homson decides to ease everyone
into the experience. For an IMOCA60
designed to sail almost exclusively
downwind, upwind sailing is relatively
pedestrian. She is light enough on
the helm but you deinitely get the
impression that she has plenty more to
give as we all give upwind work a try.
Sure enough, it is when we come to
turn downwind that Hugo Boss really
lights up. homson talks Alison and
Andy through the technique to get
the best of the boat and explains that
you need to sail quite a high angle to
get the foil fully loaded and providing
righting moment. At that point,
bearing away a little pops the bow
and the acceleration really kicks in.
“Sailing around on the foil, you
can feel its bending moment because
the whole boat is sitting on the foil,”
he explains. “In really big breeze you
have to be quite careful, but the boatBelow
Alex Thomson
demonstrates
his skills before
allowing our
winners to
take overGETTING SAILING
Out in the Solent in a reasonable breeze
luctuating from 10-15 knots Alison is
irst to take over the tiller of Hugo Boss
to get a feel for how she sails, and straight
away was blown away by the experience.
“We only owned a 20t daysailer so I
have never done any sailing like this
before!” she exclaims. “A few years
ago we moved away from Burnham
and are now living in the Midlands so
I was a little bit worried it might take
me some time to get my sea-legs in.”
Fortunately for Alison and Andy,At that point, bearing away
a little pops the bow and the
acceleration really kicks in
July 2018 Yachts & Yachting 39