But are flying sails and foils really for everyone?

How did the Foiling Week Awards in Milan go? Is “flying” sailing really for everyone? We asked Giacomo Giulietti, our contributor and on this occasion a person “more than informed about the facts” since he was the host of the evening.

ARE FOILS FOR EVERYONE?

Proof of how much the Foiling Week Awards are now a must-attend event for all sailing enthusiasts (and not just foiling sailors) came from counting the number of hands raised when I addressed the audience with the question, “How many of you have sailed foiling before?” Five, six hands, no more. Translated into percentage terms, it means about 5 percent of those present.

Obviously, among the nominees vying for the awards given during the evening, the percentage reaches 100 percent, so they were excluded from the tally. But the low density among the public means that not only those who fly , but also “normal” boaters want to know what is the state of the art of this alternative way of going on the water. And when I say normal yachtsmen, I also mean people like Francesco de Angelis, Pigi Loro Piana, Mauro Pelaschier, Tommaso Chieffi; Flavio Favini, sailors who are certainly not without opportunities to go to sea or who do not need alternative games to try to bring home the result.

What is emerging more and more solidly is how much activity and research there is in the world of foiling at the beginning of the 3rd decade of the 21st century. Let’s start, for example, with the Persico 69F class, which made its official debut right at the Foiling Week Awards. A shipyard like Persico Marine decides to combine its traditional production of high-tech one-offs with the production of a mass-produced boat: a dinghy that is not even seven meters long for a three-person crew, but sails in foling. Of course, then there is a package of services built around the boat that makes it even more attractive to those who want to race carefree (it is the class that handles every logistical aspect between races on the Persico 69F calendar), but basically a foil boat was chosen.

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Or how many different sailors by boating activity competed for the award dedicated to the best in this category. Explanatory parenthesis: the nominations are selected by Domenico Boffi and Luca Rizzotti the organizers of Foling Week, the event dedicated to foiling sailing that has reached its tenth edition in 2019, which asks the nominees if they wish to be, also accepts community recommendations and also considers spontaneous nominations without discarding anyone. The choice of the winner is subject to the result of a public vote conducted online.

Sailors, it said, from different nautical backgrounds. Vying for the award were such Olympic athletes as Vittorio Bissaro and Maelle Frascari, Ruggero Tita and Caterina Marianna Banti, respectively world champions and winners of the Tokyo Test Event with the Nacra 17 catamarans; probable future Olympians like the Formula Kite (kitesurfing with foil) world champions who will have the five circles of Olympia from Paris 2024, for another two Frenchmen: Nicolas Parlier and Daniela Moroz. There have been offshore sailors such as. Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier & Yann Riou (winners of the Brest Atlantiques on the maxi trimaran Edmond de Rotschild); and Charlie Dalin and Yann Eliès (first at the Transat Jacques Vabre with the Imoca Apivia Mutuelle); champions of one-design classes like Mischa Heemskerk (rainbowed with Class A catamarans); Tom Slingsby (rainbow Moth); and the crew of Team Australia, led by the “usual” Tom Slingsby with Kyle Langford, Jason Waterhouse, Ky Hurst, Sam Newton and Kinley Fowler winners of the first SailGP championship; and windsurfers such as Balz Müller (Frestyle windsurfing world champion). For the record, it was the latter that won the title.

In short, a cross-section that affects the whole of going to sea under sail. And when it comes to foiling sailing, the America’s Cup, responsible for much of the foil clearance (and research) had its moment in the spotlight when Luna Rossa was awarded as the best one-off foiling project.

Horacio Carabelli, co-coordinator leading the design team, and skipper Max Sirena picked up the award favored by voters over a large group of competitors that included: four IMOCAs (Advens; Apivia Mutuelle; Arkea Paprec and Hugo Boss); three other AC 75s (Britannia, Defiant and Te Ahie); and a maxi tri (Team Sodebo Voile). And always evidence of the industry’s vitality comes from the Innovation Award, which recognizes the most significant projects that appeared in 2019.

In competition: Condor, a windsurfing board designed for foil world, with a specific concept to accelerate gliding and foiling, produced by Elix board; the Foilsz Laser Kit (an efficient kit from the same designers as the market’s most popular Moth Mach 2); the curious marine bicycle Wolf Electric Foiling Bike; the Moth Aero Kit (the first aftermarket aero kit for the Mach 2: an aerodynamic nugget that decreases the wind resistance of these boats, which practically always sail in apparent winds over 30 knots); the Moth Double Sail (double sail type AC 75, developed by sailing consultant American Magic for the small one-design with the moth); Slingshot Wing (the first to develop and reinvent the wing sail); the monohull SYRA-Foilers (first double-crewed boat equipped with a central canting foil system); and the hyper-technological catamaran TF35, flying derivation of the Decision 35, decreed the category winner, for its electronic foil control system, practically a Software from Airbus installed on a cat of not even 11 meters. Despite a price tag well over a million euros per boat, the class already has eight teams entered in the championship and among its owners are the two brothers Ernesto and Dona Bertarelli (with Alinghi and Spindrift, respectively).

Note that two of these boats were also competing in the series boat category, just further proof of the vitality and tangibility of the foil world. In addition to the victorious Syra 18 and the aforementioned TF35, also the drift boat BirdyFish, Nautor’s ClubSwan 36, the one-design Nikki by Skeeta Foiling Craft; the double Peacoq 14; and the Mini 6.50.

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The design award was voted on among five contestants. Winning it “the next world fastest boat” the SP80 a prototype of the Dutch EPFLthat thanks to foil and kite aims to beat the 80-knot wall under sail. Interestingly, three other names in the running ISpace2O DeepSeaker DS1; Lazzerini F33 Space; and The Flybus were proposing powerboats.

For the power boat category., ahead of a Beneteau prototype and Aquila catamarans, the Motor Boat Award went to the Candela 7.5, and not surprisingly: a beautiful powerboat that despite being electric and with foils for practicality and ease of use does not differ from a traditional boat.
Also awarded: Hugo Boss in the Sustainability category, thanks to the photovoltaic panels made ad hoc by the German company Groeschman for the deckhouse of Alex Thomson’s Imoca with the purpose of supporting all energy needs related to navigation and communication;and the aforementioned SailGP regatta circuit among Events.

Closing the evening with Gabriele Ganga Bruni receiving the honoris causa award as best coach of foil athletes for his work with Vittorio Bissaro, Maelle Frascari, Ruggero Tita and Cate Mari Banti. When I asked him, but what makes you so good at your job, your ability to go foil? “I do go foil, but I’m not great at that, what makes my work functional is the ability to give clear, easy-to-understand tasks. And this helps the athlete to focus on a few things at a time and improve them specifically, and then integrate them with the others in order to grow in all aspects.” Nothing particularly specific to foiling, then. So much for those who claim that flying is not real sailing. Whether the hull is propped, submerged, or suspended does not matter; whoever is the best sailor (or the luckiest, that time) always wins. What changes is only how one prefers to go boating.

James Giulietti

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