Foiling

Foiling...

Foiling is the new big tech in the sailing world. Since 2005 the International Moths have been flying around on hydrofoils but it was the 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco that really opened everyone's eyes to the ridiculous performance achievable by putting a sailing boat up on foils. Now foiling is beginning to trickle down to other parts of the sport, including the likes of the GC32 foiling catamarans, the Phantom, the Nacra 20 and many more coming on stream. As Mark Turner, the brains behind many great sailing ventures including the Extreme Sailing Series, says: “Foiling is the only thing that I’ve seen happen that has gripped an entire sport, from someone trying to make a Laser go foiling to kiteboarders, surfboarders and even people trying to paddle a pedalo with foils. It’s been a revolution. It’s a new set of speed dynamics.”

The Mirabaud foiler flying across Lake Geneva

On Hyperspeed, WoMan Overboard, and the meaning of 'Steep Learning Curve'

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In Olympic circles nobody talks about having a bad day, writes Ben Remocker. The cliched quote most often heard in post racing interviews is about lessons learned. Unless the lesson can be explained, don’t believe it, despite how often the phrase is repeated...

The Untold Story of the Birth of Foiling in the America's Cup

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Most hardened America’s Cup followers will clearly remember the image that was the talk of the sailing world for many weeks. A high angle shot, looking down on a giant 72 foot red and black Emirates Team New Zealand catamaran seemingly flying above the waters of the Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour...

Team Tilt crowned first GC32 World Champions

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On Lake Garda, the Schneiter family’s Team Tilt, managed by father Alex and steered by Olympic 49er sailor son Sébastien, has been crowned first ever GC32 World Champion. Apart from a brief falter in today’s final race, the Swiss team never finished a race lower than fourth....

Glenn Ashby: why I love racing in the GC32 Worlds

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Glenn Ashby was part of the winning crew in the GC32 World Championship in Riva del Garda as mainsheet trimmer on board Sébastien Schneiter’s Team Tilt. This was something of a retro-step from his position last year when he skippered the Emirates Team New Zealand flying AC50 catamaran to victory in Bermuda, recovering the ‘Auld Mug’ for the Kiwis. James Boyd interviewed Glenn just before the Worlds got going in Garda....

Sébastien Schneiter: How to nail the reaching start

Team Tilt on the edge of control in the GC32

Team Tilt skipper in the GC32s and 49er Olympian Sébastien Schneiter talks through the decision-making and preparation process that leads up to getting the perfect reaching start in a high-speed multihull...

The Foiling Tack is a Cup Gamechanger

SoftBank Team Japan AC foiling tack SoftBank Team Japan have bragging rights as the first team to pull off the foiling tack. As Dean Barker and Chris Draper point out, this really is a 'gamechanger' for the 2017 America's Cup, and opens up the tactical opportunities with the possibility of the foiling AC cats tacking on the windshifts...