Foldable hydrofoil for boats
AssigneeCaponnetto Hueber S.L.
InventorsMario Caponnetto, Francis Hueber
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention is directed to a watercraft comprising multiple set of foils, that may be used to convey passengers and goods on regular transport services provided on rivers, lakes or between islands, with low GHG emissions, notably but not exclusively using electrically powered propelling systems supplied by a battery or a fuel cell. The combination of the foil sets in a distributed wingspan allows to reduce the induced drag of the boat while retracting mechanisms allows to reduce the overall width of the boat for docking.
Claims26
A foldable hydrofoil for a boat, wherein the foldable hydrofoil comprises:
- a strut comprising a strut length comprised between a proximal end and a distal end;
- a controllable pivotal mechanism comprising a fixed portion and a mobile portion pivotable relative to the fixed portion around a pivotal axis according to a pivotal angle and connected to the proximal end;
- a wing extending along a wingspan connected at the distal end by a controllable orientation mechanism configured to rotate the wing around an orientation axis relative to the strut;
- and
- the foldable hydrofoils being configured to be attached to a hull by the fixed portion of the controllable pivotal mechanism;
- wherein the controllable orientation mechanism is configured to orient the wing relative to the strut in any position of a wing angle around the orientation axis comprised between 0° where the wingspan is parallel to the strut length and 90° where the wingspan is perpendicular to the strut length regardless the pivotal angle.
A watercraft comprising a hull with a hull width measured between a port side and a starboard side, comprising:
- an aft set making an aft hydrofoil comprising an aft wing and an aft strut supporting the aft wing, the aft wing having an aft wingspan extending between a port aft wing tip and a starboard aft wing tip;
- a front set comprising a port foldable hydrofoil and a starboard foldable hydrofoil, each of the port foldable hydrofoil and the starboard foldable hydrofoil comprising a front strut pivotally connected to the hull at a proximal end and supporting a front wing connected to a distal end of the front strut by a controllable orientation mechanism;
- each front wing extending between an inner tip and an outer tip;
- a controllable pivotal mechanism configured to pivot each foldable hydrofoil around a pivotal axis according to a strut angle comprised between 0° where the front strut is vertical and the distal end of the front strut is under a water surface and a stow angle wherein the distal and of the front strut is over the water surface;
- and
- each controllable orientation mechanism being configured to pivot the wing around an orientation axis by a wing angle comprised between 0° where a front wingspan is parallel to the front strut and 90° where the front wingspan is perpendicular to the front strut;
- wherein, when the foldable hydrofoils of the front set are in a configuration where the strut angle is 0° and the wing angle is 90°, the outer tips of the wings of the front set are outside the hull width and a front wing spacing measured between the inner tips of the front wings is equal or larger than the aft wingspan.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.