Foilers for sale

Re "I don't think faster boats will ever be more popular. But i'm not sure there is anyone suggesting that they will.

TLDR version - there's lots of writers, classes, manufacturers and others claiming that fast craft are the future, and they say future in the singular which means normal boats need not apply.

Long ranting version - Problem is, Mozzy, there are lots of people suggesting that fast boats are the future of sailing. There's the 18 Foot Skiff class site that says "the future of sailing is extreme". There's this nauseating hype from The Foiling Week; "Now only one word describes sailing innovation and defines the future. That word is foiling”. It's accompanied by written slogan "we are the future". The Nacra 15 and 17 class, the Flying Phantoms, Whisper cat's US agent, Red Bull and others all use the cliché “foiling is the future”.

So apparently, there is only one future, and that doesn't include N12s, RSs, J/70s and 111s, gaffers, Hobie 16s, Lasers, Bics or Optis. You'd think that a bunch of allegedly forward-thinking people could stop all using the same cliché, but that's another issue. The main issue is that these foiling advocates are using a stupid, illogical and insulting marketing line.

The venerable Yachting World buys the hype, hook line and sinker in a way that I thought Matthew Sheahan would be above. For instance, he writes that the young generation get into 9ers and that "For those with Olympic aspirations, the queue for the 49er continues to extend around the block so to speak, but a new queue has formed for the Nacra 17, the twin trapeze cat for the next Games. (There is no queue it would seem for the 470 which I think says a great deal for what the next generation want to sail)."

But of course that's just complete tosh. The Nacra is actually slower selling than the 470 and far, far less popular than the 470 in terms of class members and boats in the ranking lists. It's obvious that Sheahan was utterly wrong. Not only that, he specifically and utterly incorrectly denigrated the appeal of an existing class. 

Matthew also claims "foiling has become the talk of the dockside wherever you are in the world." Really? I don't think I've heard anyone talk about it much at any regatta.

MySailing website claims about foiling that "for the very first time, sailing has a weapon in its armoury that is not only stopping the loss of teenagers from the sport – it is actually attracting new sailors of that vital age." Oh rubbish. The Australian Moth class report to the AGM said there is just ONE teenager in the whole class. There are a few in other classes but not many, and the claim that "weapons" like windsurfing, Hobies, skiffs, Cherubs etc have never attacted teens is appalling tosh.

Multihull sailors have been making the same sort of silly claims since Victor Tchetchet (sp) hyped up “the coming multihull era” in about the 1950s, and Piver concoted his bizarre fantasies about tris in the '60s. There's still this sort of silly claim from 2013; "in the next 15 years, if you are not racing a cat, you will be racing “classic” boats.”

The same sort of rubbish was spouted about shortboard windsurfers, skiff types, canting keel yachts and sportsboats. For some strange reason, the sailing industry has turned against the boats that are the backbone of our sport and is completely ignoring the actual direction the sport is going, which is towards simpler medium-performance craft.

Edited by Chris 249 - 04 Mar 19 at 5:31am

Nice, well researched rant, Chris.

The main thing to me is that there have always been, and always will be, different strands to the sport. All have a future, I hope.

With great respect, Moz, there's an issue in that the people coming up with the complete load  of b*ll***t hyperbole are also claiming that the cool factor is vital in influencing youth.  If youth are as easily influenced as the BS artists enthusiastic sloganeers allege, then the hype from manufacturers, journalists and top sailing who claim that foiling is the future must be harming the rest of the sport. The hypesters can't have it both ways. If being cool matters and is a positive, then having accessible popular boats labelled as being uncool and having no future must also matter and must be negative.

Edited by Chris 249 - 05 Mar 19 at 1:07am

Looking at one example of a young sailor from a sailing family, now aged 18...

He grew up sailing small, slow boats on a pond fairly far south of Nantwich. As a kid, sailed Mirrors, Toppers, Fireflies, got his asymmetric kicks in Fevas. Became a pretty good sailor, with access to pretty standard instruction and race coaching, but never wanted the Laser squad route, unlike his Feva buddy.

From there, became a DI, went to ProVela on the nice scheme they do, got a taste for foiling and fast boats, which had always fascinated him. Roll on a year or so, and he is working as an SI in Melbourne, sailing all sorts of things, from crewing a 420 to foiling Wasps, excuse the spelling, to doing some bow stuff on a yacht. He seems enthusiastic about each of them, and without them all his sailing life would be less full.

So, maybe we should expect foiling sailors to see their branch of the sport as the future. But maybe they should take a step back and look at what they say and how it affects the mainstream sport bringing them their stars.

And maybe us pond sailing seahuggers should see that foiling is something that appeals to, and is attainable for current youngsters. The price of a toilet might be out of reach, but buying stuff is so 20th century, isn't it?

Oh, and so are forums, so I doubt he will see this post...

Foiling is another blind alley like Formula Windsurfing was, hopefully the grass roots won't be destroyed by it like it was in windsurfing.