{"id":70066,"date":"2021-05-11T12:59:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T16:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=70066"},"modified":"2023-05-06T23:07:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T03:07:10","slug":"the-soft-water-speed-pod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/sailboats\/the-soft-water-speed-pod\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soft-Water Speed Pod"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Vortex <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The base price of the Vortex Pod Racer is approximately $40,000. The addition of a dolly, electronics, covers, lifting sling and shipping brings it closer to $50,000.<\/span>\n Courtesy McConaghy\/Vortex<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Anyone who has taken to a singlehanded foiling craft along the likes of a Moth or Waszp knows full well the exhilaration of liftoff, the silence of flight, and the breathtaking enjoyment of soaring over the surface and whipping through turns. There\u2019s nothing quite like it, and foiling is here and now. As advancements in foiling and composite construction have continued apace, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a with a slick new twist. That twist is the Vortex Pod Racer, which McConaghy Boats\u2019 director Mark Evans describes as a \u201chalf boat, half flying machine that flies above the water at speeds of 30 knots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Thirty knots is plenty fast for the average sailor, but this craft is not necessarily for the average sailor, Evans says\u2014not at the outset at least. \u201cI think the learning curve is relatively small,\u201d Evan says. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s a new skillset. I put it down to a little bit like learning drums for your first lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you first sail the prototype, your brain tells you to steer the Vortex with the joystick, but within 30 minutes, you are steering with your feet and flying with the joystick.\u201d The other comparison he can draw is jumping out of your family wagon and into a Porsche or any other high-performance car. \u201cNinety percent of people could drive a Porsche, but where you will take time to do it well is at high speed, and therein lies the fun,\u201d Evans says. \u201cI see this as the sports car on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

And how do we get to a 17-foot, 330-pound sports car on water? That\u2019s easy. In Zhuhai, China, McConaghy\u2019s composite wizards craft carbon fiber and pre-preg foam core to make the pod, wings, torsional beams and wing fairings. They\u2019ve built more than 3,000 foiling Moths, so they certainly know what they\u2019re doing with their materials and autoclave. When it comes to the systems to make it fly, these too have been exhaustively vetted through the prototype phase. The waterfall of controls lines into the cockpit is a necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is always positive and negative in any design, and from a simple concept, we try to keep the complexity out of the build,\u201d Evans says, \u201cbut we have to introduce some complexity to enable the pilot to fly. With ease of sailing in mind, and with the loads that this Vortex can generate, we had to add certain mechanical systems that give the Vortex the ability to fly itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Vortex <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n With locking pins removed, the Vortex Pod Racer (with 19 feet of beam) can be folded and stored on a dolly. Control lines that lead to the cockpit include all foil and rudder controls (up, down and lock) as well as sail controls (sheets, vang, etc.). The foil control joystick is between the pilot\u2019s legs, and steering is done with foot pedals.<\/span>\n Courtesy McConaghy Boats\/Vortex<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

The pilot, he says, simply trims all the foils through the joystick and steers with the foot pedals. Iceboaters will know the foot-pedal drill and, in fact, it was hard-water sailing that spurred Evans to launch the Vortex. \u201cThe inspiration was from watching the intense speeds achieved by iceboats,\u201d he says, \u201cwhere a simple pod and a mainsail are balanced by two outriggers. Speeds achieved by these contraptions can easily top 40 knots in 10 knots of breeze.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Racing sailors will agree that ripping around at top speed is plenty cool and fun but, eventually, there will come a time when you need to reality-check your skills and line up with others. The next thing you know, you will want to fleet-race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy vision and goal would be to see 50 class boats on a starting line,\u201d Evans says. \u201cAt low speeds, the Vortex would be flying at 12-plus knots, and seeing this amount of boats maneuvering at high speeds would be spectacular. In my mind, it would be just as fun or more fun [than] racing your Porsche on a track day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an optional $4,000 electronics package developed with McConaghy\u2019s partners at Sailmon, but Evans says they\u2019re not necessary to sail the boat. \u201cIt\u2019s simply a sailing aid, giving the pilot normal feedback, like wind direction, true wind speed, heel and more, but it\u2019s no way to link any of the control systems to fly the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For thrill seekers and high-performance sailing addicts, this new pocket rocket promises hard-water speeds without the freeze.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20210511","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"160","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"For thrill seekers and high-performance sailing addicts, this new pocket rocket promises hard-water speeds without the freeze.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"CF53MABYT5DLFFEW6KUHOP3YVQ","arc_website_url":"story\/sailboats\/the-soft-water-speed-pod\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[197],"class_list":["post-70066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sailboats","tag-foiling"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}