HOME Company Profile Route Guide JETFOIL Mini-Encyclopedia

JETFOIL Mini-Encyclopedia
  1. How does the Jetfoil fly on the water surface?
  2. What is the difference between the Jetfoil and conventional hydrofoils?
  3. The secret of Jetfoil's comfortable ride
  4. Maximum wave height at which the Jetfoil can sail
  5. How does the Jetfoil turn head without a rudder?
  6. Are there any problems when the Jetfoil collides with floating objects?
  7. Is the Jetfoil strong to the wind?
  8. What is the endurance of the Jetfoil?
  9. What small is the noise level of the Jetfoil?
  10. What is the life of the Jetfoil?
  11. Fuel consumption of the Jetfoil
  12. Does the Jetfoil require the specific pier facilities?
  13. Can the Jetfoil enter into the shallow water port?
  14. What kind of licenses are necessary for the Jetfoil crew in Japan?
  15. Can the Jetfoil cruise at FOILBORNE mode in night time?
  16. Jetfoil operated outside Japan
  17. Maintenance for the Jetfoil

Maximum wave height at which the Jetfoil can sail

The upper limits of the wave height for the Jetfoil's FOILBORNE operation cannot be definitely determined because it depends on many factors such as wave period, relative heading angle of Jetfoil to wave direction and captain's skill. But, it is generally said that the Jetfoil can sail on up to approximately 3.5m significant wave height. To be concrete:

  1. When the waves condition is more than 80m wave length, so-called swell condition, the Jetfoil can sail easily up to more than 5~6m significant wave height. There are examples of the sea trial sailing on 13m wave height by The Boeing Company.
  2. When the waves length is 70~80m, the Jetfoil can sail on up to 4.0~4.5m significant wave height.
  3. When the waves length is 50m, with sometime 30m short wave length so called pyramidal wave, the Jetfoil can sail on up to 3.5m significant wave height.
*Significant wave height:
The wave height which is normally used is the significant wave height. It is the average height of the highest 1/3 observed waves. Hence the significant wave height is called the one third maximum wave.
The correlation between the significant wave height and the other wave height is as follows.

Significant wave height 1.00m 2.50m 3.50m
The average height of the highest 1/100 observed waves
(the 1/100th maximum wave height)		 1.61m 4.03m 5.64m

Top of Page