Tomahawk Foils- a whole new foiling experience!

At this year’s RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, Weymouth-based Tomahawk Foils unveiled its Tomahawk foil, the surface running, ventilated hydrofoil it has invented and patented for both sailing and powered water craft. The foil was fitted to a windsurfer on display in the Palm Court and also on the Ovington Boats’ concept dinghy.

The foil’s inventor, Jonathan Howes explains the concept:

'It’s a totally new type of hydrofoil that solves many of the problems inherent in conventional foil designs. The ventilated design has features that give a wide operating speed range without moving parts and exceptional tolerance to rough water, making the windsurfer simpler, more versatile and easier to sail'

The concept uses subtle upper-surface shaping to provide progressive changes in lift force with increasing speed in a similar way to an aircraft’s wing flaps but without any moving parts. This means that the windsurfer lifts on to the foils at a very low speed but automatically corrects for higher speeds, giving smooth performance throughout the speed range.

Ventilated surface running allows the foil to move in and out of waves with minimal impact on foiling performance and gives speed potential without sudden changes in handling due to uncontrolled ventilation or cavitation. Not only does it fully exploit the concept’s forgiving characteristics, but a windsurfer fitted with the hydrofoil still behaves like a normal windsurfer.

The design has been tested, developed and refined by a well-known Weymouth sailor and dinghy manufacturer. He says: 'The Tomahawk foil makes windsurfing enjoyable, fast, and refreshing. I’ve never had such fun windsurfing!'

Latest from Dave Hall on the Ovington Foiler at the RYA Dinghy Show

Wow, that is all we have to say! We expected a lot of interest in the new boat but were knocked out by the level of enthusiasm and number of people that genuinely said ‘ Yes that is exactly what we have been waiting for’.

We lost count of how many people spoke to us at the show, we even had to get more data sheets printed on Saturday night – something we have never had to do before!

The boat on show will do some more sailing to tweak the rig and get the ventilated rudder foil fitted before it comes up North to go into production.

It is expected that we will have boats available for the summer.

If you would like to register your interest to keep up to date on the final development and production progress drop Dave Hall a line at foiler@ovingtonboats.co.uk

For further information contact Tomahawk Foils, T: +44 (0)1305 826 555,
E: info@tomahawkfoils.com or see www.tomahawkfoils.com

The Tomahawk Foils’ team comprises:

Jonathan Howes, an expert in aero, hydrodynamics and structures. He was recently the leader of the structures certification team for the A380 Airbus and has many inventions and patents to his name.

Mark Wagner has a background in finance and technology but has a long standing interest in hydrofoils and built his first one in 1975.