Home made and looking very much the part!

Ever wanted to try hydrofoiling but didn’t want to drop $3000 on a top of the line foil? Building one yourself is an option that DOES work and can make foiling not only affordable, but easy!

Ok, well maybe not easy. Floating along completely suspended by a piece of wood slightly larger than a raceboard fin might not be the easiest thing in the world to do, but what’s the worst than can happen right? (For the worst that can happen, just ask Lachlan Doyle what happens when you land on an upside down hydrofoil).

Anyway, back to building your own, thanks to the above mentioned Lachlan Doyle we have a how-to on building your own hydrofoil for kiteboarding, with nothing but some basic fiberglassing skills and some plywood. As Lachlan says: “If I can make one literally anyone can as I had no woodwork or fiberglassing skills prior.”

So if you've got a shed, some wood and a few hours up your sleeve. Give building one of these a crack and join the foil boarding revolution! 

How to build your own Hydrofoil for Kiteboarding
Written and built by Lachlan Doyle (Doycle)

Materials
Board:
9mm Marine Ply (50cmx120cm)
1 layer of fiberglass each side (Can use the thicker stuff for this)
epoxy resin (PRO TIP 1: get the WEST SYSTEM resin with PUMPS!!! Also its half the price of International Epiglass from Whitworths.)
Sugar deck grip (50/50 castor and regular sprinkled on a thin layer of epoxy resin)
Foil & Mast:
12 mm BC grade plywood scrap (Big mistake..in hindsight i should have spent a bit more and used 9mm marine ply)
Fiberglass (get the thin stuff as it is sooo much easier to work with)
Selleys Knead it for making the nose and tail of the foil
Araldite for joining the fins to the fuselage (PRO TIP 2: the one with the self mixing nozzle made life much easier!)
Stainless steel bolts for attaching foil and footstraps

All up I think Ive used 1.5L of resin and around 6m of fiberglass. I think it has cost me less than $250 but quite a few hours. (kept prototype 1 to a tight budget to leave money for prototype 2 in carbon...)

The Basics:
Mast height: 85-100cm (mine is 100cm)
Mast Width: 10cm (mine is 11 at bottom to 14 at top)
Fuselage: 76cm (mine was 2 12mm plywood glued together...about 4cm wide)
Front foil area: around 600cm2 (curved on top, flat on bottom)
Back Foil area: 2.5-3x less than the front foil (should be less than 10mm thick and doesn't need much curve on top in hindsight)


Layers of glass: 10 on the mast (Put a couple at 45degrees as well to stop twist)
2 on the front foil
1 on the back foil
4 on the joins
2+ on the fuselage

(Still not completely rigid/stiff but it does the job :)


Cool places for info:
kitehydrofoil.com/
kitefoil.forumactif.org/ (Some English...most in french but worth Google translating)
www.kiteforum.com/viewforum.php?f=196


Hopefully see some cool foils in the works!!

Warning: Making a foil will make you want to build a second one and/or buy a carbon one like the Taaroa Sword.