Foiling Week GARDA 2017 – Final Day

Class Racing

The local ‘Peler’ Garda breeze filled in early in the morning on the final day of

Foiling Week to bring the class racing to a fitting finale. The northerly breeze

lasted until mid day before fading, the southerly ‘Ora’ never able to

materialise.

The Moths were the largest class racing with 42 boats from 13 nations, all

getting valuable practice time before the Moth Worlds to be held on the same

waters in two weeks time. Rob Greenhalgh (GBR) is no stranger to the Lake

having won the regatta last year. Greenhalgh fired off an impressive 8 bullets

in 9 races to comfortably win the regatta. Improving steadily in second was

Scott Babbage from Australia who has had quite a lot of time out of the boat

working with the SoftBank Japan America’s Cup team. Babbage finished just

two points ahead of Ben Paton (GBR).

The Flying Phantoms have become regulars at Foiling Week Garda. The

overall regatta became a close contest between the two Realstone boats

from Switzerland. Throughout the 12 races held, the two training partners

enjoyed regular place changes but Bruno Barbarin & Cedric Schmitt (SUI)

came out on top with a string of wins. Robin Maeder & Janik Roempp (SUI)

were second overall and the German team of Sven Klingenberg & Stefan

Rumnf GER who are still learning in the class, in third.

The S9 class has continued to develop the design and have become a

popular foiler at Foiling Week. Seven boats sailed 9 races and the top three

boats were all Italian. Vincenzo Sorrentino won the regatta with 7 wins.

Second overall was Elia Mazzucchi and third Michele Petrucci both with

consistent results.

The Kite boards who always provide a real spectacle at Foiling Week, raced

just south of Malcesine on a separate race course. The top three kites on the

podium were also Italian riders. Mirco Casale scored the most wins, followed

by Enrico Tonon and Valeria Venturi.

Foiling Trials

The light conditions proved ideal for more women and youth sailors to get out

on the lake and try foiling for the first time. The Waszp and the F101 were the

popular choice.

Occasional sailor and entry level foiler Petrina Rizzotti and her 9 year old

daughter Ottavia had a go in the Waszp.

“I tried once but I couldn’t foil but on the second time I managed to foil twice

and it was great, it left the feeling that I want to try it again. I definitely want to

learn and do it again.”

Ottavia aged 9 went out on the F101 and became the youngest foiler of 2017

Foiling Week. She said, “It was great, it feel very good.”

Griselda Khng from Singapore who usually sails a 49er FX skiff, had this to

say about her Waszp flight.

“I had a lot of fun, I have tried the Moth but I think I was in a lot more control

in the Waszp because i am pretty light, I was really impressed that I was able

to control the boat a lot better than the Moth. Also the Moth has side stays

and last time I tried to gybe I crashed and that was the first and last time I

tried to gybe, I was actually pretty scared before I went on the Waszp today.”

“But when I was up on the foils I thought it was really fun, I didn’t feel so much

vibration on the foils like the Moth, and I thought if I crash, at least I wouldn’t

hit the stays and injure myself.”

“It is a lot different to sailing a two person boat because on the FX you are on

a trapeze so I was definitely working my legs a lot more hiking out. Yes I

would love to buy one and sail more.’”

During the afternoon a group of youngsters got the thrill of their lives with

rides on a v20 Electric foiling solar powered vessel as they paraded up and

down the lake in front of Fraglia Vela Malcesine.

Foiling Week Garda 2017 enjoyed four days of frantic foiling fun at a superb

location. There are more Foiling Week events scheduled later in the year and

early in 2018. Events are planned in Miami, Punta del Este and Sydney.

Details will be revealed shortly.

Final Results

Link to Results: https://myregata.it/en/2017/22/The-Foiling- Week-2017

More info:

Foiling Week foilingweek.com

FW Trial & Experience Camp foilingweek.com/pages/season-

2017/garda/fw-expo- and-trials/

Magenta Project themagentaproject.org

BMW Yachtsport bmw-yachtsport.com

Slam slam.com

Gurit gurit.com

Persico Marine persicomarine.com

Marlow marlowropes.com

Torqueedo torqeedo.com

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Press Release – July, 7rd 2017

Foiling Week GARDA 2017

The first day of the 2017 Foiling Week was bathed in warm sunshine and

humid sailing conditions on Lake Garda with the typical ‘Ora’ afternoon

breeze never really building to full strength. It did however prove ideal for trial

sailing onboard the armada of foiling craft on show.

Classes including the Flying Phantoms, S9 and a host of prototypes took part

in organised racing as part of a Foiling Week regatta series whilst a varied

selection of foiling craft were made available for trial sailing. The list grows

each year at Foiling Week Garda and now includes: the Waszp, S9, F101,

iFly15 and the Whisper.

