2019 Foiling Week Awards
by Foiling Week 24 Feb 2020 13:30 GMT
The evening of the Foling Awards has been hosted on February 20 by WeWork headquarters in Milan. The awards and the FW Design competition were established by Foling Week, "the first and only global event dedicated to the amazingly fast foiling boats, their sailors, their designers and their builders".
The Foiling Awards celebrate those who distinguished themselves during the previous year in eight significant categories for the development of navigation in foiling: Sailor Award; Design Award; Innovation Award; Production Boat Award; One-Off Boat Award; Motor Boat Award; Sustainability Award.
To welcome guests and spectators, an exhibition dedicated to the work of Martina Orsini, and the drawings of the French illustrator François Chevalier.
The evening was opened by the official debut of Persico 69F a 6.90 meter foiling monohull monotype for three crew members. 69F will begin its competitive season from April 2020 in Cagliari.
Giorgio Benussi and Marcello Persico presented the boat and the race format. 69F has an interesting regatta format and the boat utilizes the same technology as the AC75, the boats of the next America's Cup. The logistics and preparation of the boats are entrusted to the organization of the circuit as well as the training and initiation of shipowners and crews to foiling.
"We dedicated all our time and resources to the 69F startup," said Giorgio Benussi, Chief commercial officer of Coming Solutions, the company that together with Persico Marine conceived and started the 69F project. "Today we are simultaneously ready to produce the monotype on a large scale and to start the first competitive season and foiling training". Marcello Persico added: "the owners and users of our boats will have access to the best technology available in the production of foil hulls: the research and development carried out by Persico Marine to create custom hulls that have made and will make the history of sailing is condensed in our monotype, ready to be placed on the market".
Subsequently, the MPe Foiler design competition has awarded the first three classifieds. To win the first prize was the project by Massimo De Luca and Davide Cipriani of CentrostileDesign, followed by Morgane Suquart of MMprocess (second) and Charles Viviani (third).
The Foling Awards are assigned on the basis of the votes cast by a popular jury through online voting on the proposals selected by Foling Week. The first category to be awarded was the One-off boat. Vittorio Magnaghi, head of Gurit marine department awarded the AC75 Luna Rossa. The award was accepted by Horacio Carabelli, co-designer coordinator of the Prada Pirelli team, accompanied by Team Director and skipper Max Sirena.
The Italian crew engineer on behalf of the whole team said: "We are very honoured to receive this award, it is a recognition of two years of commitment and constant research. It was a team effort that involved everyone, from the design team to the shore team, from the sailing team to the suppliers. All with a single goal, to create an advanced and performing boat".
Nominated for the prize, four IMOCA: Advens; Apivia Mutuelle; Arkea Paprec and Hugo Boss. As well as four AC75: Britannia, Defiant, Luna Rossa and Te Ahie, and a maxi trimaran: Team Sodebo Voile.
Nominated for The Award Event category were: Brest Atlantiques; ETF26 Series; GC32 Racing Tour; SailGP and Transat Jacques Vabre. GAC PINDAR, a logistics company partner of Foiling Week and regattas like the Volvo Ocean Race, presented the award to Julien Di Biase (operational director) and Tim Godfrey (marketing director) of Sail GP.
The sustainability award for the reduction of the environmental impact has been awarded to Alex Thomson Racing for the Imoca 60 Hugo Boss for its use of solar power as its primary energy source. To award the prize was Torqueedo, a company that produces electric motors, represented by Oliver Gluck (Vice President Marketing). Also nominated in this category was Fulcrum Speedworks for the green production of a foiler and Artemis Technologies and Tuco Marine Group ApS for a foiling workboat.
The Innovation award presented by foiling week recognised those boats, solutions or tools that represent a significant evolution in the world of foiling. Nominated for this awards was: CONDOR concept-board (one of the first windsurfing boards specially designed with a specific concept for gliding and foiling, produced by the Elix board); Laser Kit Foilsz (efficient kit from the same designers as the Mach 2 Moth); Lupo Electric Foiling Bike (a curious pedal instrument for navigating); Moth Aero Kit (first aftermarket aerodynamic kit to reduce the resistance of Mach 2 Moth); Moth Double Sail (double sail type AC75, developed by the American Magic sail consultant); Slingshot Wing (the first American company to develop and reinvent the wing sail); SYRA-Foilers (first boat for double crew with central canting foil system); TF35 electronic foil control (flight control system).
Luca Rizzotti has awarded Bertand Favre, the man behind the TF 35 concept.
Marcello Persico awarded Mayeul Van der Broek for the SP 80, "the next world fastest boat" as the winner of the Design category. This project aims to break the current record by at least 20 knots. The other nominees in this category were: ISpace2O DeepSeaker DS1; Lazzerini F33 Spatial; The Flybus; Vortex M1 by Mode3 Design.
The Motorboat Award has been won by Candela 7.5, a refined and elegant standard boat. Defeating both the foils of the Aquila cruising catamarans, installed on all models of the Sino American brand, and the prototype of the French giant Beneteau. Gustav Hasselskog (CEO and founder Candela) was awarded by Oliver Gluck.
The Production Boat Award, contested between BirdyFish, Nautor's ClubSwan 36, Nikki by Skeeta Foiling Craft, Peacoq 14, Pogo Foiler, SYRA-Foilers NTFM-SYRA18, T-Foiler 35 was awarded to Syra 18, the first monohull with canting foil. Nils Frei and Yves Detrey of Syra foilers were awarded by Paolo Manganelli (principal engineer) of Gurit.
The Sailor Award was given to the Swiss Balz Müller, winner of the first freestyle windsurfing world championship, an athlete capable of making incredible evolutions with a foil windsurf board.
The other nominees were: Vittorio Bissaro and Maelle Frascari (Nacra 17 world champions); Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and Yann Riou (winners of the Brest Atlantique on the maxi Tri Edmond de Rotschild); Charlie Dalin and Yann Eliès (winners of the Transat Jaques Vabre on Imoca Apivia); Daniela Moroz (Formula kite world champion); Mischa Heemskerk (A-Class World Champion); Nicolas Parlier (Formula kite world champion); Tom Slingsby (Moth World Champion and SailGP winner); Team Australia SailGP crew (Tom Slingsby, Kyle Langford, Jason Waterhouse, Ky Hurst, Sam Newton and Kinley Fowler winners of the first SailGP season) and Ruggero Tita and Cate Mari Banti (winners of the Tokyo Olympic Test Event on Nacra 17).
Luca Rizzotti and Domenico Boffi, the creators of Foiling Week, closed the ceremony by awarding a special prize to Gabriele Ganga Bruni as Foiling coach, for the work done with the crew of Bissaro and Frascari and the crew Tita and Banti, winners of the last two world championships of the Olympic catamaran Nacra 17.
The next Foiling Week event will be held by Fraglia Vela Malcesine on Lake Garda on the 25-28th of June 2020.
www.foilingweek.com/pages/twenty19/fw-awards-2019