kato said...
Its an interesting discussion Barn. Just remember any pract tests with the car will have to take the disturbed air flow into account.
That was the thinking behind the plywood splitter, mounted on some high roof racks it should be possible to get the board in some clean air.
My money is still of Slowly

as some skills just carn,t be explained by science.
Bet on me and you might be able to replace that 1993 Bic Saxo you cruise around on.
Just to clear some things up, as I think there has been a bit of nitpicking as far as definitions and whatnot,
my first point was that you cannot generate enough lift from the sail to take the weight off the board.. I understand there can be some, but there is a difference between
claiming 100% and a few kilos. No matter how important those kilos are.
I believe I proved that, and everyone seems to agree (from the silence). Although I am the only one who has put a 'Ballpark' on that lift, at 10-20kg...
Putting my money where my mouth is.

The second point raised is how the board generates the remaining lift, Slowy has pointed out that the lift comes from the 'Heavy Ground Effect' from the first 2m of the board. An interesting point, but I am also skeptical this is a source for much lift.
I'm guessing in the ballpark of 5kg at the mast track. The centre of lift should be around the mastbase, acording to the specs on a Ground Effect foil
http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/2058/DSTO-GD-0201.pdfI ain't really concerned about the efficiency of a foil in Air or water, as I doubt there is much lift at the nose anyway.
Anyway, so far I think I understand how the airflow is
supposed to interact with the nose of the board. I dunno if my pictures are helpful but sometimes words are confusing.
This is a board doing 30knots with a 10knot breeze at nose height, giving us 31 knots of apparent wind at 18 degrees. The airflow above is in white, and below is in yellow. I feel these lines are being fairly aerodynamically generous, there would be more turbulence IRL.
----------------------------
Side note, if there is such a thing as Heavy Ground Effect under a windsurf board, has anybody ever tried watersking with a windsurf board, if the HGE Hypothesis is correct it should be possible get True Flight. No?
Kinda like a Hoverboard? Except they don't work on water (unless you've got power)