Goldilocks & The Three Foils:

Ahoy! Welcome to I’dRatherBeSailing, the newsletter that was early to foil sailing (if you count the tinfoil bathtub boats). Foiling will be in the news this week with the SailGP race, so today we’ll give you the lowdown on these high fliers, from big to small.

• Highspeed Harbor Hydrofoiling: SailGP kicks off in San Francisco

• Waszp up: World’s coolest boat award.

• You won’t Foil me: Defining sailing.

• Cruising Round the Web: Daisy does a course, and tourist docks car in harbor.

SailGP Season 3 Grand Final

Tomorrow, SaillGP kicks off the final season with teams from 8 countries who will fly around the San Francisco bay in a high speed, high tech, high stakes race with a million dollar prize on the line.

If you’re new to this race, here’s the lowdown: SaillGP boats are all high-tech foiling catamarans that can hit speeds of up to 50 knots, and the unique layout of the San Francisco bay lets spectators get so close they can practically feel the ocean spray. A short course that is close to shore, and stadium-style format give it a feel usually reserved for NASCAR races. The intense winds, strong currents, and iconic backdrop of the Golden Gate bridge make it about as good as sailboat racing can get.

The league was founded in 2018 by Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts and this year the eight teams are Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States. Below is a video from the Great Britain Team that takes you into the cockpit and out onto the water with them as they perform the insane maneuvers required to keep the boats flying.

Check out the SAILGP homepage here for full details on the boats, the race, and where to stream the race live.

Waszp Up?

For those who can’t tow a 50’ foiling cat down to the docks, this might be the next best thing.

Yachting world asked top sailors to pick the coolest and most innovative yachts out there. Hattie Rogers nominated the Waszp.

The lowdown: The Waszp is a high-performance, single-handed dinghy designed for foiling sailing. It was developed in 2016 by Andrew McDougall, who was also the designer of the highly successful Mach 2 Moth.

The boat is controlled using a traditional sail rig, but also has a joystick-style control system for the foils, allowing the sailor to adjust the height of the foils and control the boat's pitch and roll. This makes the boat highly maneuverable and responsive, even in challenging conditions.

With a top speed of 24 knots, Yachting world gives it an Adrenaline Factor rating of 90%. We’ll put it on our Christmas List.

Define Sailing

Foiling is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in sailing. It is also pushing the definition of what, exactly, is sailing. I think there are couple ways to define sailing.

I know it when I see it, to borrow a particularly famous phrase. If it makes you stop and wonder whether whatever’s going on over there counts as sailing, we’ll, it ain’t sailing. Case closed. Or is it?

Get technical. To be sailing, one must be on a sailboat. To be on a sailboat, one must be on a vessel with a hull, a mast, a sail, and some what-cha-ma-call-its, or lines, to pull on. Easy enough, but then where do you draw the line at what is or is not, for instance, a sail? Take for example, the new sport of Wing Foiling. Can a sail be hand held to count as sailing? World Sailing, which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has formed a Foiling Committee to oversee and develop foiling as a discipline within sailing. Some are up in arms about this new upstart sport being considered a sailing sport.

I recently got one of those new upstart wing foils to see what all the hype was about, and here’s the first hand lowdown. When I’m out in the water flailing around on my board, clawing for balance and gasping for breath, it most definitely does not feel like sailing. But then when the wing goes up, and the wind catches it, tearing me downwind at 17 knots as I hold on for mercy. The board takes flight. There’s a familiar feeling underfoot, that motion of heeling over as I lock into the wind. I sheet the the kite in to gain speed, and luff it out as I ready for a tack. In the car on the way home, I scratch my head wondering whether I was sailing, or something else….

Or maybe it’s just a piece of seaweed in my hair.

Then there are those that point to the ultra high tech offshore races that are almost totally computer driven, to the point that humans aboard are almost an accessory. Is the human driving the boat, or is the boat driving the human. And they have a right to make that point, since isn’t part of sailing the beauty of turning your head into the wind to feel the whoosh over both ears, letting you know where to point the bow? It can be impossible to draw a line, with technology constantly moving the goal post.

But maybe there’s another definition. Maybe there’s something we can all agree on, so I say this:

Sailing is the freedom to go wherever the wind blows. 

So wherever you go, and whatever the mode, may the wind be always 90° off your bow. If there’s nothing else but time and tide to tell you what to do, well then, you’re sailing.

Cruisin’ Round the ‘Web

Speaking of Winging: The European Wingfoiling championships are underway, and you can catch up with the event here.

Cool Roundup: Yachting World rounds up the coolest record breaking boats, and no surprise, there’s a few foils in the mix.

Liverpool’s Last: The last sailing cargo ship is set to be dismantled. The De Wadden, built in 1917 and dry docked since 1987, has unsustainable maintenance costs. The BBC reports here.

Good Soup: Below Deck sailing yacht star Daisy Kelliher announced on her instagram that she is teaching a course on how to get into yachting and be the perfect stew. Maybe we’ll send it to our friend who’s always leaving the galley a mess. Read the story here.

You Can’t Dock Here: Sailboat crew rescue tourists in Hawaii after they dock their car in the harbor, I mean drive their car into the harbor. Yes, there’s a video…sigh. Here you go.

That’s it for today, let us know if you ketch the live SailGP race, and we’ll see you salty dogs next week!