Super Foiler Grand Prix, Adelaide 2018: Euroflex 1st

Photo: Superfoiler Grand Prix. Video: Day 3 Highlights. Day 3 Live Replay here , Day 2 here.
Official event web superfoiler.com.-

When everything called for a crash and burn show… just watch Friday’s  Tech2 spectacular capsize & dangerous capsize above (looking closer though is clear an equipment failure caused the sudden uncontrolled lift off) ,  the Super foiler Grand Prix delivered some smooth controlled rides, specially by 3 of the most talented sailors around. Outteridge, Ashby & Jensen (team Euroflex) demonstrated how to sail & race the Super Foiler machine.

Perfect coordination plus downwind in 4pt foiling configuration which allowed easy paced foiling gybes paired with deeper angles for the mild sailing conditions from Sat/Sun.

Since Day one many of us have been skeptical on the SF concept , design & implementation. The initial tests were not encouraging at all, but slowly the project got on its foils and improvement was visible.

For the first event of the SF Grand Prix , Team Euroflex  dominated , with ID Intranet, skippered by Paul Campbell James, managing to lead the Aussie Top Guns in the first upwind leg of the final race. A fact that will put pressure on this first Adelaide stage winners, as the crews will get more time on the beast racing will become more even and fun to watch.

– Safety
Injuries are still a concern, previous pitch pole footage, Tech2 crash along this weekend Nacra 17 foil strike where Christian Lubeck got a deep cut in his leg by the rudder after falling from his trapeze ,  should place safety as a Nr 1 priority for the organizers.
The crews are been equipped with Forward WIP gear, I know the brand well and they really target to protect foiling sailors, but logistics, safety boats, paramedics etc will need to be there to provide an integral support for the crews.

– Design & required Skills
I’ve been speaking with Fer van West, from Morrelli & Melvin who designed the SF, through the whole development process,  and he was always confident on their design.

More wind will put extra pressure for the crews , and we might see more spectacular capsizes. Still as we wrote past days, crews onboard are Pros, and the Super Foiler handling is not for rookies or weekend sailors.

Fer van West  remarks this his comments about the below on the pitching tendency we’ve been seeing previous the first race :
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“In particular I think it’s due to the teams just starting to learn how to sail the boat. As with any new
boat, you have to get used to it.

That being said, this boat requires the best sailors.

The process will be similar to when the skiffs came out and it was deemed impossible to sail a 49er in more than 20knots of wind. There are many factors which can lead to a pitch-pole or sudden stop; Main-foil ventilation, the elevator settings, sail trim or waves etc.

Ventilation can occur due to much angle of incident of foil section through the water, bad surface finish of the foil or debris in the water.

Also foil depth in the water is a dominant factor, making smaller foils more prone to ventilation than the bigger foils.
Besides Foil Rake, the teams are also able to adjust Foil Cant which can increase your performance significantly but also gives less heave and pitch stability making it more prone to a sudden events of ventilation, so there are a lot of ways for the teams to find the limits of the SuperFoiler.

What’s exciting is that they’ve managed to get some of the best sailors in the world involved, these crews go straight into it and push really hard finding these limits.

Compared to other trapezing foiling boats, like the Nacra F20 or Flying Phantom, the speeds and accelerations are much higher.

The SuperFoiler really takes off and the accelerations are really impressive, the boat easily reaches up to 32kn of boatspeed, which on the Nacra and Phantom is deemed as the absolute top speed whereas the top speed on superfoiler is yet to be seen, however the VPP indicates +43knots! So for the crew in trapeze the impacts are harder. There are a number of ways to protect the crew and it’s a top priority for everybody involved.”
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Later in the week additional technical data provided by Fer on the SF design & control systems.
More info on the Super Foiler design by MM at morrellimelvin.com/superfoiler/
Results from Adelaide. More info at superfoiler.com/events/adelaide/