Foiling Week 2019: Ifly camp report.

All images by Martina Orsini / foiling Week 2019. Video by Horue Movie – Report below sent by Michael Miller, builder of the iFly and who also won the All Foilers division in this 2019 Foiling Week Edition. Report below made and sent by Michael.

Seems there is some vibes between both camps (S9 & iFly) and its understandable as Michael started selling and promoting the S9 and then went to built his own platform. He has done a great work as Foiling Week 2019 results, stable flight and sales show.

Now on the racing performance aspect for a definitive answer I think we need to organize more regattas. S9 view was published past week here.

By Michael Miller: iFLY15 winning Foiling Week “All Foilers “ with an impressive 1-1-2-1-4

“Also strange behavior to see 2^nd and 3^rd placed sailors jumping on the winners podium during price giving, while winner is absent due to being called away to help a sailor on the water.

Overall race results “All Foilers” :

Race day 1

In all three races of the day, the overall winner boat iFLY15 GER-001, helmed by E-Michael Miller was first boat on the finishing line by large margins. Even though the more experienced regatta sailors were on the other competing designs, iFLY’s sheer advantage in boat speed as well as in excellent angle / vmg made the difference. In race one, iFLY GER-001 arrived at the finishing line with more than 1 minute before the second boat. This is especially remarkable, as in a relatively short race of less than 30minutes the iFLYs had to make up for a 4 minutes lag from arriving late at the starting line. (see Race day 1 interim result iFLY GER-001: 1-1-1, later corrected to DNC-1-1 due to some sail number issue).

6 iFLYs had come to Garda to enjoy their 6 day beginners foiling training before Foiling Week. Some of the fleet dared to do their first attempts on the race course, encouraged and guided by Miller: «As the designer of the iFLY, different than my fellow iFLY sailors, I have experience with the boat. However I am far from being a good regatta sailor. Completely different story than for the competitors. Federico Feletti (Italian champion in a-class (classic) and famous Teo Di Battista are clearly the far more experienced sailors and I made many huge mistakes in sailing and tactics (even showing up late for race 1). This sometimes created significant lags. It was great fun to easily make up for those lags with sheer boat performance. In full foiling conditions the difference in boat speed and vmg was very pronounced».

Race day 1 saw perfect sailing conditions between 10 and 20knots of wind.

Interesting was to see one very obvious difference between the design: iFLY15 went full foiling upwind, with moth style windward rake (leeward hull higher than windward). This proved to provide good angles and far higher speeds. “And it is so much more fun than sailing conventionally with leeward hull in the water, different than the competing designs.“ adds Miller. On the downwind leg, it was remarkable to see full trapezing while going very deep angles and having sail trim exactly as upwind, due to the impressive apparent wind. iFLY performed several foiling gybes.

Race day 2 saw some variable wind conditions. Not always foiling, tactical cleverness and knowledge of Garda wind systems had a even greater influence on racing results, despite iFLY sometimes flying when the competitors didn’t. Teo and Federico (both S9) showed some impressive tactics and light wind sailing skills. However, the achieved advance melted away very fast, as soon as it was about stable flying conditions, while running with same wind on the same leg. “Big congrats to Teo and Federico’s excellent sailing skills that allowed to deliver good results on race day 2.”

Somehow it is true, what Michele Petrucci writes: “The final races results do not show us the reality of this race, as Teo Battista could only particiapate in 2 races”.

With excellent sailors as Teo and Federico on the 3 S9 racing and regatta newbies on the 6 iFLYs, the result could have been even a lot more clear in favour of iFLY.

Miller : “And a DNC instead of a first place for iFLY GER-001 in race 1 also was a nice proof of the performance of the iFly on the water”

iFLY fleet is looking forward to all coming races of the emerging Formula Foil, where we will race again. But be prepared. One day, some experienced iFLY sailors might show up, instead of newbies ????. That’s going to be great fun!

And we can prove to the sailing world, that those boats are not just for recreational sailing, but they are powerful racing machine – DESPITE sailing stable.

It is so funny, that some sailors seems to see a contradiction between stability and performance. Clearly, the contrary is the case: stable foiling with high speeds is key to success. In car industry it is unthinkable to go racing with a high performance car without optimal road holding enabled by high developed chassis. And in avionic, where higher stability and quality standards apply, anyway.

“Flying boats are airplanes and they need high-tech engineering” is the opinion of Miller, who designed and brought to perfection the iFLY during the last 4 years with an international team of experts.

As an aviation engineer he is very familiar with technical solutions to improve stability of flight.

Sailing a Foiler in strong winds:

Foiling Week showed another nice insight: Race day 1 was ended by a strong wind front passing the lake from the North. It was interesting to see some iFLYs flying stable in more than 25knots of wind, heading away lee-wards towards Fraglia Vela Malcesine harbour. Different than during racing, where downwind foiling was performed for maximum vmg (trapezing with sail trim just as upwind) in those strong winds applied the safe flying mode: Flying safely while sitting close to rearward crossbeam, traveller open, and actively helming + mainsheet work. If still feeling uncomfortable, or in even stronger winds, iFLY can be switched to “No Fly” mode within seconds. The boat will then not fully take off, but be extremely stable to sail. Earlier this year, this was successfully tested in winds of up to 40knots.

Sportive greetings.

Michael

All Divisions Results Foiling Week 2019 – Source https://fragliavela.sailti.com/it/default/races/results