Pictures

First day foiling in light winds  -  See video on https://www.dropbox.com/s/w7jss8rmq1i1rl1/Foiling%20clip%201.mov

Second day foiling in 15 knot SW breeze.  

Good upwind  but rudder gudgeon broke downwind.

First Flight

On Sunday 27th July the Foiling Vampire had its first outing.  Ben Clegg + William Sunnucks sailing accompanied by Graham Eeles, Ollie Newman and Chris Mathews on the rib.  Finbar Anderson pacing us in his new Mach 2 Moth.

The Vampire flew immediately despite the light wind.  First a long beam reach out of the Colne estuary, up to 22 knots.  Then upwind, not foiling properly yet but I'm sure it will.  Then downwind, easy foiling, no need for a spinnaker.  Then a problem - the wand flipped behind the bias rod and the foil stalled.  Whilst sorting it out we drifted backwards and the port wand broke.   Proper limiting strings needed.

Plenty of problems to solve.  The worst was the "Bambi" problem - the foil flips up when you heel to windward, something that is difficult to avoid unless you get your crew weight right under the boom.

But also much was right - the mainsail looked good, the boat felt stable in flight, the rudders felt light and easy to control, the boat flew in low wind strengths.

No real photos or GPS data yet.  Just a video taken by Dan King who was on a rescue boat supporting the Solo Nationals.   More sailing this coming weekend, then probably back to the works to fit latches to hold the foils down properly.

A great start.