Contrary to "traditional" ships, hydrofoils heel strongly when turning...


Turning of a warship using foil

This explains the differences concerning comfort between a ship with and without foils when changing course...

When there are no foil, inertia make itself felt tangentially and in the same time normaly to the deck which make the inertia been felt horizontaly by the crew.

On the contrary, when considering an hydrofoil, the inclination of the ship enable almost all the force to be transmited normaly to the deck, not tangentially which simply give the impression of a slight increase of the weight instead of a loss of balance.

Representation of the inertia felt by a passenger when turning with a ship with and without foils

back to the introduction - back to takeoff and navigation with an hydrofoil