Again - Foilboards for Course Races :-)

This year we saw again the outstanding performance of foilboards (and their riders of course!!) at „the long distance championnat de france“.

I guess here on this forum we all share the opinion, that it would be great to see foilboards also on international courseraces like PKRA –Tour, Kitetoureurope KTE, World Championships (probably in Europe in 2011),.... These races are sanctioned from the International Kiteboarding Association IKA (www.internationalkiteboarding.org).

The current IKA class rules (see C.6) for course races actually exclude foilboards because board appandages are limited to 50 centimeters.

On November the 7th there is the General Annual Meeting of the IKA in Athens. I guess there will be also some representatives from FFVL or CNK. It would be great if the legalisation off foilboards would be on their agenda. But before I (or we) send our concerns to them, I think we should discuss this here on this forum:

What would be a solution?

- changing the class rule to 100cm? And a common racing and scoring with other raceboards like in France -(great BUT I think there will be some lobbying against this solution)
- building an own class for foilboards? Separate racing and separate scoring for foilers? This would probably be supported by the committe, but I think its a lot more fun to race all together in a big common field
- so should we aim a compromise where all classes race together but get scored separately?


What are your opinions?

Cheers
Mario

PS: Is there anybody who could translate this into french and put his into the french section, please :-)

excellente initiative que d'en debattre entre competiteurs, pour ma part je me rejouirai de voir dans l'avenir les foils au coté des boards !

Mario,

I have just participated in the Ste national race. No training at all for this competition and ended 9. How can you explain that ? Ok the wind was under 20 knots but most of the races will be in light winds under 20 knots anyway...
You can suppose I am a fast rider. But I am not ! I just sail for fun. It is just that my foil was a fast foilboard !! Much faster going upwind and much faster going downwind too.
If I am right, foils will go quicker and quicker also side wind. We work on it !

Different classes ?

So what can happen is that... in the national races, more and more racers will use foilboards instead of regular raceboards otherwise they will never score correctly.
I think if this is really what is going to widely happen, it would be wise to protect the raceboards as a class and the foils as another class. No irony in this sentence. I strongly believe that the risk is there. Raceboards could slowly disappear whatever protective rules applied. It would be a shame. The kitesurf world is much nicer with varied boards.

Racing together ?

As long as the performances are not too different and the average Speed are not too different, I think we could race together. But if the difference of speed increases, it is not useful to race together. Imagine racing with a 420 sailboat against a Moth with a foil...
Maybe not this year but in one or two years, you will see many foils so faster...

Does the excellent foil results reflect the market ?

The problem is that the foil market is small with only one manufacturer with boards available in the shops and the raceboard market is huge with many many brands in the shops. Do we have to take care about that or not ? For sure we have to admit that the results are way above the offer. But this will change sooner or later.

You have to know that custom foils are already available in France in small quantities. I guess there will be soon new actors on the market. It will happen like for kitesurfing, some kiteboarding manufacters will propose foilboards too...

I heard some rumors that in 2012 for the KTE and International Championships only raceboards(within the boxrules) which are built in series, will be permitted. This would make it cheaper and more accessible for course many racers. But I guess the main reason is that kiting should get an olympic class in 2016.
But beside off that, for foilboards or for custom made raceboards or any other board outside off the boxrules, an open class would be important. It would push the develpment of boards and save the "biodiversity" of course racing.

Much like the open Moth class Mario - I struggle to understand why foils have been excluded at such an early stage when, if you combine the total length of race board fins, you will find that they are longer than a foil of 95cm !! It just demonstrates how an elitist international group of racers are worried about having their but's whipped by a new and interesting form of racing machine. A kind of - 'if you don't understand it and can not ride it efficiently immediately' - BAN it !!!

Well that is my two cents - I was very surprised to see the foils removed from the racing fleet

In 2011 we will see an open division and a production division( which is limited to boxrules) for international course races. I hope these means foilboards will be permitted to start in the open division, as I suggested in an email to the racing comittee couple of weeks ago.
More news to come during the next days.

mario

Concerning the participation of foilboards on international course racing events a wrote several emails to the IKA and the organizers of the Kite Tour Europe.
Yesterday I got an email from the IKA:

"Hi Mario,
foilboards are not covered by the classrules except you build a foil which is shorter than 50 cm. But I believe there will be a separate class for foilboards in the very near future and either separate or combined championships.
Cheers,
Markus"

I still prefer starting and racing in a big field of competitors, so I hope for combined championships.
What so ever, we will keep the foilboard-scene alive and growing! :-)

Cheers
Mario

Well done Mario for keeping up the pressure on the IKA - good to get a reply finally and know where they stand. Have a great Christmas and keep us posted when you have any further info.

It could be worth considering producing a 50cm foil and make the board more like the hull of a Moth, in this way you could still have a relatively long foil that utilises the vertical upright section but bolt on the extra 40/45cm to the board in essence the board would take on this type of shape 'V' much easier fixing and it would get around the IKA rule ;o) Just an idea.

Good work. Thanks to you !

thanks for your appreciation!
@chris: the V shaped hull is actually a very creative idea. It could also have some more advantages:
- less or no vibration though tiny diameter of the t-bar
- softer touches on the water if you hit the surface at full speed

best regards
mario

I just got the answer from Fabienne d´Ortoli concerning the participation of foilboards at the grand prix in Douarnenez:


Dear Mario,

I asked Markus, as its IKA's rule, and the answer is :
"foils do not comply with IKA class rules as the foil is deeper than 50cm, so they can not score for the world title, however we can let them compete but score separately, that is the only solution."............


So everyone who wants to see foilboards competing in course racing should write an email to the racing comittee:
http://www.internationalkiteboarding.org/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=30

the more the better!
cheers
mario

done, here is the copy of my mail:

Hello,

I am Laurent Ness, one of the creator of our great kitesurfing sport in the early 90'.

I am very shocked by the rule that is limitating the height of the fin at 50 cm for participating in the competitions.

It is 2 years now I am kitesurfing with a foil and I see no reason why I could not compete against a 4 x 40 cm (=160 cm) raceboard that uses more total fin length then me.

I would like the racing comittee to cancel this rule that is a nonsense to me.

We are kitesurfers whatever the length of the fins under our boards.

Thanks for your attention
Regards
Laurent Ness
Kitesurfer since 1993 and foilboarder since 2008

as a wellknown pioneer in kiteboarding your voice may have some importance :-)

merci laurent

Hi guys,
we are one step further!
....."the event will feature additional fleets for foilboards and "weekend warriors""......
We will see who is looking like "weekend warriors" in the end

Have a good day
Mario

"Dear Nils,

we foilboarders would really appreciate if the KTE could follow the example of the North American Course Racing Championship 2011 and establish a foilboard fleet.

Best regards
Mario (speaking for all Racing Foilers)"