Calls to ditch foiling vessels

YACHTING

AUCKLAND: A growing number of leaders in the sailing world are calling for the America's Cup to rid itself of its foiling boats .

The last three competitions for the America's Cup have been contested by boats with foils, which have both increased the pace and cost of racing.

Some sailing experts believe these have been experiments that have gone on long enough and a return to more traditional boats will provide a better spectacle and quality of competition.

New York Yacht Club commodore Chris Culver told the Sailing

World website last month that if American Magic wins this year's Cup it would ‘‘put the boat back into the water’’.

‘‘It will be somewhere between 80 and 100 feet in length. It will be a displacement monohull that is good for traditional match racing. You need to be able to see the boats from a distance, and the boats need to be majestic.’’

Culver's opinion has now been backed by Italian sailing great Riccardo Bonadeo who told the La Stampa website yesterday that foiling boats now in use were taking the sport too far away from its definitions.

‘‘There must be technological evolution, but on boats that sail. I share the New York Yacht Club's idea of new 80100 displacement hulls for the next edition,’’ Bonadeo said.

‘‘With the AC75 we have entered another dimension, where aerodynamics are more important than hydrodynamics.

‘‘In fact, we speak of flight, not navigation. And the seafaring skills of the crew are no longer enhanced, but other characteristics are required of the latter.’’