The inaugural meeting of the F101 Tribe

by The Foiling World Team 19 Dec 2017 19:46 GMT 9-10 December 2017

Over weekend of Dec 9th/10th four new F101 owners, Ron Price the F101 designer, Rob White from White Formula along with Alan, Rob and Jerry from Foiling World all gathered at Pro-Vela's Mar Menor base for the first training session for owners in their new boats.

We spent the three days getting the boats set-up, shoreside training sessions talking through the boats and then several sessions on the water with coaching from a RIB. The weekend was a great success, all the owners were very enthusiastic about their new purchases, and looking forward for the next sessions in the new year.

Foiling presents a different approach to conventional sailing and here at Foiling World we have decided that we will take a slightly different approach to how the class association is run.

Firstly, there is no cost in joining the Tribe, as it is included in the cost of your boat. The benefits of being a F101 Tribe member are many, but include:

• Direct input into the direction of the F101, in terms of events, ethos and upgrades
  
• Access to some one off or Tribe only arrangements that Foiling World has with certain suppliers
  
• Coaching by experts through the use of sportpholeo.com as a coaching specific web site for Tribe members
  
• Access to coaching clinics to develop the skills that you need to foil safely and successfully
  
• A different take on events! not much windward - leeward racing at this time!

Early Tribe members will define the standards that will be used to progress the skills, such as a one design camera / GPS unit, that will allow easy upload to Sportpholeo. Once linked to the bracket, that can be purchased, the whole remote coaching becomes easily viable. In addition modern discussion groups are already formed using Whats App, all encouraged to have a class that is directly driven by its members to deliver the modern day sailing needs of those members.

With Northern Europe becoming increasingly cold the F101 Tribe has decided to base itself in Murcia, Spain on the Mar Menor and link to Pro Vela, for winter storage, rescue cover and additional tuition. With cheap, easy access flights from most European hubs into Murcia or Alicante, it is proving to be an ideal, warm, flat water venue for getting to grips with foiling. With a plentiful supply good golf courses, tennis, cycling and cheap winter accommodation some tribe members are making it a friends and family experience.

"The Tribe will evolve as the class increases in numbers, but we aim that the core ethos of the class will always reflect the needs of its members, using modern day communication tools to bring foiling to those who though it was out of their reach."

Introducing Pro-Vela

Training is one of the cornerstones for our Tribe. We have strong historic ties with Pro-Vela in Spain which is an ideal location for helping get our members to the point at which they can get the most out of their boats.

Understanding the basic theory and practical skills required for foiling is fundamental if you are going to enjoy your foiling journey and this is what we aimed to address with our first Tribe meeting. Using the tried and tested formula of teaching people to foil that Pro-Vela have developed over the past decade - coupled with sailing on flat water with real-time coaching and safety provision has been essential to the Tribe, concluding that their first experiences with their new boats were incredibly successful.

Pro-Vela have their own F101 if you want to try foiling one for yourself, get in touch with them to discuss the various courses that they offer.

Technical update

Our recent trip to Spain with the first four owners gave us a great opportunity to get feedback on the latest developments that we have been working on. This group has given us a platform to run side-by-side experiments with real owners to make those final decisions on how the production boats will be delivered in 2018. All modifications on the final spec will then also be placed on the boats that are in Spain.