I built a hydrofoil and tried it out

Extra long Full build of the ply wood hydrofoil, strapped to a SUP and then onto a surfboard, will it work. . .
The cost was for the fiberglass and resin, I used an old surfboard and scrap wood.
More projects every month, be sure to click subscribe!
DIY hydrofoil build epoxy resin, fibreglass and test run

[@BabbittdaWabbitt]

Watching this has saved me countless hours and much frustration building my own foil. Thank you for that !

[@robertortiz4767]

I don´t understand people who hit "don´t" like in so good artesanal work and sharing. Great video!

[@georgefoster4358]

it appears in the video that your wings are both facing up. the rear wing should be facing down to apply downward pressure and ensure smooth lift of foil. i hope this is helpful. really cool video and i hope you keep at it.

[@Rick_Cavallaro]

Yup - this is a critical point. The stabilizer (or rear wing) should have the camber on bottom. Or you can get away with a symmetrical foil and a couple degrees of negative incidence relative to the main wing.

[@SamButement]

Thanks, I’ll make that change

[@SamButement]

Thanks, I will make this change!

[@frenchyadamson]

This is the most Butement thing I've ever seen. Love it. Well done Sam.

[@SamButement]

Thank Marc! It’s taken a long time to put together and I’m pleased it’s finally finished. Hopefully I can get some more practice in and get standing on it later this year.

[@TheStuartstardust]

So Sam, does it work?🤔 Have not seen any new video? 🙃🙂

[@user-os5tx7sy5k]

Шикарно, бро! Отличный вариант для серфинга!

[@paalbrudevoll6330]

"There is nothing like a nice piece of Hickory", ( Clint Eastwood, Pale Rider )

[@richardwellons5138]

Nice sound track as well ...

[@douglasashby4349]

Great video. A lot of effort and great watch the attempts and get an idea of how difficult it can be.

[@SamButement]

Thanks Douglas! I seem to enjoy the struggle.

[@crimsonidol9212]

Dude, very cool!!!good luck for this!!))

[@homeslipper]

Solid proof of concept. I plan to build one for my pontoon boat.

[@SamButement]

Good luck with that David, sounds interesting!

[@gargamelgargamel2483]

Awsome , crazy job , love it Bravo , continue .

[@SamButement]

Thanks, will do!

[@Christopher_Gibbons]

huh, It never occurred to me that you can plane plywood.

[@jackliao5096]

I love this idea. I am wondering how to mod regular surfing board. Nice works.

[@bondiola09]

little wing profile !! missing more wing profile congratulations from Argentina !!!

[@irkedoff]

Congratulations.

[@michaeldose2041]

Water skier for 40 years, and yes I have dabbled in the hydrofoil stuff. Three big problems with your boating attempt. 1. Your starting point should be straight behind the boat with the rope in a straight line. 2. The rope tow point should be well above the deck a meter, or more is even better. When it drags in the water with slack it has a bow and tends to pull sideways or down even if straight at @22.27 you can see the rope working against you. 3. You need to ''taxi''. Like you did @ 20:40 In other words, slow enough that the foil is not that much of a factor, get to your knees, stand and find the balance point. At that point the driver can apply more throttle. The driver wants to get the boat on plane. There is a breaking point where the boat planes up and the speed increases dramatically, but by that time you have to be standing or you will have no control, as you noticed. You will find that the foil will be VERY sensitive to weight adjustments fore and aft when you get the surfboard off the surface.

[@mrooce]

Terrific work!

[@HugoCtrlTab]

Really cool! Just some advice, don't put your fasteners all aligned. If you spread them it'll have more stiffness to keep the wing from rolling

[@SamButement]

Thanks for the tip!

[@dannydonnelly8345]

Sam, I'm a new sub. Great video! I got to say the music is brilliant! At 15:25 Jerry vibes. And jazz vibes throughout. How do you choose your music? Good editing, worked for me. Keep up the good work!

[@kickstarter905]

very cool

[@Specsy]

omg this is fun

[@bajinaturalpearlssail6924]

I think you should bend down the tip of the main fin (both side). Might be will give you more balance when the foil going lift your weight. I love your video.

