SailGP Formula 50 foiling catamaran regatta/racing news...
Racing just took place in Valencia Spain. Like always it was great racing and if you're an American the result was perfect. Team USA in this series, before the final had the following results: One 2nd and two 3rd place finishes, and one first place in the last race of the series. These results put them into 3rd place overall allowing them to be in the series final. It's all about consistency.
In the finally it was Australia, Italy, and America. In the end via some great tactics team USA was able to squeak out the win. Watch the Final below versus me boring about it.
For sailors wanting to learn the rules... Watching this type of racing helps one learn the rules of sailing, while having some fun doing so. SailGP is actually the only sailboat racing that is consistently viewed worldwide. Learn why its popular by watching it yourself...
Well, well the SailGP Team USA finally did it, they won the
racing series championships in Australia by being consistent on both days of
racing. Seem the USA athletes and teams are winning a lot lately. In the Winter
Olympics Team USA won the women’s and men’s Hockey Gold, among many other wins.
It was another Miracle on Ice for men’s Hockey. And now a great win for SailGP Team USA.
This was not the SailGP racing series grand prix final for
the season, but was a series win in Australia. This is a big win on their way
to a more consistent season than in 2025, which was quite disastrous for them. They now sit 3rd on the leader board out of 12 teams. Seems
the growing pains for this new team have molded them into a winning team. Congratulations Team USA!
The wind in Australia was very inconsistent on the 2nd day of racing, but SailGP Team
USA was masterful, particularly in the final with a great start and with masterful
tactics. They were able to create a
significant lead over the two other boats in the final, Great Britian 2nd
and Spain 3d place.
RESULTS...Feb 18-19, 2025, Sydney Harbor Australia
With 2 days of racing team Australia was set to win it all with 2 wins on the first day of racing, and with a series of top finishes on day 2, however due to penalty at the start of the final, they did not recover, coming in 3rd out of 3 teams. Team Britian had great finishes on both days of racing, they won it all in the end, with Canada coming in second.
It appears to me that the new forward T-Foils that replaced the L-Foils used for the first time in this race series seemed to perform well in all conditions, particularly in the strong winds over previous racing all the teams seemed to have better control. The T-Foils also produced better tops speeds.
The bad news is team USA continues to underperform. They outdid their previous horrible performances by not even being able to race due to capsizing on a practice day while not sailing, that is right, they were not even racing or practice sailing in any capacity. They were being towed and one of their idiot crew members allowed the wing to power up and not only capsize but to significantly damage the wing. So, they are the first team to get the Darwin award. On top of that SailGP penalized them 8 points for their stupidity because the capsize was avoidable (read the full story here). If I sound annoyed, that is an understatement. My official position is to cancel this whole team and start new. There is no reason team USA cannot be a top team, but they need to get the right team, like get some sailors who know how to sail a high-performance multihull, not employ a bunch of so slow mo monohull sailors. So, stay tuned, who knows maybe they can get their act together, but at this point I do not have much hope. I should note they did place 3rd in the first racing series of the year, so maybe there is hope.
102 kph, watch the video
In San Fransico Bay on November 15, 2024 SailGP engineers and support crew tested the new T-Foils with the help of team Canada on their F50, they hit for the first time 100+ kph (101.98 or basically 102 kph / 55 knots / 63 mph). Previously Team New Zealand hit 97.2 / 52 knots / 60 mph on Jan 13 in Waitematā Harbour in Auckland. It will be curious to see which SailGP team hits 100 kph / 54 knots / 62 mph during actual racing. We will report it here when it happens.
Planet Sail reports on the world of sailing, in the realm of pricy costings boats which is the opposite of FunToSAIL.com goal of bringing sailing to the averaged person without millions to spend on a boat, etc. Still Planet Sail does also report on racing and other interesting topic that can increase our sailing knowledge. We will post a monthly Planet Sail report.
This video shows the beautify of the former 12 meter Americas Cup yachts. A bygone day for the Americas Cup but not today for the 12 meter class. Some think these boats should be brought back to the Americas Cup after recent years of techy boats going for speed versus exciting close quarters match racing... Enjoy the video...
This a great video about the 1988 challenge for the Americas Cup via New Zealand. The Kiwi's built a boat they thought the Americans would not be able to challenge due to the lack of time the Americans had to build a competing boat, they were wrong as the Americans chose a catamaran with innovative wing sail that was easy to build in a short period of time. It was amazing how the Kiwis thought the cat was unfair when they tried to steal the cup with a boat they thought could not be challenged. Needless to say the Kiwis lost big time. They did go to court in 1989 to try and get the cup in which the judge agreed the cup should go to NZ, but then Team USA went back to court and the judge agree the Cup would stay in the USA. So NZ lost on the water and in court. Good news is the sailing world learned about the advantages of multihulls and wing sails.
