Windrush Edge F18 Convertible first Foiling Trials

The F18 Class is filled with awesome & hard working characters, Brett Burvill is one of them. Top racer along Max Puttman and Builder of the Windrush Edge F18, one of the current top platform in the Class. Brett is also a pioneer Foiler, as he built & raced the first flying Moth.

With the F18 Class approving our own originated proposal (formalized by FRA, ITA & HUN) on Epoxy & Convertible F18 platforms we are happy to see how Brett, Nacra , Cirrus and Goodall have embraced it. Scorpion is left though! But it will come a reality too eventually.

Having Windrush working on one and flying already super smoothly as can be seen in video above it’s great news. With the quality of construction of the Edge F18, it is simply focusing on which foil system to use while also resolving the dagger case to work in floating racing mode.

That’s the beauty of the F18 convertible concept, you just don’t need to buy or build another complete boat to have some flying fun.

Below Brett Burvill reports a detailed account & plans for the Windrush Edge Convertible F18 featured on video above. Sails used on the foiling Edge by Nxt Gen Sails by Max Puttman.

To Contact Brett go to www.windrushyachts.com.au/contact-us

Windrush Edge F18 Convertible Platform R&D By Brett Burvill

“Hi Martin , I write to you with the news of the foiling convertible F18 Edge . We have no special name for it and it is a project with very limited time dedicated to it so far .

Around 3 years ago I spent time staying with my good friend from the UK William Sunnucks and we discussed his Vampire project and were able to arrange a brief sail where the already reasonably developed boat was put through it paces showing fantastic performance and stability. I guess this inspired me to get out my Crayons and draw a setup that could work on our Windrush F18 Edge .

My CAD skills are limited so i use my own form of CAD – Crayon assisted drawing at full size on the concrete floor . Whilst the F18 is not the best foiling platform due to its weight it is very solid in construction and as people have seen in the last few years foiling anything is possible , even if it is a bit heavier.

Large mono hulls and Ultimes are proof almost anything can foil and fast . I guess in the same way William had been inspired by my moth wining the first races on foils 20 years ago at the previous Perth Moth worlds to re ignite foiling sailboats to some degree , I was equally inspired and entranced by his Vampire and what he and Graham Eeles had achieved building that weapon. 

I decided it had to be done and was encouraged by the F18 Class opting for stability and not adopting foiling but instead encouraging manufacturers to develop multi use boat for F18 racing and other fun or raid uses etc.

Keeping the great close racing but allowing freedom outside of race times to play around outside of class limits .  In this mind set I was always going to do a T foil boat , having fist sailed my Moth on Surface piercing foils and then finding ways to be faster and more stable with the flap and wand set ups that were gradually developed along with John and Garth Illet and later also with Glen Oldfield .

We were kind of the leaders of a band of crazy developers over here in the most isolated capitol city in the world coming up with all kinds of craziness over a few years and barely ever actually managing to race because just flying around was too much fun to bother with racing. 

Earlier this year the Moth class invited me to their Launch party and put the heat on me to have a foiling boat available by the worlds that could potentially give people a foiling experience as a passenger effectively without having any real sailing skills. Obviously this is not possible on a fragile Moth so I lent toward building a set up to fit right onto one of my F18’s.

Stable easy to sail and with enough power to get that mass airborne pretty easily. Over our winter I sketched various parts and made plans to do it without ever really getting my teeth into it . With some other aviation composite work as our main focus during that time I had to keep it ticking along in my head waiting for the right time to get onto it .

Time went by , rudder and elevator patterns and moulds were made but It looked unlikely to all be done in time for the Moth worlds . I dug really deep and worked at my normal crazy pace for about 2 1/2 weeks to build the tools for the main foils make all the parts, fit it all together and  get it on the water with the help of my little team and our outside helpers that always pitch in for us.

I had always planned to do the outwardly curved verticals and T foils with flaps and a wand with Hydraulic control of the flap or ultrasonic sensors and  electric control via servo and was excited to see the TF35 adopt this configuration knowing they had the budget to explore many ideas before committing to that one so I felt validated to go forward .

My friend Trevor Jack is developing that electronic system to fit in future and it has great potential for control of flight. 

So after a huge effort we were able to sail the boat for the first time on Monday this week (Dec 16) . 20 years or 1040 weeks and 1 day on from the first day the Moth had first been flown on the same waters in Perth Western Australia. Amazingly the boat flew , was quite stable and impressively fast first time out and with no failures after about 2 hours sailing in about an 18 – 20 knot sea-breeze  at times and few small set up changes we headed in .

Max speed had been around 21 kts and upwind we had been over 18 kts as a peak at very close to our normal tacking angles.  We have some videos from day 1 to send you.

Day 2 and with a few small set up changes we headed out to try and get amongst the Media around the Moth event and were able to successfully get a few seconds of coverage on the live feed leading to a huge amount of interest from around the globe.

The wind on Tuesday  was around 15-18 kts and we had a modest peak speed of 22 kts and upwind hit 19 . Progress was already real and amazingly still no failures.Day three , the last day of the Moth worlds was much lighter , winds only 6-8 knots with a few little gusts to 10 at times early on . We spent about 2 hrs cruising around mostly 4 point foiling in the light winds and trying some handling ideas.

The performance in the low wind was very interesting and encouraging . and the videos show how little wind there was and the speed and stability of the setup as it exists in its early iteration. T foil Rudders fit directly into our current housings and the new  center case is still quite slim and we will use this on the new Edge’s going fwd . In just 30 minutes all the foiling parts can be removed and the regular foil profiles installed and ready for regular F18 racing .. At this stage we haven’t decided the final format , price or when the kits might be available  but wanted to share the story with all your readers to gauge the interest – Interest seems like it is very strong so far!!

Hope you enjoy the uncut raw videos.

Brett Burvill Windrush Yachts

To Contact Brett go to www.windrushyachts.com.au/contact-us