Bridal Foil ????

You are absolutely correct. Bridal foils keep the forces up. But remember there will be a lot of compression forces on the foil.

If you move the bridal wires forward you will lose the balance of the platform that the factory designers intended. You will also increase the chances of pitchpoling because you moved the center of effort way forward, especially when sailing off the wind when it starts blowing a bit. I have always been a firm believer that the factory puts a lot of time and money into research and development and with that in mind I always try and keep every thing as it was intended to be.

n6.0 bridal foil is a common upgrade on p19s since the earlier ones often had "working" hulls. It also allows you to use a bigger jib since the forestay goes down that much further 😉

Also note that the nacra foils have a pelican striker to add strength. If you wanted, a N5.8 foil would probably work on your p18.

I think you'd be better to rake the mast forward a touch and use an I17 (or similar) beam mounted jib. I think you're asking for trouble moving the forstay forward, even with the bow foil. It's also a much smaller modification to switch jibs and move the blocks.

turbohobo wrote: Am I correct in my understanding that a bridle foil is designed to negate the inward force (pull) of the forestay on the bridle wires, in other words it stops the bows from bending inward? For my winter project, I want to clear my tramp of the jib blocks and move them onto the forward crossbeam, in order to do this, I will take Pete's advice and move my bridle wires 18" forward on the bow of both hulls. My concern is this will exert more inward bend on the hulls so I am considering a home made bridle foil, any/all suggestions/experiences?

thanks
turbo

I also think a smaller jib would do the trick better. That's basically what they did to all the Nacra's when they went from overlapping tramp mounted jibs to self-tacking. I don't think it affects performance all that much, you still get the slot effect which is more important than the total area of the jib. And it's less effort and money! Spend that on a square head main and watch the boat become supercharged! 🙂

Regards,
Dave

making major modifications to hardware and/or sail plan can produce unreliable results.

you may find a certain wind range (and angle) that benefits from the modifications but it is very likely in more ranges (and angles) the mods will be a detriment..

I have seen this in effect a few times locally. A friend put a self tacker on his cat only to suffer upwind in light air, and downwind in most air.

Also we have a p-18-2 that put a p19 mast and not stock sails on it. I dont think he had favorable results