Ke Nalu Hydrofoil

[LM]

Well, I've been keeping my mouth shut about this (due to sticking my foot in it in the past & talking about things too soon) but it's finally a reality. After over a year of development/testing the first Ke Nalu hydrofoils are coming out of the molds. The 'Iwa (pronounced "Eva"..the Hawaiian frigatebird) will come in two sizes the 580 is 1084 cm2 with an aspect ratio of 3.3. The 775 is 1496 cm2 - aspect ratio 4.14.


There are a handful going out now to make sure everything is as it should be. Once we've confirmed that, since the Zone has always been good to us, I'll offer a limited time "Zone Deal" with a substantial discount to help us get some of these in the water & to get the word out. This has been a long time in the making & I'm really happy with what we've come up with. I hope you will be too.

The construction is all pre-preg carbon. I'm really stoked with the quality of manufacturing.

The foil section used for the main wing is a variation of a heavily tested/tried and true NASA/Langley low speed wing design which should be perfect for hydrofoil use. The development of this wing took several months & tested very well on computer (hopefully real world testing proves the same).

You'll be able to use either a plate mount or deep tuttle. The mast is currently at 55cm but we're considering going 60 due to some of the feedback I've heard already regarding other foils.

The rear wing has two mounting positions (forward & aft). The recommended position to start is the aft. You'll also be able to change the angle of incidence (thus the angle of attack when moving) of the rear wing. I considered quite a few options for doing this but opted for the simplest with the thinking that it's not likely any adjustment will be necessary & if so it should only be a one time thing; so I didn't think an "on the fly" adjustment would really be necessary. We had custom made shims made (basically washers...but they're not) that change the angle by 1/2 degree each.

Lots of other details but I've already gotten too long winded. Here's some pics:


Here's a few pics:

[Dwight (DW)]

For sure, you need taller masts for kite surfing use. The hotest trend in kite foiling is using surf foils instead of kite foils. 70cm is the ideal mast length for this.


I heard somewhere Kai uses a 70cm for surf foiling. Even though Naish surf foils ship with 55cm.

[LM]

Yeah, I know kite mast are much taller, we can go up to 90 with our molds. I was just referring to surf & downwind SUP mast lengths. That's the good thing about being here; with everyone sharing their knowledge & experience it will help the sport progress.

[PonoBill]

Congratulations, very nice, and an obvious thing for a pilot to pursue--I should have guessed.

[surfcowboy]

Great looking stuff man. And yes, of course, great carbon work.

[Beasho]

So many goodies for Christmas. 

The great thing about this design is that it will travel well.  The mas configuration of the GoFoil makes transportation, especially on an airplane, troublesome.

BUT I'm excited to hear how these perform.  Specifically because the GoFoil and Naish appear to be the go-to shapes for slow speed surf foiling.   

[exiled]

Will these be ready for Christmas?

[comeu]

Looks great! I hope there will be a wind foiling option with smaller front wing and longer mast!

[supuk]

looks like a interesting profile you have used look forward to trying one some time.

[p06781]

Is this designed as a surf foil or for downwind or both ?   When will we get to know the "zone" price as there are quite a few of foils coming on the market ? 

[blueplanetsurf]

Nice work Lane, I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

[PonoBill]

Lots of lift. I calculate these at about 220 and 260 pounds at 5 mph. Assuming a lift coefficient of two for a NACA 6718 foil. I think these things are going to need flaps pretty soon.

[Rider]

So my last plane was a Maule M7.  It had four positions for flaps.  The slower the approach the more flaps.  Pretty simple.  Simple cable control.  Could this approach work for different foiling conditions?

[exiled]

Lots of lift. I calculate these at about 220 and 260 pounds at 5 mph. Assuming a lift coefficient of two for a NACA 6718 foil. I think these things are going to need flaps pretty soon.

See, these are the kind of numbers I want to see when I am shopping for foils. Tell me how many pounds of lift I can get at x speed.

[808sup]

For me, the ability to break it down for transport is a plus. Having a plate mount option is also favorable to me. It gives you more freedom to adjust to personal riding preferences. I’m sure the quality will be on par with their paddles. Look forward to the release of these as we need more options than what is currently available.