The wing sail has been used since in two more Americas Cups but not in 2021, however the racing series SailGP is still using the wings with great success, allowing SailGP cats to reach 50 knots, no doubt 60 knots is in the foreseeable future.
A fun note is Hobie Cat was involved in the designing of the USA catamaran.
I should not the news videos are heavily biased toward the Kiwi's perspective due to the reports coming from NZ. Regardless its a fun bit of AC history.
The first series of the Americas Cup World Series took place last week with mixed reviews on the boats. These large foiling monohulls seemed very unstable on day 1 but the teams seemed to get better control of the boats on day 2. Ultimately Team USA won the series over New Zealand.
Team New Zealand hit 49 knots for a moment but over all the speeds in strong winds was 30-40 knots as compared to the smaller SailGP cats of 40-50 knots. So the SailGP cats still have the top speed advantage and seems to be smoother in turns. Still the new AC75 foiling monohulls are fun to watch.
The whole AC Americas racing process to win the Cup starts with the Prada Cup this February 15th to determine which 2 boats will enter the Americas Cup final. My bet is on America Magic Team USA winning it all.
On a sad note is to watch it live in the USA it cost $175. It may be worth it to you to pay the fee but not so for me, thus why I am reporting on the results so late.
It was certainly nice to watch some sailboat racing again after a whole year of cancelled races.
Here is the highlight video from the racing (video does not show the difficulties they teams had in controlling their boats).
It is highly likely that in the US at least most if not all sailboat racing is cancelled. SailGP has cancelled both their US events and its likely their races in Europe will be cancelled as well. Also this years Americas Cup world series racing looks to be cancelled as well, as right now the racing is on hold. And most small local races are cancelled (check with the clubs who are sponsoring the regattas). So what to do? 2020 will be the year of recreational sailing. Some US states have closed parks and boat launches leaving waters open to only those with boats at private homes and in marinas that are still open. Check with your state agencies, businesses, etc. for launch and marina closures. So again what to do? If you have a small light weight sailboat like a Super Sea Snark or Hobie Cat or Island, or other, one can launch from public land that does not have a launch as long of course its not closed off. The reality is no state can block every piece of shoreline to the public. As long as there is no stay-at-home order that restricts out door activity one can go sailing with appropriate social distancing (see boating rules below in pic). If you go to a location and there are a lot of people there just go somewhere else. Social distancing must be maintained during this time until lifted. The words "beach cat" take on a whole new meaning when needing to launch from a beach, etc. If you have never launch from a shoreline without a paved launch it takes planning and doing so from a place that is not deep with mud, etc. Sandy beaches are perfect or areas with gravel type surfaces. One will want to use a beach dolly or lay down a piece of carpet to keep the bottom of ones hull(s) perfect. If the surfs up one will need to learn to launch and land through the surf. If you have questions please leave a response at the end of this article. We also have a new book coming out that covers this topic and many more. Visit Boating the Inland NW section of funtosail.com to find fun places to launch from in Eastern WA. and North Idaho. Sorry I have not finished the NW Montana section. Click Here!
