by Tommaso Vitale

From June 28th to July 1st, at Fraglia Vela Malcesine, Lake Garda, Foiling Week will celebrate its fifth anniversary.

“The Foiling Week is the place where the foiling community meet and discuss. And sail and have fun” says loudly the Foiling Week’s mission statement, and in each location where the event was kept, this was proved. Fun time for everyone involved in this awesome event, staff and foiling regatta sailors indistinctly, where awesome activities are designed to touch every age range.

Garda
All the spotlights then must be directed towards the main event, the main course, the icing on the cake: Lake Garda. With this year’s event, Lake Garda first regatta turns 5 years old and all eyes are on it. By far the most appreciated place to foil, by many sailors defined also “the paradise” that everyone looks forward to, entries are now open since June 1st.

Since 2013, thanks Fraglia Vela Malcesine, Foiling Week found in this place a great support and participation that raised awareness in a way bigger than anybody could have expected: more than 100 boats, from 21 different countries, found their opportunity to test themselves and race each other in a marvelously windy place like this.

Foiling Week Regattas (June 28h to July 1st)
Within the event, few key elements will compose alongside. First off the FW Regatta: Moths, A-Class catamarans, Prototypes and a new class of boats will join the racing, the amazing 26 feet catamarans Easy to Fly will be at Foiling Week as part of their international circuit.

All classes will race on the one design race course, and then all together will race the FW Long Distance Race. This year the Long Distance Race will be run in two separate legs, the first in the morning from Fraglia Vela Malcesine to Campione in the opposite side of the lake, then, after a BBQ on the Campione Univela Club, the second leg back to Malcesine.

Gurit Forum (June 28th to 30th)
Another composing element of the event, concerns the Gurit Forum, that will be run in the morning and will touch topics like accessibility, safety and sustainability, dressed with discussions on latest AC designs and production boats. The forum will have again the presence of several AC designers such as Bobby Kleinschmidt from ETNZ , designer and manufacturers of new projects such as Alex Udin from Phantom International and Aurelio Proserpio with the new 10ft Pocket Foiler dinghy designed by Hugh Welburn, inventor of DSS.
Jean-Loup THIERS, SJet Project Leader of AIRBUS will show a presentation on electronic stability control.
University projects by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) will be presented by professors and students plus there will be the launch of 2 design competitions and Guillaume Verdier will present a fund-raising project.

Finally, in addition to the traditional Regattas and Forums above stated, FW provides a Foiling Boat Coaching by Paul Goodison and Andrew “Macca” Macpherson, Learn To Fly courses and free Foiling Boat Trials by Phantom International.

Foiling Boat Coaching (June 27th)
Paul “Goody” Goodison, three times Moth World Champion will coach a Moth clinic dedicated to beginners and intermediate level moth sailors. Boat rigging and set up, foil tack and gybes, all the questions you always wanted to ask.

Andrew “Macca” McPherson, Nacra Olimpic Coach will host a catamaran beginners-intermediate level clinic. Learn the secrets of boat rigging and set up, how to make your foiling cat faster and faster. Learn from the best!

Learn to Fly (June 28h to July 1st)
Have your “First Flight” RYA 90 minutes course with the opportunity to test sail with professional coaches all different sort of boat.

All the team at the Andrew Simpson Watersports Centre (ASWC), Lake Garda, are very excited to team up with Foiling Week from June 28 – July 1st. As a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) recognised training centre, we will be running foiling taster courses from the NEW RYA Foil Training Scheme throughout the four days of Foiling Week.

Alongside the Official Test Centre (OTC) we will be offering opportunities to try and Sailfoil or Windfoil. There will be a range of foiling kit available for both sailing and windsurfing, adults and children, and all tuition will be delivered by RYA qualified Foiling Instructors with RYA taster certificates issued to all those who participate.

The ASWC team looking forward to showing how accessible foiling can be, offering both sailors and windsurfers the opportunity to experience flying above the water along with the foiling community at Foiling Week later this month.

Free Foiling Boat Trials (June 28th to July 1st)
20 minutes test rides of the Flying Phantom Essentiel will be available after booking.

The Flying Phantom ESSENTIEL Is An 18’ Versatile Catamaran Easy To Use And Able To Fly In A Wide Range Of Conditions. The Foil Configuration Makes The Boat More User Friendly And Less Physically Demanding For The Crew. The FP ESSENTIEL Can Reach 20 Knots In 10 Knots Of Wind, With Top Speed Over 25 Knots.

With all this being said, Garda will represent continuity and innovation, following the past season’s events: Sydney and Miami.

Sydney
In the first Foiling Week’s edition in Sydney, hosted by the Woolhara Sailing Club between the 11th and the 14th of January, numbers were absolutely encouraging and, with the hope that next year this event will gather as many people as Lake Garda, a true paradise for the sailing lovers, did over the summer, a great amount of America’s Cup sailors and little talented kids showed up enthusiastically. Yes, kids… if they can, why would not everybody else. To develop and raise indeed a bigger awareness by these little talents, the Foiling Week, partnered with Harken, organizes trials and give them the opportunity to “be taken somewhere else” as one of our little athletes said. Different location, means different atmospheric conditions and so slightly different foiling crafts that may better adapt: A-Class, Moths, Flying Phantoms, SuperFoilers and Windfoils are some of the boats that flew around the water with big, red, eye-catching Slam sponsors on. Hard to go wrong.

Miami
If the level of the participants was already stunning in Sydney, the event in Miami, hosted by Shake-A-Leg from the 15th to the 18th of February, did not let the expectations down either; Paul Goodison, the British gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in the Laser class straight out of Sheffield; Christopher Ballin, Torqeedo’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder; and Greg Ketterman, top level boat designer, were just few of the many incredible personalities that FW was able to gather. It does not end here though. As well as the kids’ trails, FW, takes care of giving the opportunity to either outsiders, or also insiders, to learn more, or new interesting materials about the matter through the daily Forums, sponsored by Gurit, where innovative ideas for sustainable initiatives also applicable to the “outside” world take place: “but we need everyone’s support” as Christopher Ballin said.

Hence, with Garda’s event, the 2018 season kicks off

• June 28th – July 1st Foiling Week Garda @ Fraglia Vela Malcesine, Garda, Italy
• November 16th Foiling Week Award
• December 13th – December 16th Foiling Week Sydney @ Woolhara Sailing Club
• Febraury 21st –February 24th Foiling Week Miami

More info, entries for the races and booking for activities at
old.foilingweek.com/garda-2018/