[@SamButement]

Thanks, I think you are right. If I can i will make this modification and post a shorter video, perhaps late summer.

[@WINDominikParagliding]

Biggest part in developing a hydrofoil isnt making it lift but making it ride. Every hydrofoiler will know this when he shimmed or changed rear wing. The changes are minimal, but impact on how it rides is massive. So if you plan to make a hydrofoil get ready to tune it for countless hours.

[@kademcgarvey4232]

An entry to the mast with a round profile gives better stability the tailing edge can be sharp which is perfect.... change that and you'll see major improvments

[@SamButement]

Many thanks, will do!

[@renzondaziano4880]

the rear wing should have a slight downward curve to help stabilize the nose

[@turboflacko946]

Trim it down and ride the wake 🤟🏻

[@johnj2496]

next time your behind boat start out like a wakeboard/wakesurfer not like surfer get pulled up on your feet the surfer popup wdont be easy 1 you have rope pulling you away from board 2 its very hard to slide back n forth on belly for pitch control 3 shen your about to fall jump up and hold ropefor a sec that will pull you away from that sharp wooden death hatchet cause its going to try to roll the board over and jump out water to impale you as you land on it we named the one i made the red death i added red pigment to glass and its keeps trying to kill us hasnt got me yet got my buds elbow pretty good awesome work i like the axe handle 🤔that would've made mine stiffer keep postin

[@SamButement]

Have you got a video of the one you made? I appreciate you comments!

[@lemonyellow3117]

You are so right about how to get up on board. I tried my surfer pop up and it was so hard. The perpendicular to rope wakeboard style is the way to go.

[@synchgo]

Great job. We can cut Birch ply and other materials in our laser cutting workshop in Parkstone Bay Marina in Poole. Let me know if we can help you in any way.. We do similar projects.

[@SamButement]

Thanks for that, i will do. Birch ply is great to use, so strong! I have also made an electic bobsleigh here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmKuaHVpqL2tjbs

[@SuperHyee]

Thanks ! Hurrah ! Hurrah !

[@lemonyellow3117]

I was so happy to see it go up in the air. Trying the current under the bridge was brilliant. Was there too much turbulence or was there not enough water flowing? Excellent build. Brave, creative, experimental, fun!

[@rubber_face8410]

Finally Greta Thunberg has a good opinion.

[@SamButement]

The foil needs more work. . .

[@rubber_face8410]

@@SamButement No shit, Sherlock. It is literally made of wood🤣!

[@narongsrikarn3885]

ข

[@noomapollo5389]

Well done Sam! Is that a canard configuration? It looks like the stabilizer is angled to generate lift rather than downforce. That makes it very challenging to ride, since it isn't as stable. But it will be a lot of fun with practice.

[@SamButement]

Oh right, should I flip the rear stabiliser for easier riding?

[@noomapollo5389]

Usually the rear wing has a negative angle of attack (tipped down). In an airplane this makes it inherently self-correcting and helps survive a stall. I noticed most hydrofoils have the same setup. Apparently canard hydrofoils are very sensitive and want to turn rather than go straight, although I've never ridden one. But you have!

[@Rick_Cavallaro]

​@@noomapollo5389 I ride them nearly every day for half the year, and you're right. You really want a bit of negative lift on the stabilizer (rear "wing") for stability. That has the effect of putting your center of gravity just a little ahead of the center of lift on the main wing.

[@finfoil8544]

@@SamButement This is key. having the stabilizer upside down like you have will make the foil pitch down immediately after take-off and being fully unstable. Flip it, it'll be a world of difference. Also it does not make sense to sharpen the front of the mast, but don't worry about that now, first thing is to make it stable.

[@kennysanders9021]

If you can't make it perfect, make it adjustable.

[@SamButement]

Good idea!

[@jeffreyhagelin3672]

Instead of plywood, try making your wing laminations of quarter inch thick pine, ripped down from three quarter inch thick boards. The wood grain will be easier and more satisfying to work and the finished product will be stronger and more beautiful under that fiberglass resin.

[@SamButement]

Nicely put, I agree.