SailGP did it again with another start to a great season of racing! If you have not watched the racing its available on youtube at this link youtube.com/sailgp. This is the second season. SailGP has produced a yearly world racing series that finally allow sailing fans to follow their favorite teams like with other sports, i.e. football, etc. Technology used during the racing is amazing. Each boat has cameras and audio aboard to allow fans to get up close to the action on any of the 7 boats racing. Use the SailGP app and one can even get closer to the action. Not to mention the highly informative commentary and race evaluations throughout the event adds more to the experience. SailGP and Oracle have certainly accomplished making the racing exciting and viewer friendly. Just in case you read anything negative about SailGP racing I have noticed sites like Sailing Anarchy complaining about the racing, calling it a circus, etc. Mocking SailGP's efforts to Go Carbon Neutral and calling the boats old Americas Cup (AC) cats. None of this is of course true. Nothing about SailGP is a circus, even though some of us might like circuses. Any effort to Go Carbon Neutral is a positive if done not for political talking points or to be woke. SailGP truly wants to Go Carbon Neutral in the spirit of helping our environment. And as for the boats being old, this is just not true as the boats called F50's are totally new, with new technology. The old AC cats could never hit 50 knots like the new boats are doing. Guess their are always wet blankets and should not be a surprise coming from Sailing Anarchy. Now for the racing... In short team Great Britain (GB) dominated! They won every race except one. The last fleet race of day 2 they seemed to have some kind of issue at the start, they took off in last place and worked threw the fleet and finished 4th. If there had been one more lap I have no doubt they would have won that race also. The home team of Australia (Aus) won that race. The final match race was between of course GB and Aus, and again GB won easily. Aus and Japan took the 2nd and 3rd positions overall in the series. Team USA again was in the middle of the fleet finishing overall in 5th place out of 7 boats. They did have great starts but their average top speed again lacked like last year. If they do not get their average speed up they will continue to be a lower fleet finisher and likely some of the team members will be replaced with new members that can step up their game. They finished last in the first season, if they finish last this season its game over and there will be a new team in season 3. Sorry if I sound negative as I know these boats are difficult to sail well, but results matter at this level of the sport. So overall the racing was amazing and exciting. SailGP has done a great job making the racing exciting and presenting the racing in a way that even those new to sailing can understand. In addition SailGP has put together the Inspire Program for youth sailors. They use the RS 16 foot cat (sadly not a Hobie Cat) with spinnaker, and Wasp foiler. Youth are the future of the sport and makes sense they would make youth an integral part of their efforts. The youth racing can also be viewed on the SailGP youtube channel.
As a small boat sailor I mostly am interested in sailboats of no more than about 25-27 feet or 7.6-8.2 meters. Most sailboats I currently sail and own are 11-20 feet/3-6 meters long. Any boat above 27 feet/8.2 meters is more work to take care of than I am interested in as I would rather sail than work on a boat. I do take super good care of my boats, as a solid boat always produces great sailing adventures. However when it comes to watching sailboat racing/regattas I prefer to watch big boat racing. I love to watch the team work on board and close quarter racing, particularly at the starts. I primarily watch SailGP 50 foot high tech racing cats but there is also the Americas Cup (AC) boats I am also interested in. If you are not familiar with the AC the boats change design every 4 or so years. It all started out on big monohulls for 161 years, then went to multihulls for 3 Americas Cups in a row with the last two being on foiling catamarans, and now they have gone back to monohulls with the added twist of the monohulls being on foils, which has never been done before, and maybe not not again if the design does not work well. The new AC boats have a 68 feet/20,8 meters long single hull, add the bowsprit and the length is almost 74.5 feet/22.7 meters. The boats are called the AC75's indicating 75 foot length but based on the noted numbers they are not 75 feet long. The previous AC boats where cats called the AC50 at a length of a little over 49 feet or 15 meters with a top speed of 47.2 knots/87.4 kph. A fair comparison in size would be with the 2013 AC72 cats that were 72.2 feet/22 meters long, add the sprit and they were 86 feet/26.2 meters long. So the length was based on the actual hull(s) length where as now its based on the hull and bowsprit length. The AC75 mast weight is almost 86 feet/26.5 meters tall compared to the AC72 at 131 feet/40 meters tall. So the new AC boats are smaller overall but heavier than the AC72, at 13,000 lbs and the AC72 cats were the same weight, yet larger. The AC50 weighed only 7,000 lbs and posted the fastest speed of any AC boat thus far of 46.2 knots. I bring this up because some monohull sailors think the AC75 will be as fast as the AC72 or the AC50, I just do not see this based on the measurements and other factors. They say technology has improved, which is true, so maybe the AC75 will hit 35 knots, MAYBE, but not 40 knots like the AC72, and no way will it hit 50+ knots like the new SailGP F50 cats. Current speeds of the AC75 is from 20-30 knots, way short of 40 knots of AC cats and much slower than the F50. With speed put aside, regardless I think the racing will be interesting. Because the AC75 is a monohull they have put the two weighted/ballasted foils (another story of why these heavy foils have more drag than the non weighted foils on the cats) that swing up and down on either side of the hull. When going up wind the windward foil will be pulled completely out of the water. Reducing drag and putting weight way out to windward to help keep the boat level. One issue with this, is the other boat racing needs to keep clear of this large foil hanging off the side of the boat as they race. I assume during the starting series they will keep the foils in the water to avoid entanglements. This will be interesting to see as both boats will want to pull up their windward foil at the start line, if they are close together the windward boat will be able to do so while the leeward boat will not be able to, resulting in an advantage for the windward boat. That means at the starting sequence it will be up to each team to gain the advantage and be the windward boat. At least that is how I see it. The leeward boat could also try to make a gap between them so they will be able to pull up their foil. If your not a racer, and particularly not into AC racing then you might not get any of this. The point is with having large weighted foils hanging off the side of ones boat it does mean more caution will be need to not get tangled in this hanging foil. So I have mixed feelings about this new boat design. Most think the move to monohulls was just because the monohull purist did not like the catamaran, which is highly likely, and wanted to get back to monohulls but still wanted the excitement of foiling. Only time will tell if the move to big heavy foiling monohulls was a good idea. The good news is the foiling catamarans are here to stay in the SailGP racing series and in others events, and now the monohulls can try their hand at foiling to see if its viable. For me this will be highly educational. My prediction is the AC75 is going to be slower than the cats and have potentially some stability and safety issues. My hope is I am wrong and it all turns out to be great fun to watch. I might add I do not believe I am wrong about the speed difference. Here are some videos and links to show you what is going on with the AC75 so far...
