I have deferred construction of the next trimaran (12feet) in favor of adding lifting foils, just for fun and to support the WEYMOUTH SPEED WEEK .When i first looked at it a year ago i thought the wnd for lift 0ut would be proh//ibitively high (25knots or more). A more careful look and detailed spreadsheet suggested 14 -15knots of wind should do it if the foil areas and angles are right. Reassuringly i found a team at Chalmers University managed to get an Optimist foil borne (Nimbus 9 uses a standard Optimist rig).

The configuration is the same as that of the oceaan going HYDROPTERE ,in principle, except that the main foils are offset T so the main structural connection is made further inboard on the crossbeam . See pictures below