JATO for your board

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JATO for your board
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Re: JATO for your board

Gee - who do you suppose has ordered one already? Now he just needs someone to design (or at least suggest) board to use it with.....Maybe some kind of wing foil type thing.

What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.

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Re: JATO for your board

Seriously? I've got some time on my hands.

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Re: JATO for your board

Yeah - I'd love to hear some ideas. This is sort a solution in search of a problem......One thought I've had is that it takes more wind power to take off than the stay up, so get a boost to take off then a wing is enough to keep flying.....maybe. The other idea was more "down to earth" - put it on my SUP and try to catch boat wake waves.....

What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.

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Re: JATO for your board
Randy wrote:

Yeah - I'd love to hear some ideas. This is sort a solution in search of a problem......One thought I've had is that it takes more wind power to take off than the stay up, so get a boost to take off then a wing is enough to keep flying.....maybe. The other idea was more "down to earth" - put it on my SUP and try to catch boat wake waves.....

I don't know how much drag it has when not working but I was thinking it would make a good booster for wind or wing foiling. It doesn't even have to get you all the way up - just a good punch to get the foil working. Just thinking out loud, I'd be tempted to put it behind the foil if possible or just ahead. Any further forward would risk "tripping" the board if it got close to the water and initiating a catapult.

Boat wakes/waves generally are pretty slow - about the speed of a slogging windsurfer - and you'd have to catch a pretty big one going in the right direction. You could hang out in front of Lake Lanier Islands and wait for the ideal 40 ft yacht to nowhere. It might be fun, too, to give a boost on a downwinder on a really windy day. Maybe do that on a foil SUP. A lot easier than paddling like Kai.

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Re: JATO for your board

The e-foils I've seen usually have the motor/prop above the back or the lower part of the mast - above the back wing. The reason for that is probably to use the fuselage for the batteries, and (duh) because the motor and prop need to be submerged to work. In this case, you want the motor out of the water. It would be easiest to put a mount (on the board) right in front of the mast, but I thought the turbulence from the prop could be a problem (though I kind of doubt it.) Behind the mast would be hard if the board already has the mast all the way back. (Exhibit 1 - F136.) One nice thing is the SUP type mounts (which this uses) can be installed easily.

I also thought about putting it where a center fin might go, but the drag/catapult issue might be a problem. The makers and their surfer guys claim that it is low drag, but...marketing... Another thought was to get 2 of them and put one on each side of the mast, but I'm not ready to double down on it.

One concern is whether it would be tough enough to withstand the abuse of the predicable crashes.

As for boat wakes, trying to ride them as been something I've dabbled with for a while with a slogging windsurfer on summer days. They are slow, often confused and not very high. However, you can catch a good one once in a while. The thing to look for is a really big boat, with the nose pointed high trying to get planing (like in the Peter Hart video lesson on mast foot pressure.) Not had much luck with a SUP but have caught a few.

What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.

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