The Go-Tow is a small, battery powered towing device, designed purposely for towing hydro-foiling participants. The device provides the user with complete control over the speed and direction of the device while towing behind.

Hydrofoil surfing is a rapidly growing sector within the watersports industry. The Go-Tow looks to enter this market and combat three key problem areas:

• Dependency - The Go-Tow is designed such that it can be used entirely independently of others and free of the requirement of uncontrollable factors such as wind and waves. This provides the user with the ultimate freedom to head out on the water when, where and how they want too. 
• Cost - With costs of equipment and participation within the industry currently very high the Go-Tow has been designed to be affordable. The closest competitor products, E-foils, start at prices around £5000. The Go-Tow almost halves this with a retail price of £2600.   
• Difficulty - The Go-Tow is a versatile tool which can be used in a range of conditions and locations. A consistent tow force makes hydrofoil surfing easier than ever.

Taking inspiration from rigid inflatable boats, the Go-Tow features an inflatable tube around its outer edge. This provides multiple benefits:  

• Stability - The additional buoyancy provided by the inflatable helps stabilise the product in rough water conditions as well as helps prevent the product from flipping during use.  
• Protection - The inflatable provides protection to the rigid and more vulnerable fiberglass body, making the product more robust and hard wearing.  
• Footprint - When the inflatable tube is deflated the footprint of the product is greatly reduced improving ease of transport and storage.

The Go-Tow can achieve towing speeds of up to 30km/h and has an approximate run time of 30min. The removable battery module makes recharge easy and provides the possibility to extend the run time by using multiple batteries in succession.

Hydrodynamics of the device have been carefully considered having run flow simulations to optimise the efficiency of the device through the water. This has maximised the battery life and speed capabilities of the Go-Tow.

The Go-Tow was designed to be modular which enables easy component replacement or upgrade with the potential to offer product customisation in future, such as different motor or handle module types.

Durability was a key consideration in the design with materials selected to provide a quality product that is built to last.

The intent to bring the go-tow to market was through a small start-up business model, hence the go-tow has been designed with scalable manufacture in mind. This means that the go-tow can be produced cost effectively even with small annual production quantities and can be easily adapted to higher volume manufacturing processes as demand and production quantities increase.