Olympic & small boat news: A pervasive influence

Andy Rice is off in search of other classes where foiling is moving beyond the occasional 'experiment'

The foiling Moth has been capturing the imagination of sailors (and non-sailors) around the world ever since Rohan Veal first burst onto the scene a few years back. From being a 'garden shed' development class that attracted a few eccentric magnificent men in their non-flying machines, the adoption of hydrofoiling has launched the International Moth into a new era of prominence. Rohan Veal has experienced being mobbed for autographs by kids when he visits boatshows, and the class is increasingly talked about as a genuine cause for Olympic selection.

So if hydrofoiling heralded a new dawn for the Moth, why has no one jumped onto the bandwagon with a doublehanded foiler? There have been one-off foiling experiments with established skiffs such as International 14s, 49ers and 18-footers, but strict class rules have generally prevented the idea from properly taking off.

The R-Class in New Zealand, on the other hand, looks set to move en masse into foiling, just as the International Moth has done over the past five years. Then again, en masse is a relative term, as numbers in the R-Class are not that high to begin with. Indeed, that is one of the attractions of adopting the new foiling technology – that it could breathe new life into a class with a long and interesting history of development.

The stronghold of R-Class sailing is based in Canterbury in New Zealand's South Island, although foil developments are beginning to emerge in Auckland too. Like the Moth, this Kiwi doublehander is governed by a short list of rules. In many respects the R-Class bears comparison with the 12ft skiff, being a similarly proportioned twin-trapeze skiff with gennaker. Unlike on the 12-footer, upwind sail area is restricted to 13m2, but the R-Class makes no restriction on hydrofoils, which are banned in the 12.

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