Patent ID: 7198529

Claim:
A recreational watercraft arranged to support a standing human operator comprising: A. a lightweight slender hull having a deck and a bottom and a well located on the centerline of the hull and forward of the normal center of buoyancy thereof for moveably supporting a hand operated strut extending from the deck downwardly to and through the bottom; B. A combination propulsion, stabilizing and steering means, comprising a hand operated strut having a long axis moveably supported in the well having a lower end and upper end with a pivot-mounted, fully submerged hydrofoil pivotally mounted on the lower end of the strut and a handle fixedly attached to the upper end thereof; C. the fully submerged hydrofoil comprises a curved span having a lift center with a transverse pivot mounted at the center of the foil span and forward of the lift center of the foil; with i) the pivot axis parallel to the span of the foil; ii) the long axis of the strut is perpendicular to the pivot axis; iii) the strut has a streamlined cross section, the long axis of which is perpendicular to the span of the foil; iv) the well allows rotation of the hydrofoil affixed to the strut through 360 degrees; and iv) the pivot allows rotation of the foil about the pivot axis with respect to the strut through limited angular travel less than +/−30°; and D. the well extends from above the hull's waterline downward through the hull to the bottom of said hull to allow rotation of the hydrofoil affixed to the strut through 360 degrees, where the operator of the watercraft stands on the hull and manually operates the hand operated strut to steer, stabilize and drive the watercraft through the water, selectively in all directions.