Un petit communique au IKA

Un 'Pro' de notre forum m'a raconté que le IKA ont refusé d'accepter les foils dans les regattes internationale !!

Pourquoi ?? Parce que la regle C7.1 sous 'Hull Appendages' limite la logneur à 500mm.

Alors peut-être après les resultas recents où Bruno Sroka (3 fois Champion du Monde en Course Race) a fini en 8e position derierre 7 foils - ce serait bien d'ecrire a l'association.
J'ai envoyer le lettre dessous:

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Dear sir or madam,

with reference to the following rule:

C.7 HULL APPENDAGES
C.7.1 FIN Any number of fins and/or retractable fins are allowed. No other hull appendages are permitted. The shortest distance between the outermost point of the hull appendage and the bottom of the hull shall not exceed 500 mm.

I write to inform you that whilst I fully support the IKA system of governing the sport of kitesurfing; as the sport develops it would only be intellegent to consider modifying certain rules that hold back the development of a growing sport.

In the most recent French national championship Long Distance course race, where kite hydrofoils are permitted to compete alongside regular race boards - Bruno Sroka, 3 times course race world champion finshed in 8th position behind 7 hydrofoil course racers!!

Evidently, this marks a turning point in the nature of course racing as foils are becoming more competitive than regular course race boards. In fact Bruno finished behind Sophie Caillet - the 2012 kite-foil board female world champion and I don't think he was having a bad regatta. Just the fact that foils are far more efficient than regular planing craft.

This rule of maximum fin length is somewhat ridiculous when we consider that 3 or 4 fins used on one board equals a total fin length of 1.5 to 2.0 metres and a foil board generally is only 1m in length at maximum.

Foils have been adopted in the Americas Cup, Int Moth class since 2006 and various other classes of sailing. Personally, I see this rule as a measure of protection for the industry manufacturers who are eager to maintain what they know and not seek to develop our sport further.

The IKA has a certain obligation to recognise changes in an ever developing arena and let's not forget that 15yrs ago the windsurf industry was blatently stating that kitesurfing would never catch on, that it was dangerous and down right life threatening.

It seems a little bizarre that in 2016 there will be no windsurfing presence at the Olymics in Brazil but kitesurfing will be very present!

I write to bring your attention to the fact that 'hydrofoil kitesurfing' is a developing leg of our sport. It may well only contain a small sector of participants at this time however, the point has to be made; and made strongly, that established sports course race professionals are being made to look like amateurs when put in competition with certain kitesurf hydrofoilers.

For our sport to develop in all areas this maximum fin length rule serves only to numb the development of a potentially very interesting part of our dicipline.

Yours sincerely - Chris Middleton

Sera bien d'avancer le changement de leurs idées..

Petit historique:
Quand les règles de classe Race ont été validées, le foil était encore trop confidentiel, mais on a déjà rattrapé le retard, et même pris de l'avance sur les supports Race, L'IKA était bien représentée lors de Kitefoil World Cup à La Ciotat.
ils ont bien vu que notre support pouvait jouer dans vraiment toutes les conditions, en étant très performant, sans compter le côté "esthétique".
Normalement on s'achemine vers une autre classe, pour une reconnaissance officielle de l'ISAF, c'est pour ça qu'il ne faut obligatoirement développer les compétitions nationales/internationales dédiées au foil.
Je laisse OM31 pousser le dossier auprès de l'IKA, c'est notre représentant, n'oublions pas aussi que le foil est encore anodin dans les compétitions des nations voisines.
Faut y croire, Rio c'est dans 4 ans.................