This is a nice video of the NZ AC75 going through its paces. First part of the video you will notice the sail is not up and is being pulled by a powerboat. This was the first day the boat was on the water and they were testing if for safety, etc. Rest of the video shows them sailing at 20-30 knots.
Sailing in strong winds. Looks like they are have having difficulties keeping it on the foils and sailing in a straight line
Yes these boats do capsize
Here is what 50 knots looks like on a SailGP F50 cat!
If one is wondering how the development of the new AC75 is going, news is not well. 36th America's Cup officials are painting a real rosy picture with its development. However others are getting pretty nervous with the thought of sailing an incredibly unstable 75 foot foiling monohull monster with 11 sailors on board (needs more crew to handle the beast). In the previous AC they talked about capsize issues with the cats but with these new monohulls they appears to be much more unstable, unsafe. In the various promotional videos it shows the smaller development boat only flying along in a straight line, with CGI effects added. Their videos always cuts off before turns, etc. In this non official video I have posted here it shows the true issue with the design with a pretty spectacular capsize crash. Notice the floats hanging of each side of the boat.
Lets hope no one gets seriously hurt and that they are wise enough to pull the plug on the project before someone does. If they want to race monohulls they should put the boats back in the water and leave the foiling to the multihulls.
You might ask what's up with the 36th America's Cup (AC) going back to monohulls after the highly successful last two AC racing on foiling catamarans? The truth of the matter is everyone knew if New Zealand won the AC their goal was to go back to monohulls as the powers-that-be hated the multihulls. Going back to monohulls was purely a decision of monohull versus multihull mentiality, and because New Zealand won so did the monohull purists.
So the plan now is not just to go back to big beautiful monohulls but to take it a interesting step further and race on 75' foiling monohulls, called the AC75. Yes you read that right, foiling MONOHULLS. Even though the designers of these vessels feel they can be successful with the design there are many well educated designers who feel the opposite. In the end, when the boats hit the water the truth will be known.
The AC75 monohull plan is to have one large wing sail and folding ballasted foils on either side of the boat, and one fixed foil aft. That is the main gist of it, even though there are a lot more smaller details to the design. The wing sails design is well known and so with that knowledge particularly from past AC wing development that is not a big challenge to complete. Team Luna Rosa is developing a new wing sail on an old AC catamaran (see video below at the 5:07 minute mark). However I am hearing some talk of using soft sails, from Grant Simmer of Team UK.
Arguably the biggest design challenge is the forward ballasted folding foils on either side of the hull. The challenge with a ballasted folding foil is it's heavier and thicker profile than the previous thin non ballasted foil on the AC catamarans with thus more drag and having to lift them in and out of the water. The weight plus the increase drag is causing excessive strain on the foils. The new smaller test boats are showing this issues via cracking and breakage. It should be noted the increased drag likely means the AC75's may not be able to foil in as light winds as the previous AC cats. Plus lifting a 1000+ pound foil in and out of the water has its own challenges. One must ask while foiling up wind, while doing a tacking dual if they will be lifting those heavy foils quickly in and out of the water, over and over.
Then there is the issue of stability and avoiding capsizes. It is interesting to note how monohull sailors mocked the AC cats for potential capsizes, and now it appears its a bigger issue on these foiling monohulls. At the 4:17 minute mark in the below video you will see the test boat crash (notice the stabilizing pontoons on either side of the boat and CGI video editing) and Grant Simmer (CEA of team UK) comments about the many capsizes, while not smiling (4:52). The idea of the design is that the ballasted folding foil hanging out of the water on the windward side of the boat will offset the heeling to excess. Problem is the ballasted foil is only so big so its effect on stability will be variable based on wind direction and wave conditions. The AC cats had the advantages of width and length, sailors sitting on the windward side as ballast, plus an inline rear and forward foils. With the AC75 monohull it has limited width, length may have a limited affect, sailors weight is more central, and the foils are offset, i.e. one in the middle on the stern and one to the leeward forward. Maybe they could put two steering foils on the stern to improve stability and steering.
