Sam Holmes Sailingvideo
Meeting up with James and testing a new hydrofoil
March 3, 2026 · 9 min · 29K views · Rabak Island, Langkawi
Man foiling on hydrofoil board across open water
What this video covers
A passage from Langkawi to Talaga, Malaysia, covers overnight motoring in flat calm, with Sam using a spotlight to watch for fish traps and experimenting with chartplotter route-following on the autopilot.▶ 0:29 At anchor off the Ritz Carlton, Sam meets James, a fellow sailor and YouTuber he first knew from a Los Angeles marina roughly seven years ago; James is mid-circumnavigation on his Alberg 30 and doing a refit at Rabak Marina on Rabak Island.▶ 3:29 Sam tours Rabak's facilities and notes the anchorage there picks up too much swell, prompting a move toward Tulaga.▶ 5:01 A new Slingshot hydrofoil kit arrives by mail, giving Sam two complete setups.▶ 5:37 He details the tool-free assembly: mast base hooks into a track, thumb screws cinch the rear, and a cam-lock splits the fuselage into two wedges that press into the mast without screws — a design he values because corroding screws in carbon or aluminum inserts have caused repeated problems.▶ 7:02 The smaller, high-aspect carbon wing proves noticeably faster than his previous one, though the small board is hard to ride in gusty conditions; switching to an inflatable board solves that.▶ 8:19 A portable air conditioner runs 2.5 hours on its own battery at low power, isolated from the house bank to prevent accidental drain.▶ 1:57 The next passage heads north toward the Andaman Islands.▶ 9:39
Boats in this video
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