MATTHEW SHEAHAN

Opinion is divided but the sport Of sailing will Only improve as a result Of the technology developed in the 35th america’s cup

Where do you stand on foiling? Are you for, against or ambivalent? I ask because the 35th America’s Cup seems to have polarised opinion on whether this is the way forward for our sport.

You may think that there is nothing unusual about this. It is, after all, an extraordinary way to conduct a race and, as such, is bound to stir debate. But there are a number of issues that have surprised me as I have listened to the wide range of views.

The biggest surprise has been that the general public is more accepting of foiling than the sailing community. To non-sailors, the combination of speed and manoeuvrability, enhanced on screen with the Liveline graphics, brought the competition alive, while making the racing easy to understand. Few were asking whether this was really sailing; the sport and spectacle was all that mattered.

By contrast, it is the sailing community that is most critical of foiling in Cup sailing. Some take their objections to the extreme, describing the flying cats as boring, while calling for a return to the glory days of monohulls.

I’m not quite sure how you can draw such a conclusion from boats that race at speeds that would have broken the world sailing speed record just 26 years ago. The Challenger series was very competitive, providing lead changes on a regular basis.

I have watched and written about every Cup race since 2002 and would argue that, up until the latest America’s Cup, the majority of the racing was a one-sided affair with plenty of dull matches.

The focus on foiling is understandable, but there seem to be a number of misconceptions as to where the new technology will take our sport. ‘I think it is irresponsible to allow and promote technology that would provide weekend sailors the ability to sail at such speeds,’ was one view that was put to me recently.

That is not going to happen. We are not about to see everyday racing monohulls pop up onto foils and scorch off at 30 plus knots. Physics won’t allow it, at least not on any ballasted yacht that has a power-to-weight ratio below that of an IMOCA 60.

But foiling is making big inroads in the dinghy and multihull world, where power-to-weight ratios do allow it. Here there is a big appetite to go flying; a staggering 220 entries at this year’s International Moth World Championship proves that.

Twenty years ago the skiff revolution took high performance sailing to another level, bringing in twin trapezing, bowsprits and giant gennakers. The rest of the sailing world didn’t collapse around it. Indeed, conventional hiking classes have continued and even thrived as new designs incorporate some of the advances that skiff sailing delivered.

So, I believe there are two key areas where the recent America’s Cup will have a beneficial effect in the sport. The first is in the lessons that have been learned to allow foiling further offshore. The launch of the latest Gitana, a 32m foiling trimaran (see page 10), is a good example of that. Her designer, Guillaume Verdier, who was one of the key brains behind the Kiwi Cup success, freely admits that the new boat is not about flying all the way around the world or hitting blistering top speeds, but about raising the average speed of a long passage sail.

The second will be more relevant to many of us and derives from the control systems and technology that have been created to achieve stable flight. The development of ABS, the anti-lock system is a good analogy. Conceived originally for aircraft to increase braking efficiency and to prevent tyres bursting, the technology is now standard in our cars.

Control system technology may provide big advances in the way that future autopilot systems work. It may even lead to the introduction of stability systems that prevent the puke-inducing, gunwale-to-gunwale rolling motion of many a goosewinged cruiser heading downwind.

So can we really go back to grand prix boats that plod around the course at 20 knots? I hope not, at least not for the most prestigious event in our sport that has, for once, engaged the broader general public.

So whether you’re in favour of foils or not, I’d argue that the future is more about where the learning curve leads us than the flying, wing-masted cats themselves.

‘WE ARE NOT ABOUT TO SEE EVERYDAY RACING MONOHULLS POPPING UP ON FOILS’