Phil Stevo’s new foiler
Phil
Stevo launched his in-development foiler at Balmoral over the
weekend. A few different ideas, but unfortunately not enough wind
to get it up and flying consistently.
The boat was suprisingly not slow in non-foiling mode. Managing to
keep up with the best HTs in one of the short races. Given Phil’s
weight he managed similar speeds when displacing dead
downhill.
He’s moved the mast and centreboard 500mm further forward in order
to try and stop the boat tripping over the main lifting foil. He
didn’t have any adjustable trailing-edge flaps, but did have a
different lifting main foil - with raised tips that break the
surface before the main section of the foil.
It will be very interesting to see how the boat will go in chop and
heavy winds. Having almost no foredeck will make it a bit wild in
the nose dive department. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.
I think Phil intends to race the boat as-is in the upcoming states
- without foils.
