MARTINA ORSINI; ONEDITIONgo down to your club, no one will lend
you their boat because you’ll break it! So
you have to hope manufacturers will give
you a free demo, but because the skillset
is di erent, that route isn’t open either.”
Fortunately the dinghy foiling
landscape is changing and whereas once
a Moth was one of the few available
options to those wishing to experience
airborne yachting, today there are several
alternatives, in a variety of styles.
By far the most popular remains
the 11 Moth singlehander, where, at
their world championships not only are
there massive eets (at Lake Garda in
2017 there were around 200 boats) but
ones bristling with Olympic medallists
and America’s Cup skippers. In terms
of hardware, the Mach 2 remains by
far the most proli c; however for
the ultimate in re nement there is
also the UK-built Exocet (winner of
the last two world championships)
from Maguire Boats, and the Rocket
from Aardvark Technology. ese all
employ the standard T-con guration
rudder and main foil, with ride
height automatically adjusted by a
wand, hung o the bow, mechanically
articulating a trim tab on the trailing
edge of the main foil which controls
the height at which the boat foils.MULTIHULLS
For that mini-America’s Cup experience
there are now several foiling catamarans
available. Built in the UK is White
Formula’s Whisper. is has a T-foil/
wand arrangement in each hull,
much like two Moths side-by-side.
From France is the Flying Phantom
catamaran which began life as a testThe empahsis is increasingly less on ultimate
top speed and more on getting airborne
Above
Foiling Moths en
masse at the 2017
Moth Worlds
Below
The UK-built
Whisper is a little
like two Moths
in parallelFEATURE FOILING
platform for Franck Cammas’ all-
conquering, ying Groupama C-Class
winner. It is a smaller sibling of the
GC32 (used on the GC32 Racing Tour
and more recently in the Extreme
Sailing Series) and has similar J-shaped
foils and T-rudders to those used
on America’s Cup catamarans.
Most proli c are the o erings from
Nacra. e 20 FCS also uses J-shaped
foils and T-rudders, while the Dutch
company’s latest foiling version of the
Olympic Nacra 17 was introduced in- One of the most high pro le
foiling catamaran classes is also one
of the most high end: the A-Class.
is now includes many foiling boats
such as the DNA F1 and eXploder,
despite a class rule that aims to
prevent foiling through a limitation
on the lateral span of li ing foils.
LOW STRESS FOILING
Recently yet more variety has come
on to the market, with two boats both
designed for less stressful foiling. e
F101 is a trimaran-Moth hybrid or as
Alan Hillman describes it, “a Moth with
training wheels”. Designed by Ron Price,
the man also behind the Whisper, the
F101 isn’t built to a rule and at 17 long
by 8 wide is substantially larger than
a Moth with a long bow that makes
her virtually pitchpole-proof while
the ‘training wheels’ all but eliminate
capsize. All this makes the F101 much
more suitable for beginners. As Hillmanpoints out: “If the wind drops o , 90
per cent of people wouldn’t be able to
sail a Moth home in low rider mode.”
Signi cantly, as the boat is larger
and more forgiving, it can either
handle a ‘larger’ singlehander or be
used as a one-plus-one. As Hillman
says: “You can coach on the boat or
you can take children out foiling. One
of the best sails I’ve had was with my
11-year-old – we were hooning around,
safely, with so much fun and low
stress. We can even sail it three-up.”
He also observes that as foiling as a
sport is maturing, emphasis is increasingly
less on ultimate top speed and more
on getting airborne in the least wind
and the subsequent stability of ight.
Newest of the dinghy foilers is the
Quant 17. is is a smaller version of
the Hugh Welbourn-designed Quant
23 ying scow, a multiple award-
winning boat from 2016. is gets
airborne using Dynamic Stability
Systems foils. e original patented
DSS foil is a slightly curved retracting
foil running laterally through the boat.
When deployed to leeward it creates
li and therefore righting moment.
For the Quant 23, the DSS foil shape
evolved so that it also produces li
below the boat, raising it clear of the
water. is similar foil technology is
now tted to the two-person Quant 17.
A joy of DSS is that it is ‘deploy and
forget’: ere are no tricky trim tabs
or rake controls, the inherent shape
of the foil does all the hard work. It is
also ‘dynamic’ – the faster you go and
the more righting moment the boat
requires, the more righting moment
the foil provides. e boat is also as
happy foiling as it is low-riding.February 2018 Yachts & Yachting 49DINGHY_SHOW_AC_GChjg_TH.indd 49 14/12/2017 16:35