There's fast and then there is REALLY fast

It's finally here, a blog post worth reading. I've been wanting to write about this topic for a couple of months and now I've got some footage that really brings it to life.

In New Zealand, my brother in law, Sean, and his crew, Dan, have taken their R-Class sailboat to a whole new level, literally. First, let me explain that the R-Class boats are basically rockets in the water. The boats are about 18 feet long, crewed by two people, extremely light and have huge sails. The design of the boats is pretty much unlimited too (other than length) which means they can really innovate. Here is a picture of their boat last year. Notice that it's barely in the water.















And now, here is a picture from this year. Notice anything different?



It's the two hyrdo-foils that they've added. When the boat gets up on the foils (which can happen even in pretty light wind) they almost completely erase friction from the water. And with that, they can almost double the speed of the other boats in their class. In a race that normally takes the fleet 40 minutes, they can finish in 25.

They were recently interviewed by a Kiwi TV station and they got some great footage of the boat sailing. Check it out HERE.

Of course, as you can see in the video clip, they haven't worked out all the bugs yet and still occasionally crash, which means going from 20 knots to zero in a few seconds. Yes, it's a dangerous sport and they do wear helmets. This particular crash was caused by a breakage of the main foil. Here's a closeup of what the foils look like on land (that's Sean on the left and Dan on the right).



Needless to say, next season you'll probably see more (if not all) the r-class boats with foils. One of the problems with being the innovator is that you are paving the way for your competitors (and they don't have to struggle as much). However, I fully expect Sean and Dan to do well, as they've won the National Championship for the R-Class even in the conventional boats.

One of the places Sean and Dan got inspiration from was another class of boat called a Moth. Moths are one person boats, but have adopted the foil technology, too. However, they've spent a million dollars and received corporate money for development. Sean and Dan are doing this on their own. Here is some really unique footage of the Moth's in action:



I'm not sure what they've got up their sleeve for their next trick, but I would love to see a Foil Boat Championships. Moths, R-Class and anyone else doing it. Let's see who is the the fastest in the water (or over it).