AC35: Foiling Tack by Oracle

Old news, but I didn´t publish it yet. Aside the flying tack itself is also nice to watch top level Pro AC sailors going nuts on the sole achievement. All of us cheer & feel good when progressing in any possible way at any class. I still remember our firsts F18s rides, on our own designed & built F18 , the goal was to keep one hull flying all the time on the downwind Spi runs… Glorious days as we learnt by our ourselves, all the rest but Lange & Camau, were racing Lasers at the time!

Now that I’m also sailing the A the goal is long foiling runs, on the FP/ F20 the guys are looking to nail the foiling gybe and the ACup guys are two steps forward completing their first foiling tacks as seen at Softbank Team Japan and Oracle video above. Their skills are superior but is clear new foil designs are making a huge difference as noted.
Basically we are seeing flat horizontal main foils with much added surface, copying the Moth T super efficient foil & rudder elevators.

The holly grail of 100% foiling will be achieved at Bermuda LV / AC Finals and question now is when we will see these foils on racing beachcats as seen last cup aftermath with ‘TNZ’ foils. The As still have the over the top foil load limitation, that can be overcome by cassettes cases, which were discarded after some tests made at Takapuna Worlds 2014.

But foil design has come a long way since, so we might see some new attempts. Custom double handed & 3pt foil system cats like Mischa’s Texel M20 can test these new ‘Ls’ foils without much hassle as can be loaded from below.  Current production F20/FPs will surely maintain their series foils, as they are well proven and I doubt a first L foil version will top their performance.

S9 & UK Whisper are indeed using Moth style T foils.
Sunnuck’s M20 Vampire is already using something similar, straight blades a la Moth but not set at 90° . All boats above  use wand systems though.