foils. In addition, if the foils are arranged outboard, the increasing dynamic lift is also moving the center of lift to leeward, increasing stability. More stability with no drag penalty.

This is a demonstration after making some foil modifications. The intent was to reduce ventilation and speed up shedding of entrained air on the foils. Seemed to work pretty well.

This is an excerpt of the full video. Highlights from the first attempts at foiling the Texas Goose on home built wood foils.

Out sailing with my dad in the Geese.

Sailing my modified Goose with hiking wings and the 105 sq. ft. balance lug designed for the Storer GIS.

Tearing around in my Goose variant. This boat was continuously upgraded, but at this point, it was running the stock Goose sail. Main features are the self-draining cockpit and lower free board.

My dad taking a lap in the new boat.

The first launch of Riley's "Duck", an Oz RV by Michael Storer. Fun day.

A bit of canoe sailing on a light day. Added a speed overlay based on the GPS data.

This is a sailing canoe that I designed and built. This video shows the final revision, with the closed fore deck. Fourteen foot canoe with an 89 square foot balance lug (same sail as the Oz Goose). A sliding seat is used to achieve the required leverage to keep it upright. Very quick and excels in light to medium breezes.

A fun afternoon teaching the kids how to handle a capsize in a small sailboat.

Shows the use of some simple outriggers to turn the Blue Canoe into a small trimaran. Super easy to sail in these conditions, but still quick in the light stuff.

Part two of a fun day teaching the kids a bit about sailing in the Goose.

This is from the day the Goose set the (informal) record of 12.9 kts. The GoPro ran out of battery before that happened. Everything you see here, is slower (but not by much). The day went from 15kts of breeze gusting to 25kts (really fun), to 20kts gusting to 30kts (fun, but intense) and finally somewhere north of 25kts gusting to over 40kts (crazy and barely able to sail).

The day when I first started to realize how much performance was available from the Goose. Somewhere in here, I cleared 10kts, which was not expected from this boat. Later, we discovered that 10kts wasn't much of a challenge if the conditions were decent.

The boat that started it all for us. Dad and I built the Goose over the winter and this is one of the early outings. We were just starting to discover the performance potential of the boat. By the end of that first summer, this boat would hold the informal speed record for the class at 12.9kts. That was trounced as the Oz Goose fleet got going on Lake Taal, Phillipines, but showed how easy it was to get great performance from this very simple boat.