iFly15 Oct 2020 Sailing review by Arno Terra
Arno Terra has been involved in the DNA A-Cat since day one towards the development of the now famous Z foil. He is also an avid sailor always looking for the technical aspects of any platform. Arno also tested a soft Wing on the As and has sailed the iFly15 before…
Now he has visited Michael Miller at Lake Garda weeks ago to do an update test of the iFly15, the recreational 2x Moth wands system foiler that seems to be delivering excellent smooth performance.
Below Arno’s views on the iFly15. Video above sent by Michael Miller, photos by Arno. For more details on the platform follow our iFly15 label/tag below post or visit iflysail.com/
iFlying @Lake Garda by Arno Terra
“Last week I spend a few days at northern part of Lake Garda while Europe was in a new wave of Corona. It was a great pleasure to be guest of Circolo Vela Arco, the great club which did host so many A-cat events.In 2017 I spend only a few hours on the water with the then new Heru softwing Murcia at the Mar Menor. 3 years later in ideal circumstances I had the chance to get to know the iFly even better.
The boat flies really really well. It is simple to use as you just have to operate rudder and sheet but certainly not easy. High performance boats which go over 20 knots are never easy. The boat takes off at 8 knots of speed and just keeps accelerating. Pretty scary and I was wondering how I could land a boat safely which wants to keep flying. By going almost dead downwind and moving my bodyweight to the center of the boat I could land the boat and gybe it. When I felt more comfortable with the boat I even managed a foiling gybe.
The best part is that I could foil by sitting on the boat and I could have sailed the boat from Riva to Brenzone without touching the water. On the way back I could foil upwind, something I truly love. The boat flies over all waves, it flies much higher than the A-cat. Both height and speed were excellent. I had to build up confidence both in my skills and in the boat. But once I had the experience that the boat does not fall off its foils I started to play with it and the initial anxiety was replaced by pure joy.
The iFly was designed with the intent to be sailed with a passenger too. One afternoon we sailed with 2 iFly’s, one with me and Michael onboard and one with Gerhard and his wife Karin onboard. Michael and I weigh 175 kgs together and Michael was fully trapezing and I was sitting on the side. We were doing 20 kts both upwind and downwind with just 12.5 sqms. It felt incredible and I got an understanding why a relatively small sail was actually a good idea for this type of boat. It is not a two man boat though, it is a single handed boat but you can take your spouse or your kid for a flight. Sharing the experience, showing them what you love so much.
It is a fully carbon boat with a very sophisticated flight system. It was designed by Michael Miller who is both a former F18 sailor and an aviation engineer who worked on the Airbus 380. The high aspect carbon mainfoils are on par with those of the international `Moth and the flight system even has a gearing system, with which you can adjust the sensitivity of the flight system (flaps moving less or more). The advantage of active foils (foils with a flap) is that maximum lift is much higher than with Z-boards. The high max lift makes foiling gybes possible and foiling while sitting in. On paper a 4 foil system looks draggy, but both the A-class and the iFly show that it works for single handed boats. Both are using high aspect thin carbon foils and reach high speeds (A-class max 29 kts according Martin himself, and max 33 kts sofar for the iFly).
The relatively small sail and the active foils make the iFly quite accessible as it easy to learn to fly and the boat is very foregiving when you make a mistake.; It is easier to master than a Waszp, as a catamaran has more inherent stability than a skiff hull. At higher windspeeds it is fucking fast though and certainly not for beginners. Speeds over 20 kts require another mindset and you have to get used to these high speeds. If you put an unexperienced sailor on such a high performance boat in the Torbole/Riva winds, he or she will probably never sail a high performance foiler again.
Once you have mastered the boat you will notice that you do not need footstraps, which I found quite remarkable. The boat is sensitive to longitudinal weight trim but you only have to move a little to get the trim right. Technology wise and iFly is closer to a Moth or A-class than to a Waszp or Skeeta. That has its price but you get a very versatile boat which you even can sail with a passenger.
An active foil system has better heave (height) stability as an Z-board system, but you still need the same sailing skills to get the most out of it.
Foiling at `Lake Garda felt as a great privilege in these corona times; great venue, beautiful scenery and fantastic flights”.
CU all next season.
Arno.
