Are you looking at having larger versions of these located up and down the east coast to provide non stop windsurfing....It's a good idea.

No its not a ducted fan. There's a fan of some sort in the base that pressurises the ring. This air passes through long skinny ports all around the leading edge and directed over the foil. Have a look at the video.

NotWal said...

No its not a ducted fan. There's a fan of some sort in the base that pressurises the ring. This air passes through long skinny ports all around the leading edge and directed over the foil. Have a look at the video.

I was especially impressed that it blows far more air than it sucks in, even if it is not the 15x stated it is likely more than double, and if it is 15x... wow.

There's a little bit of hover-craft design in there.

Maybe food for thought regarding somewhat stagnating board, fin and sail design?

You don't get anything for nothing. It doesn't matter how you drive the air you still have to do the same amount of work. Enery in = Energy out and some of that energy out is wasted doing useless stuff. The best you can hope for is improved efficiency. On the face of it that seems like a more efficient way to drive air. Ducted fans are pretty efficient too I understand. Sucking air through a tortuous route through the base would lose a bit, particularly if its going fast.

How could you apply that to sails? The goal is to get more air moving across the sail or to put it another way, to turn more air. The amount of power in a windsurfer is limited by the ability of the sailor to hold it. Its a purely mechanical thing. The heavier the sailor and the lower the centre of lift in the sail, the more power can be harnessed. If you could use this air entrainment principle to lower the centre of lift you'd be getting somewhere.