Jerry Hill from the F101 was particularly pleased with his first day of trials

onboard the new F101.

“We had a good day on the water today, conditions were a bit light at times

but we had enough wind to go foiling, we had a number of people trying the

boat for the first time and these were guys who sail Lasers, Dragons and

other boats but had never foiled before. We managed to give all of them

about 15 minutes in the boat and out of 9 people on the boat today, 8 of them

successfully foiled. This included a disabled sailor. All came in with a massive

grin on their face saying it was phenomenal! So I think we put that down as a

good day.”

The S9 continues to develop and each year the class grows at Foiling Week.

With established fleets in the US and in Italy and growing interest in the UK

market the small foiling catamaran is an ideal entry level foiling boat for all

ages, sizes and abilities. Alfredo Bernad from Spain is racing the S9 this year

after a trial in the boat at last years Foiling Week.

“The S9 is a very clever boat, its like a sailing school boat for flying, it is a

good boat for a beginner and can be handled very easily. I think it is a good

boat for the future. It’s an ideal boat for kids and female sailors because it is

not so much about the strength but technique. Its like an entry level

catamaran.”

There are more and more Moths arriving every day to practice on Lake Garda

ahead of the Moth World Championships taking place at the same venue in

Malcesine in a few weeks time. The entry list has more than 220 boats and

confirms the venue as one of the foiling capitols of the world.

Exhausted sailors came ashore after long day on the water to the now

infamous Foiling Week pasta party at host club Fraglia Vela Malcesine to

replenish the energy reserves and share their experiences with other first

time foilers.

Results link: https://myregata.it/en/2017/22/The-Foiling- Week-2017

Gurit Foiling Week Forum Day 1

The first day of the Gurit Foiling Week Forum focused on the core subject of

Safety.

John Craig – (PRO 2013 America’s Cup and deputy PRO 2017 America’s

Cup) and (Regatta Director for the Extreme Sailing Series), spoke about the

lessons learnt from the last two editions of the America’s Cup and the need to

continue to improve race management at major high performance regattas.

After discussions at Foiling Week Newport in 2016, a World Sailing (Safety

Working Group) was established to initially draft racing rules and safety

requirements for ‘fast boat events’ predominantly aimed at professional

events with on the water umpires.

With accidents at both the 2013 and 2017 Americas Cup still very raw and

close calls at other regattas including the Extreme Sailing Series, particular

attention focused on the 3 boat length zone and the ultimate requirement for

much greater room for safe mark rounding and also the training of support

boat/media boats as part of the race management safety plan. Even with

chase boat qualifications the support boats/media boats need to be much

further away from race course marks in Craig's view.

“We still have a long way to go” he said on progress, “but at least there is

momentum.”

International Moth Class President, Scott Babbage has come straight from

Bermuda as part of SoftBank Team Japan to get some valuable practice time

on the waters of Lake Garda. With an entry list of more than 220 boats, this

years Worlds will be the biggest fleet ever and a logistical hurdle in terms of

race management.

Scott is aware of the issues and advises us that the fleet will be split into

groups and raced on separate race courses. Scott also told the Forum that

the class has a great respect for the 3 boat length rule in the zone and that

the class is to a degree self policing, but that specific race rules have not

been necessary for big regattas to date, but it is something the Moth class

continues to monitor.

At the Forum experts like Francesco Feletti, an extreme sports medicine

specialist and Marcello Bencini from Dainese, who created the body armour

for Emirates Team New Zealand, showcased the protective gear created

specifically for high performance sailing competitors.

Davide Tagliapietra, a structural engineer for Groupama Team France said,

“Its up to us to put pressure on the rule makers to include human safety in the

design packages of our foiling craft, for example impact and protection

around cockpits”.

The Forum then heard from teams involved in the 35th Americas Cup in

Bermuda. Andy Claughton from LandRover BAR shared his perspective on

how the kiwis got the upper hand in the 2017 Americas Cup by providing an

insight into the strategies that helped the team win back the ‘Auld Mug’.

On the successful Emirates Team New Zealand team he said,

“It took 5 years for the sailors to expand their confidence and sail this design

without freaking out”

“The kind of mentally that ETNZ had was, “Throw the ball as far as you could

and try and reach it”

“Sailing these boats is like balancing a pencil on the top of your finger.”

The Round Table discussion included Bobby Kleinschmidt (Appendage

designer at ETNZ) who briefed the Forum on the trickle down effect of

knowledge and analysis from the Americas Cup.

“The exciting thing for me is that we are able to use technology developed in

industry and apply it to sailing”

“The immediate trickle down is that people working on these cup boats will be

working on other boat designs in the future.”

The Forum on day 2 (Friday) will focus on the core topic of ‘Sustainability’

including a sustainable Mini 6.5 craft and innovative ways to reduce

emissions in regatta management.