Formula Foil Worlds 2020: Crown for Nico Goyard

Vanora Engadinwind by Dakine 2020, Silvaplana, Switzerland. Formula Foil World Championship 2020. All images by Sailing Energy / Engadinwind. Complete gallery here.

Final day for the 2020 Formula Foil Worlds was a blast. Although Nico Goyard had the title almost secured he pushed till the last race. His speed was definitely superior than the rest of the fleet. After grabbing the PWA Foil title in 2019, this Formula Foil Class Title with the entire lineup of top pros & Olympic hopes put Nico as the reigning force in Windfoil racing.

Nico raced with an entire Phantom setup, even the board he designed himself.

With the title surely in hands of Nico, the fight for the remaining spots for the podium was intense. Reaching the final race, 9F , there was a triple tie for 2nd place with Pont, Thomas Goyard, and Pierre Mortefon at 29pts each. Maciek Rutkowski pretty close with 32pts.

The complete podium was going to be decided in the very last race. In F8, Mateo Iachino (Starboarf IQFoil /Severne) finally found speed and finished 2nd behind Nico, and in the last race Mateo went a 1 to 1 match race almost with Pont, both got ahead of the fleet and were exchanging positions.

Being at the podium zone the entire event and with the triple tie at stake, Pont only needed to leave his closest competitors behind in this last race, 1 place was enough. His Experience showed to be lethal along his speed, and Pont got ahead of the pack along Mateo.

He reached the 2nd windward mark first in full control of his closest competitors for 2nd and 3rd overall. Mateo just behind him gybed early and manage to lead.
Nico Goyard was speeding from behind like a train and also got Pont in the end, but those weren’t a worry for the Polish RSX 2012 Bronze medalist. His goal was to defend his podium spot and he did it with full confidence and style. Pushing harder last run he might even won that final race, but a guy with his hours on the Course knew that any little mistake was game over.

He finished 3rd in this last race and he closed a great Championship.

Second place overall then for the “Dark Horse” of the event , Przemyslaw ‘Pont’ Miarczynski. Aside his extensive RSX pedigree not many had him as a title contender for this Foil Worlds as he does not race PWA or even do Olympic IQFOIL campaign, in fact he is the actual coach of the Polish squad. But as we commented precious posts, we had him on the radar and we told some local friends to watch him at this regatta.

We also reported on his equipment already, a Formula 177 Starboard , RSX boom, proven Severn HGO and now the also super proven Exploder foil built by Jakub.

Pont is the new Star of this great new foiling sport, Windsurf Foil in all its versions is one of the most exciting arenas to enjoy super smooth flights and prove yourself in the Course race.

With the 2nd place defined, there were 3 more looking for the final spot, Maciek Rutkowski (Exploder/FMX/Challenger) had a great event finish and 1 error that might had costs him the podium, a dsq in race 8. his finals scores were 2,2, dsq and he managed to finish ahead of the podium candidates in F9 to give himself a final chance, but it was not enough. Maciek was up there performing and should confident for the future, more with his latest PWA Slalom (Foil / Floating mode combined win some weeks ago in Croatia.

Pierre Mortefon, another top French sailor that had a great regatta , finished 7th in the last race and was enough for him to get the 3rd overall over Maciek and Thomas Goyard (Phantom/FMX/Phantom).

Pierre sailed with the French designed & built Loke Foil , and the Fanatic / Duotone combo.

Looking top results table below , you can identify 3 different foils in the top 3, plus 6 different Foil brands in the top 10. If someone has any doubt how competitive this Class is they are invited to review this data several times.

I always hear complains on the Formula Windsurf Class and how only one Fin manufacturer was delivering the only performing 70cm fins. Well if that was the case back then, it is not the case now with Formula Windsurf Foil.

In fact till yesterday, this same people were the ones telling that Starboard was the only choice, even for Formula Foil and the other brands were not an alternative, with the exception of Phantom Windsurfing, on their PWA known success.

But well, you know the drill and our own view on the matter from our long time reports on the Formula 18 and A-Class Catamaran Classes.
In the end always the top sailors prevail and of course they will be riding proven equipment, but the beauty of the Formula Classes is to select the one you like more or better suits your costs & needs.

If you want to race all with same equipment, Next week the One Design and new Olympic Class, the Starboard IQ Foil will have their first European Championship, an historic milestone for Windsurfing in this new Era.

Final Day Live Stream replay: catsailingnews.com/2020/08/formual-foil-worlds-2020-day-4-live-stream.html

Live & Replay Tracking: tractrac.com/event-page/event_20200817_Engadinwin/1927

Top Ten below, complete results at foilworlds2020.formulawindsurfing.org/results/gold-men