Appears to me due to the noted design challenges they may have to limit racing in stronger winds for safety reasons, and realize foiling in light winds will not be possible and during tacking duals.
So with these noted issues and no doubt other issues that will develop one can only ask if the added cost and challenges are worth going from the proven AC cat to the unproven AC75 foiling monohull. To the unbiased the answer is obvious but to the fixated monohull puriest the obvious is not obvious. Additionally you might ask what does Jimmy Spithill think about this new class of AC boat? You might also ask what Jimmy has been doing since the last AC as it seemed he dropped off the end of the earth after the last AC. Here is his comments on this topic from his interview with CNN's MainSail programme. America's Cup veteran Jimmy Spithill has labelled the new boat to be used in Auckland "a beast" that will take the game to "another level" (good or bad?). Australian Spithill has remained strangely quiet since joining Italian syndicate Luna Rossa after winning and losing the Auld Mug with American billionaire Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA. It seems the man who was the dominant skipper in the cup's multihull era - winning on a massive 113-foot trimaran in 2010, defending on a monster 72-foot catamaran in 2013 and losing in a smaller version foiling cat last year – is intrigued at the prospect of a return to monohulls under the orders of new Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand. While the 75-foot foiling monohulls to be used in Auckland 2021 remain on the designers computers, Spithill has garnered enough knowledge from his new team who are the Challenger of Record, to have a good feel for what's in store. "This one will be another level," he predicted (up or down?). "It's extreme, it's expensive, from first take, and what we are seeing, it's unstable, and it's going to be very, very physical. "Will it work? That's the question. The America's Cup has always been at the leading edge of boats. Look at what's happened over the last decade. The AC72 kind of reminds me of this boat in that it is very, very powerful and never been done before. "The speeds we could have for a monohull… it'll be a beast of a boat. It's out there." Spithill famously destroyed one of Oracle's AC72s in a capsize in the lead up to the 2013 Cup when pushing the limits under high winds on the San Francisco bay. He sailed for Luna Rossa in the 2007 America's Cup, skippering their boat in Valencia in the last phase of monohulls. He was at the helm when they lost the Louis Vuitton challenger series final 5-0 to Team New Zealand. With Oracle out of the frame for the next Cup, Luna Rossa were quick to snap up the experience of the 39-year-old who has been involved since 2000 and has an intimate knowledge of foiling. He has been used as an on board strategist for Luna Rossa's development phase in the TP52 Super Series which is raced in conventional monohulls and the Italian syndicate is proving highly competitive. Spithill has also maintained his ties to Australian maxi Comanche, helping them to third in the annual Sydney to Gold Coast race this week, where they frustratingly surrendered their lead 15-miles from the finish as light airs hit, allowing their rivals to catch them.
The first of the new America's Cup boats are due to be launched from March 31 next year 2019.
36th America's Cup takes place March of 2021. I will keep you up to date on the AC75 development.
It's summer and there is a lot going on in the Inland Northwest related to sailing. In 2013 there are many sailing regattas taking place within the Inland Northwest... such as the Desert Regatta that just took place this last weekend (6/16-17), which we will report on soon right here on this blog. On the right on this home page and a little down the page is our calendar, check out the dates for our sailing classes as well as up coming regattas and adventure trips.
ATTENTION: The July 21 Spokane River Rendezvous needs to be changed. Due to all the rain we believe the water will still be moving to fast over the dam that we will be sailing next to in down town Spokane so the July 21 event has been change to sailing the amazing Horseshoe Lake (click here to learn more about this lake). We are still planning on doing the Spokane River but we may have to wait until Aug. or early Sept. If it keeps raining through all of the summer (hopefully not) we may have to wait until next year.
We normally do not post events or news about sailing outside of the Inland NW but the Americas Cup is an except. This June 26-July 1 is the exciting final of the Americas Cup (AC) World Series in Rhode Island USA. The USA syndicate is only 4 points in the lead and so the championships is up for grabs, I hope the USA wins. Here is a video of the history of the AC I thought you all might like to see. To watch and learn more about the Americas Cup visit www.americascup.com
