Extreme Hydrofoil Sailing

"A hydrofoil is a craft with wing-like foils mounted on struts below the hull. As the craft increases its speed the hydrofoils develop enough lift for the boat to become foilborne - i.e. to raise the hull up and out of the water. This results in a great reduction in drag and a corresponding increase in speed."-Wikipedia

Many of us have atleast heard of hydrofoils, maybe even have seen some hydrofoils in action. Usually hydrofoils are motorized boats with foils mounted under the hull. The steady output of their engine keeps the water flowing over the foil at a pretty constant velocity, which makes it easier to use and gives it a more predictable behavior. Now people have started to use foils on sailboats, and the type of water craft that result are quite stunning.

Moth Sailing



The moth class is considered a dinghy, and is starting to become a very popular racing class in Australia and America. Just watching these hydrofoils in motion immediately shows you how talented these skippers must be.

Hobie TriFoiler



This hydrosail was made in 1990 by Hobie, and is no longer in production. The 3 hull and dual mast configuration is rather impressive. However, to me, it is even more impressive to watch how well they handle.


Trimaran Hydrofoil



The Trimaran has already beena popular class of sail boat. The thing that makes this one different is that it has been fitted with a hydrofoil. Now that there is very little drag the top speeds are mind boggling. Fast forward to about 1:20 to see just how far out of the water this thing gets.

Should I sell my laptop?

Well I have a 17 inch Dell Inspiron 9300 that just sits on my desk 24/7. Here are the specs:

• 1920 x 1200 17" screen.
• Pentium M 745 running at 2.4 Ghz (pinmod).
• 6800 GeForce Go Video Card w/ 256 Mb dedicated ram.
  
• 2 Gb Kinston Ram.
• 60 Gb 7200 rpm Hitachi HDD.
• Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sound card.

To me, there is no reason to be confined to a laptops form factor if it is just going to be sitting on my desk 24/7. So to solve this dilemma, I thought I could sell this laptop and use the money I receive to pay for a new custom desktop computer. Here are some specs I was looking at on newegg.com.


I am expecting to get $800 at best for my laptop, but I definitely think this is an awesome trade-up. Let me know what you think in the comments if you wish.

Alcoa Howmet Co-Op

I have been searching for an internship for a couple months now, and I have finally found one that I am really excited about. Howmet, which is a part of Alcoa, is a company that makes metal parts for jets and turbines etc. They need a programmer to help create some applications that can take data from a database, and change it so that is in a more user friendly and readable form. Eventually that data will be put into an Excell spread sheet and then I can make some pretty charts and graphs. I should hear back from them on Tuesday so wish me luck!

Some Great Cheap College Meal Ideas

Well its summer time and my meal plan is no longer effective, and I am working an unpaid internship and a retail job, so money is scarce, but I gotta eat something. So here are a few ideas to fill your belly without emptying your wallet.

1. Collegiate Spaghetti

This recipe calls for:

-1/2 pound of pasta.
-Jar of spaghetti sauce.
-ground beef (optional).

Dishes to clean: 1-2

First, if you opted for the ground beef, toss as much as you want into a skillet and cook it until its brown all over. Next, you will want to start boiling that pasta in a largeish pot. If the pasta is too long to fit into the pot, just break it into smaller pieces. Once noodles are nice and soft, strain the pasta and then put it back into the same pot. After you have done that, add the sauce (and strained beef if you opted for it) in with the spaghetti and continue cooking until everything is well cooked. then grab a fork and eat it right out of the pot! No need to dirty another plate.

2. Frozen Meals

These are some of the cheapest and easiest meals that you can find in the grocery store. Food Lion just had an offer where one frozen meal was just $1! It really doesn't get much cheaper than that, unless you go with Ramen, which might taste good, but gets really old really fast.

3. Hamburger Helper

Hamburger Helper is probably one of the best tasting meals on this list. With all sorts of flavors and varieties, this is sure to please just about anyone. If you are not in the mood for beef, you can try Chicken Helper. I personally recommend the Chicken Fettucini Alfredo.

4. Hot Dogs and Hamburgers

Every college student should have a George Foreman Grill, no ifs ands or buts. Cooking these should be extremely simple. One way to make this meal even cheaper is to buy a loaf of bread instead of buns, because buns are simply over priced.

5. Stir Fry

These are located in your frozen foods section, and are actually pretty cheap for the amount of food they contain. The best part is that it is extremely easy to cook. Basically pour all of the contents into a skillet and cook for about 10 minutes, and thats it. They come in a ton of different varieties, and boy are they delicious!

6. Ramen Noodles

If for some reason you cannot afford any of the things I have mentioned already, then you must fall to the last resort: Ramen. Don't get me wrong I love Ramen as much as the next guy, but sometimes it gets a little bland. If you are suffering from this same Ramenitis as I often do then be sure to checkout this awesome Ramen Recipe Page: http://www.mattfischer.com/ramen/

Hopefully after reading this article you too can eat hearty even in the tightest of financial pinches.