[@MjrTraumaVictim]

commendable, i do think that if you could get hold of an actual hydrofoil wing you could model it around that, the angle at which you would need to make seems to be at the front more height to cause lift in essence like an aircraft wing i suppose, it does seem really flat with no turbulent direction being made to split the pressure differences between top and bottom, i dunno but maybe some reading on hydrodynamics or fluid mechanics may help. You could make a silicone mould of the foils, buy them, silicone mold them and send them back as not needed within a day or two, that would be my plan at least.

[@Rick_Cavallaro]

Having zero incidence of the main wing relative to the board isn't really a problem. But you want about 2 degrees of negative incidence of the stabilizer relative to the main wing.

[@richardllevatdiez1170]

You should make the main foil a little bigger than that, I'm a radiocontrol airplane designer and what I'm watching here is a huge lack of lift because I'm comparing you with other wing foil surfers and you got a lot of speed but you wasn't able to generate enough lift to keep yourself and the board out of the water, I apologize because my English may not be enough to make this explanation better than this.

[@Paul-ir6hr]

Should of had a chat to Laird Hamilton. Would of saved a lot of mucking around. But hey if you have the time, resources and patience. I am all up for trial and error porotypes. Now foiling is all the rage. See it everywhere. Especially kite surfing, but looks really strenuous. Thanks for you up load, like your skills.

[@SamButement]

Many thanks. I enjoy the build, Although it takes time I do like the struggle!

[@lemonyellow3117]

He went for it. Followed intuition and motivation and just built it. Me, I spend so much time researching, googling, reading and watching videos that I never actually start the project or complete one I started. So good for him. Better to make mistakes than to make nothing.

[@antonmaier2263]

How durable did your foil turn out to be?

[@InahaFrost]

i would have tried glassing stingray wing skins more surface area maybe ?

[@jelleotter]

Did you try to pump it?

[@Burhat]

Молодец и руки из нужного места растут.

[@DoctorBetterverywell]

Да, он старался, он молодец. Но, форма его крыла не совсем удачная. Вот идеальная форма: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIqqdXSCpNWmoc0si=h8_vnxewl-Y3wZQ6

[@maxdesign4153]

I’m working on something similar out of carbon, did you ever experiment with the angle of attack of the front wing?

[@SamButement]

Hi Max, i fixed it level thinking that I could angle the board. Looks like others have done the same. Best of luck with your project!

[@endgamecaliberwarframe-pc6943]

@@SamButement The actual wings I would hypothesis are too rigid. It should flow like a bird wing, or how Max is describing in sailing nomenclature.

[@johnj2496]

from what ive read you want them rigid if they are flexing it will be less controlled birds have mutiple individual controls on wings you dont

[@sergeigarbar1896]

how did you calculate and make underwter wing? in aviation: lots of airfoils, second order surface, they chnge from fuselage to wingtip, there is wing reverse twist. by eye you may catch one degree, but for hydrodynamics 10 degre minutes will mean a lot. i did not see u use micrometers or anything. how did you make them? simply copied???

[@sergeigarbar1896]

how did you calculate and make underwter wing? in aviation: lots of airfoils, second order surface, they chnge from fuselage to wingtip, there is wing reverse twist. by eye you may catch one degree, but for hydrodynamics 10 degre minutes will mean a lot. i did not see u use micrometers or anything. how did you make them? simply copied???

[@SamButement]

It was done all by eye really, but based on some overall dimensions of existing foils.

[@leowilkinson5394]

Looks great mate. Do u have ruff dimensions of the wings?

[@SamButement]

Sure, this version not perfect mind. Il add some updated plans to my website soon. www.butedesign.uk

[@Specsy]

can you try foil pumping for a video please?

[@SamButement]

Once I get some more practice in I will give that a go, thanks!

[@Specsy]

@@SamButement

[@earthkeepersgaia]

Like a town in

[@fabianrudzewski9027]

Using a stiffer core for the wings wouldn't have made such a large difference. The highest values of elastic modulus for pure pine wood I could find were still twice lower than that the of average Fiberglas parts. Worst case about factor 6. Adding, that the outer wall of a part plays the highest roll in its stiffness I don't think you'd get any noticeable improvement by using a different core. What would have made a huge difference, is carbon fiber, as it's modulus if elasticity is about 3,5 times larger than Fiberglas.

