Amateur Yacht Research Society at the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show 2026

Amateur Yacht Research Society look at new ways to mount and use hydrofoils on a sailing boat © AYRS

On the AYRS stand at the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show this weekend there was a new way to mount and use hydrofoils on a sailing boat demonstrated. The core innovation eliminates hydrodynamic loading on the strut of a Tee foil.

This turns out to offer a long list of benefits:

• Inherent roll stability
• Reduced possibility of foil ventilation
• Reduced bending moment on strut so smaller section strut feasible
• Reduced actuation force needed to control foil cant angle
• Simple retraction and stowage of foils when not foil sailing and when in harbour - even in shallow water or at a quayside
• The foil loading is applied at a single point to the craft and is in a known direction - simplifying craft structure
• Possibility to avoid damage on impact with a floating or fixed obstruction by allowing the foil to detach from craft on impact. Foil could be fitted with a float and gps/vhf marker for recovery.
• Easy to remove foils from craft for maintenance or to swap foil sizes - even at sea
• Possibility to control sail force using the foil control system

The system depends on electronic controls and is unlikely to be relevant to board sailors or other small craft that can be stabilised by moving crew weight, but it looks promising for craft above around 6m length.

We hope to soon do low speed testing by attaching a single foil unit to a small dinghy and then to a faster motor boat. After that we propose a 6m trimaran as a development test vessel, this would potentially be a half length prototype for a 12m craft suitable for coastal cruising, the Round Britain Race, Round Ireland Race etc.

Amateur Yacht Research Society: www.ayrs.org