T
he F101 was born of a
simple aim: lower the bar
for entry to foiling and
speed up the learning curve.
The team at Foiling World
(which produces and sells the SB20
under its Sportsboat World name),
alongside foiling specialist sailing
school, Pro Vela, jointly created the boat.
Throughout the design and build they
continually referred back to their easy
foiling concept as a key touchstone.
The result is a boat that is unusual in
many ways and must be assessed based
on whether it achieves its aim or not. The
boat is not comparable to a traditional
singlehander, but neither is it much like
other foilers. To a significant degree it
stands alone in both concept and result.HULL & DECK 9/10
The all-carbon F101 is no tiny, little
foiler.Wehavecometoexpect
foiling boats to be small, largely due
totheMoth’s11ftlength,butthis
preconception was smashed when I
arrivedatProVelainMarMenor,Spain
and stood next to this 5.4m (just under
18ft) long and 2.55m wide trimaran.
ThatIrefertoitasatrimaranis
also something of a reassessment for
me. I had assumed the boat would
feellikeafoilingmonohullwith
‘stabiliser’ floats on each wing. ButTRI
FOILING
The F101 is said to be a foiling
dinghy for the average sailor.
TOBY HEPPELL heads out to Spain
to see if it lives up to the hype
close up it is clearly a proper tri.
With the novice foiler in mind,
great focus has gone into simplifying
set up and controls. As such the
outhaul is a ‘set and forget’ deal. Vang
and Cunningham are cleated on the
deck and led outboard, with elastic
take-ups under the wing trampolines.
The aim of all this is to reduce
distractions from consistent foiling.
Setting up a foiler is no mean feat and
the team has gone to great lengths to
make it a simple and easy to understand
process. This is crucial for potential
and current owners – the Tribe, as
they call their sailors/class association- many of whom have been based
in Mar Menor, Spain, despite several
living in the UK. Set up is based on a
simple calibrated, numbered system
F101 BOAT TEST
SPECIFICATIONS
LOA 5.4m
Max beam 2.55m
Weight 75kg
Mainsail area 9sq m
Code 0 area 5.5sq m
Price £14,995 ex VAT160 Yachts & Yachting April 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk