I would love to see foiling get developed, if only to find out what type of foils/installations would be both faster and cheaper, then maybe that technology could migrate to a few other classes, sort of how the spinnaker/snuff setup did and the square tops sails and wing shaped masts. It won't happen over night but it's got to start somewhere.

If I were King, I would have the A class split into two fleets, all out, anything goes type foils to encourage developing the 'best' way to do it, and no flying at all for the guys who don't want to fly. I think the Moth class did that for awhile too, when they started foiling didn't they?

Eventually, I would expect a better/cheaper/easier/more stable foiling setup would evolve and once it did, more guys from the non-foiling A's would make the transition to foiling.

If an installation is developed that could easily modify a floater into a flyer, (by simply replacing the dagger trunk) that would help make the transition faster and more affordable allowing more of us poor people into the flying class.

Back to a design type question that got me thinking when I started this thread, once you get a boat up onto foils, does hull shape or water line length matter anymore? What would a new, fully foiling A cat look like? I would think the designers would try to come up with something that would get the hulls up out of the water asap, so the real design work would be in the foil itself, and controlling it easily and consistently, to stay up on the foils the entire race, like the (fast) Moth guys do.

As far as which class rules need to remain, vs. be changed, I guess the two most important factors would be sail area and minimum weight, I don't' know that beam and/or hull length will matter as much once you develop foils that will keep the boat out of the water most of the race. What if there was just one class called, "Foiling Cat" class, where a foiling A would race straight up against a Phantom and a foiling N20. We would quickly see what's faster. Hey wait, what about a foiling Optimist?! Then you could have two classes, the Optimist and the Pessimist!

Ever since I saw the first flying Moth, I've been saying all we need to do is connect two of them side by side and put a mast in the middle, presto, flying cat! Will a full foiling A cat eventually look something like that?