Foiling Week 2016: S9 Camp Report
Photo: Martina Orsini / Foiling Week 2016. – Report from the S9 Team, which was present with 4 boats at the Foiling Week 2016 Edition held past week at Garda. Interesting comments on the S9 matching some powerful double handed foilers like the FP to the windward mark, will check more feedback on this.
Michele Petrucci’s recreational foiler has become the standard and benchmark in that niche with some other similar boats coming out to the market soon that copied his entire concept, and when any of us follow trends for our own projects is clearly that the guy being copied is leading the way, the cycle hopefully continues to the benefit of final customers and sailors , given you haven´t mold or substracted propietary info from the competition of course…
To me the S9 has the perfect size for this type of boat, and if they can make the thing race, well the better. In this aspect outside pure recreational flight and based on the S9 team comments a more powerful rig might be needed after what I saw at Punta Ala.
Below by leading the camp within the recreational market foilers
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Vela, Malcesine, proved to be an excellent location for The Foiling
Week 2016 with easy access to the sparkling waters of Garda lake for all
the foilers both small and large. The club house and facilities
together with the organizational skills of TFW team proved to be a real
winner with both the Stunt S9 team and everyone we spoke to. Smiles on
faces, is a real indicator of the success of an event and there was
plenty of happy faces around.
rigged and ready for their first blast by midday on Thursday 7th July,
just as the wind was beginning to fill. After a couple of hours on the
water, Frederico, Michele, Steve and Vincenzo were ready to race. The
wind was a steady 12knts to 15knts and with small waves, which created a
perfect playing field for the S9s. All of the crews flew high and fast
upwind showing great speed against the Phantoms and lone Whisper. All
of the S9s appeared to be achieving the same angle and speed as the
Phantoms and were undoubtedly easier to sail giving the crews a very
stable platform. The S9s appeared to sail higher and faster upwind than
the Whisper. It was easy to get a measure of this as the S9s shared
the same gate as the Phantoms, Whisper and the Moths. The gate was only
50 metres wide and around 50 foilers sharing the gate led to some very
interesting moments!
The next day saw a 20knt breeze and half
metre rolling waves. The S9s performed incredibly well in these
conditions, Steve hitting 17knts upwind and Federico 24knts downwind
with Michele and Vincenzo first and second respectively on the race
course showing greater all round ability on the boat.
The Stunt
S9s created significant interest with those watching from ashore and
competitors on the water. This small boat was sailing as fast and high
and in perfect balance against some giants of the foiling world.
Five
guys arrived from Barcelona to test the boat and a top Italian Tornado
sailor who took great interest in having a go himself. Much of Friday
afternoon and evening was dedicated to these taster sessions. All of the
guys managed to fly within 10 or 15 minutes. On Sunday Benoit Marie,
his friend David and their partners jumped on the S9, unfortunately with
a wind struggling to hit 5knts the guys didn’t get the opportunity to
foil despite Benoit attempting to lift the hulls doing the “wild thing”.
For
anyone wondering what all the fuss is about I can only suggest you put
your toe in the water. Foiling is here to stay. The very best sailors
in the world are competing at the top events on foiling boats. The
innovation has been a massive step forward for the marine industry with a
plethora of new designs and styles being raced and tested in the
prototype class.
The Foiling Week 2016 presented a tremendous
opportunity for testing and showcasing. The Stunt S9 team are already
looking forward to and planning for TFW 2017 and We are trying to be
present at TFW in Newport, in September”