[@SamButement]

Thanks for the tip! Next time.

[@earthkeepersgaia]

Hey man , fixing your foot will give you more stability to ride

[@SamButement]

Thanks for the tip

[@Henrix1998]

Has there been any development?

[@nemod3338]

Well done as usual. You needed to fix rope to the board, so you can balance with your hands freely.

[@gokhankeles8998]

I was thinking to do same hydrofoil application on my 80 lt wind surfboard with trolling motor. 80 lt wind surfboard can be swim with 40 kg. But i am just 95 kg with my staff clothes spearfishing. Does hydrofoil help me to stay out of water ? Trolling motor speed at maximum level is 4 mile hour. I hope May be hydrofoil increase also ıts speed as well. Awaiting your comment thank in advance

[@user-rs6zm6zd4k]

Commendable perseverance. This practice lacks understanding of how an airplane flies. When climbing, the rear wing should have a negative angle of attack. After takeoff on an airplane, the stabilizer changes the angle of attack, and on a hydrofoil, its effect is neutralized by the force of the front leg. Похвальное упорство. Этой практике не хватает понимания, как летает самолет. При наборе высоты заднее крыло должно иметь отрицательный угол атаки. После взлета на самолете стабилизатор меняет угол атаки, а на гидрофойле его влияние нейтрализуется усилием передней ноги.

[@asherharris9250]

he leves the fin in the surfboard

[@lemonyellow3117]

So what.

[@medsabkhi]

It wouldn't work cuz the board dimensions are big , try using a smaller board ,it worked for me

[@cinbuntan1467]

It would be better if you make it as wind surf hydrofoil. 100% mechanical no fuel..

[@anthonycraig274]

You should have made a smaller board instead of using the surf board.

[@anthonycraig274]

You have learned a lot, which is the point of most projects.

[@mattonm]

DON'T FOIL IN THE WAKE!!!

[@xinguzao2509]

Tentei fazer um mas nao entendi nada doque vcs fala e deu tudo errado quando começa a subir ele entorta e eu caio Agora nao sei se o de vcs deu serto

[@skidkite]

When Bruce, an Italian guy, started to do this 6 / 7 years ago, I thought no one would have follow him. I was wrong. See what he made 5 year ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKTaZ55-oNGbd6M

[@SamButement]

box wing, looks great!

[@ryanm.191]

There’s a company that out a battery, motor, and speed controller on one of these and is trying to take 12 grand for each one from its customers

[@Americal1970]

I think the wings are to are to long and they are changing shape. Try thin struts to brace the wings stiffness. If they are flexing. It will be like a airplane thats control is loose. Just a idea.

[@feshfeshsailing]

The stuff you mix with epoxy resin is called hardener not catalyst.

[@ivanyadykin817]

Даже не матерится👍

[@Hotwire_RCTrix]

Glass is nowhere as strong as carbon and lb for lb carbon is just as cheap. Carbon is just as easy to use.

[@Kyusoath]

not including the cost of the boat.

[@SamButement]

true

[@WeBeGood06]

What is the Angle of Attack of your wing? Zero Angle of Attack = Aero Lift. Increase the Angle of Attack will increase the Lift.

[@petraschack-beckschulte4072]

WeBeGood, as far as i could se he had a positive camber on the Main Wing, so the Wing actually would generate lift...... But i think the Problem was that it is anglet down a bit, so it got pulled down (Sry for my Bad english)

[@SamButement]

Yes, correct

[@endgamecaliberwarframe-pc6943]

your board is too heavy bruh. ditch the surf board and rig foot mounts to the actual foil. That board is too heavy for gas atmosphere, because then it would be 80% surface area (surf board out of water) AEROfoil and you have been tinkering with 20% of the hydrofoil apparatus the whole time.

[@lownsmokedlivin]

Your fins are on the wrong sides and you have no curves to your fins

[@zisitil]

Good that you try, Unfortunately you have to understand better hydrodynamics. It is logically based ...

[@SamButement]

Great point!

[@alfonsocanfora8598]

no function!