FILE PHOTO: SailGP F50 team Emirates GBR skippered by Giles Scott rounds a mark with team New Zealand skippered by Peter Burling in front of the Statue of Liberty during the SailGP sailboat racing event won by team New Zealand in New York Harbor, New York City, U.S. June 23, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
BARCELONA (Reuters) - SailGP plans to make its F50 catamarans faster and the racing tighter by equipping the fleet of one-design boats with a new type of foil from the start of next year, it said on Monday.
Organisers of the high-octane global racing circuit, which starts its fifth season next month in Dubai, said that fans could expect "record-breaking speeds" when the teams' F50s are kitted out with the T-shaped foils before its event in Auckland.
"The addition of T-Foils next season will be a game changer for the sport and SailGP, as part of our continued evolution to produce faster and more entertaining racing," SailGP CEO Russell Coutts said in a statement.
"The T-Foils will enable teams to have more control at high speed and better performance. One of the big surprises has been the increased performance when sailing upwind," he added of the new hydrofoils which lift the F50s above the water.
While 11 national teams are due to line up for the first event of the 2025 season in Dubai, another is due to join for the second in Auckland, the organisers said.
Manufactured using titanium and carbon, the T-foils have thinner sections than the L-shaped ones they are replacing, reducing drag at high speed, SailGP said, adding that they had been tested in training by some teams over the last 18 months.
The Canada SailGP team hit 101.98 km per hour, the fastest-ever speed clocked on an F50, while using the new foils during testing in San Francisco, SailGP added.
The outer tips of the new foils, which protrude beyond the hulls, are designed to snap off in the event of a high-speed crash between boats, SailGP said, to help improve safety.
SailGP added that it is in the process of producing new light-wind foils, designed to ensure the F50s are able to get out of the water and foiling in less breeze than at present.
"I expect the light-wind foils to have an even bigger impact on our racing and the competition as a whole. It will provide faster-paced, more entertaining racing for the athletes and fans in lighter winds," Coutts said.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Ken Ferris)
