Just look at the bloody numbers mate !

Get beyond the "gutt feeling" side of "engineering" and look at the data and models already available.

And pick the needle off the "extensive competitive racing experience" broken record. Having the skills to make a boat go fast on the water is not the same as having the skills to design a fast boat.

But I'm not even adressing the more difficult engineering aspects here, we are still stuck in the obvious rookie mistakes. My small nephew even understands without a formal engineering education that when a hull represents only 20% of the total sailboat drag that a 25% lifted hull (due to partial foiling) can never result in more speed gain then 2.5%. And that is when given optimal conditions for foiling. By the way 25% lift on an A-cat equates to about 40 kg of created vertical lift which is alot for a curved foil as used currently. A straight bruce foil will need to be angled to 22 degrees to match that given the close link of vertical lift to the given sideways resistance to sailforces. There is a pretty tight interaction there.

2.5% is about a minute per 45 minute race. Of interest to the absolute top of the international A-cat fleet but pretty unimportant for 85% of all others. Of course in not optimal conditions the setup may well be a drawback making a sailor actually slower then its competition. Curved foils will most definately show such a characteristic with the obvious drawback zone being low hull speeds (light winds)

You don't have to be a Glenn Ashby to understand this.

Wouter