Nacra 17 in Foiling mode for 2020 & Nacra 15 confirmed as ISAF Youth

by Editor · Published November 16, 2015 · Updated May 24, 2019

Image: Laurens Morel – Nacra has now the monopoly for the Olympic & Youth official Multihulls. This means a major responsibility on providing boats to the whole range of top sailor from all ages. Once you have the marketing and sales goals covered, now Nacra needs to focus on delivering high quality products for the money aspiring Olympic sailors & youth parents are investing.

Nacra has a solid design background with Morrelli & Melvin behind the lines of their newer boats starting with the Infusion 2006 and following with the F20, F16 , N17 and the 15. Now Nacra needs to equal MM benchmark bar at their building factories. Sailors racing the Olympic circuit need to cut their costs down and receive reliable and campaign lasting products, more with foiling entering the scene.
Here the Nacra F20s have not suffered any structural failure, sailing in +20knots and hard chop, they have been quite reliable. Olympic boats have a more intensive use though.

ISAF has a great role on controlling builders, and when we talk about ISAF official boats, the ‘suit guys’ are the Nr 1 responsible as they are the ones making sailors to buy x or y with no other alternatives, and like politics in the end the ones putting the hard money are the sailors themselves.

I think a sailors own association is needed to lobby, negotiate and present demands to ISAF to pressure in a more efficient way to defend sailor rights

Comments from ISAF conference website: sailing.org/follow/2015-annual-conference-blog.php
“…then turned attention to the long-term ISAF
Events Strategy reviewing the IOC Agenda 2020 recommendations. The
committee focused on the format and qualification system for Tokyo 2020.
In advance of the Events Committee meeting, the Equipment Committee put
forward a recommendation on the future of the Nacra 17. The Events
Committee endorsed their recommendation to evolve the Nacra 17 into a
foiling multihull for Tokyo 2020. It was also agreed that a long-term
strategy for the 2024 Olympic Games and beyond was essential…”
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Press Release sent by Nacra Sailing / www.nacrasailing.com -Nacra 15 exclusive multihull ISAF Youth Multihull Youth Worlds Championships 2016 Onwards & Youth Olympics 2018 Onwards.

November 2015 Sanya, China
ISAF council just decided that NACRA 15 will be the new and only official youth multihull used in ISAF championships & IOC Youth Olympic games. Two years ago, the worldwide governing body of sailing (ISAF) initiated the process to replace the previous youth multihull to a modern multihull that fits better in the pathway towards the Olympic NACRA 17. The Nacra 15 can be considered a mini version of the Olympic Nacra 17 and proven in tests to be the boat for youth teams to compete in.

Bold Move
Nacra Sailing international made a bold move by designing a new multihull from scratch to the supplied criteria by ISAF. These criteria were drawn up by a technical working party consisting of specialists from ISAF. “Yes we took a risk by starting from scratch and to come up with a brand new design. But we are convinced that if we want to win the hearts of the youth, we started by taking youth seriously and came up with our solution. Our solution is the NACRA 15 with curved (lifting) dagger boards in combination with stabilizers on the rudders” according to Peter Vink, Technical Director and in charge of the design team at Nacra Sailing & Performance Sails. “ It proved to be the right solution once more, after study we realized that the perfect multihull for youth sailing did not existed yet. We hope future generations will love it as much as we do.

Challenging tender process
“A tough nut to crack for Nacra Sailing, we entered this tender with a modern multihull design with three sails, Mainsail, jib sail and asymmetric gennaker. As multihull manufacturer we have to deliver two hulls, two rudders and two curved dagger boards compared to monohull manufacturers. A big challenge to keep the price as low as we will ” according to Commercial Director Gunnar Larsen“ But we succeeded and hope to welcome many new young sailors in the Nacra 15 class which can use this as “steppingstone” towards the Nacra 17 class after the year they have become 19 years of age.

Multihull is back to stay
The multihull world now has proper representation at the highest level of sailing at both fronts. In the Olympic class with the Nacra 17 and the ISAF Youth worlds. Nacra Sailing & Performance sails will do it its utmost to promote multihull sailing in the world and to convince as many young sailors, how tactics and strategy can be combined in high performance classes and having fun while going really fast. ISAF & Nacra are depending on the youth and parents of this world to show up in big numbers at regattas to challenges themselves.

For photos requests of the Nacra 15,
Please contact: [email protected]
For video look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOoUIhdalKg

For more information please visit the website of ISAF www.sailing.org or the website of www.nacrasailing.com
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