tells you quite quickly that it is time
to pull the foil in: it becomes very
uncomfortable, lying around. Mainly
it’s down to sea conditions. Oten your
foil won’t actually work, because it
might not be in the water, in the top
of a wave and it can be a bit on-of.”
In the lat-ish water of the Solent,
however, it is working beautifully –
though the wind is probably a touch
lighter than ideal, meaning we are sailing
some pretty tight angles to get the foil
functioning properly. Even so in the
breeziest part of the day we are regularly
hitting high 20 knots boat speed.
“It was amazing,” said Alison. “It
was by far the fastest I have ever been.
I think I managed to hit 25 knots
when I was steering but it was odd,
it didn’t really feel all that fast; it did
feel diferent but not too fast, and then
I looked over to see the chase RIB
struggling to keep up, going lat out, and
I realised just how fast we were going!”FOILING SENSATIONS
From the outside it is pretty easy to
dismiss the move to semi-foiling
monohulls in ofshore races as just
another step in the quest for more
speed,butitistellingthatthosewho
regularly sail these boats are inclined to
describe it as a revolution. Sailing Hugo
Boss,itiseasytoseewhythepraiseis
so easily forthcoming. he sensation
whentheboatisproperlyengaged
is remarkable, there is a conidence
to lean on the foil and generate ever
more speed and righting moment for
ever-increasing speeds and so more
rightingmoment.Itfeelslikeanever-
ending feedback loop of positives.
Itisalso,asmyself,AlisonandAndy
allfound,quiteeasytostopthinking
aboutwhatyouaredoinganddropof
the foil, forcing you to go through the
process or re-building speed. To a degree
itfeelslikesailingadinghyinmarginal
planning conditions. Watching Alex
competently resume the helm, it’s clear
toseethatwhenyougetitright,you
are of and accelerating, but pick up a
wave incorrectly and you are dropped
back into displacement mode. It is an
addictive game to play, but I’m not sure
it is one I would care to play day in, day
outforalapoftheplanet.Andthatis
before the issues that the foils create with
themotionoftheboat,whichswitches
fromthefamiliarwhennotfoilingtothe
veryunfamiliarwhenthefoilisworking.
“During the Vendée, occasionally
Iwouldstopforawhile,likeater
Cape Horn when we had two high
pressurestodealwith.henwhen
you start lying again, you have to get
used to it all over again, because it is
such a diferent feeling. he boat can
be vicious. he way you move around
theboatchanges.It’snotjustthedeceleration, you can fall over from the
acceleration. It is unbelievable,” says
homson as he recalls his last lap.
For Andy and Alison, as newbies,
itwasreassuringtosaytheleasttobe
trying all this under homson’s careful
instruction. “Alex was great, he is
justsuchastar,hewasreallypatient
andopenanditwasgreattogetago
steeringtheboat,”enthusedAndy.
“It was fascinating to see that we had
afullcrewouttodayandwewereall
taking turns steering and then the rest
ofthecrewwereworkingthegrinders
or trimming the sails,” added Alison. “I
just don’t understand how Alex is able
to do all that by himself for so long. It
is just so impressive, and he was saying
that he barely manages to sleep, or he
sleeps for a few minutes at a time.”
Buttheseareallskillsthathomson
takes in his stride as he admits that the
major focus for improvement is now on
consistently foiling. It’s something he
andhisteamareavidlyworkingon.By
the time he takes delivery of the next
HugoBossandgetshertothestartlineof
the next Vendée, his team will probably
havemorefoilingdatatopickover
than anyone else on the startline, with
homson almost certainly the most
experienced foiling IMOCA60 sailor
on the planet. Whether this is enough
to convert his two previous podiums
into that elusive top spot remains to
be seen, but he has probably the best
chance of any sailor in recent memory.
Meanwhile, for Alison and Andy it was
backtodrylandandareturntomore
conventional sailing. Alison described
the day on board Hugo Boss with Y&Y/
Dream Yacht Charter as a “once in a
lifetime opportunity” adding, “If I see
the competition again I will deinitely be
entering. Maybe I can be lucky twice!”Above
(Left to right)
Dream Yacht
Charter’s Loic
Bonnet; winners
Andy and Alison
McGukin; Dream
Yacht Charter
ambassador
Alex Thomson
Below
On board with
Alex as Alison
get her first taste
of steering Hugo
Boss upwindC/O ALEX THOMSON RACINGON BOARD ALEX THOMSON
In the flat
Solent waters,
the foil works
beautifully and
we’re hitting
the high 20s
40 Yachts & Yachting July 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk