Celina and the Flying Phantom Essentiel: glamour meets foil sailing

Celina Burlin is one of these young sailing athletes who is changing the future of sailing. At the age of 17 she bested the best of Sweden’s young sailors and won in Malmö Red Bull Foiling Generation Sweden, becoming the first female sailor in the world to win a foiling event with the Flying Phantom Elite. She accomplished a fantastic performance with a 5th place during the world finals in Newport-Rhode Island, USA end of 2016 against the world’s best competitive sailing youth from fifteen nations. 

Phantom International invited Celina to test the new Flying Phantom Essentiel that was launched during the last Paris boat show. Whereas the Flying Phantom Elite is a full carbon, high speed foiling catamaran for experienced sailors, The Flying Phantom Essentiel is a foiling sport catamaran designed not only for a handful of top sailors, but for all sailing enthusiasts.

In order to promote this new fun way of sailing, a short movie was filmed in Dinard, Brittany-France with Celina and the Flying Phantom Essentiel. This was also the opportunity to present the new artistic collaboration with British artist Phil Ashcroft.

"After the first practice-day at the Red Bull Foiling Generation tryouts 2 years ago in Malmö I knew foiling was the thing for me. To be given the opportunity to try the Flying Phantom Elite was fantastic and it changed my way of looking at sailing - said Celina - That was a great opportunity to visit Phantom International to test and try the new Flying Phantom Essentiel. To compare: the FP Elite is a lot more physical! The Essentiel was a lot calmer and a lot easier to sail. It was no problem sailing in heavy wind with the Essentiel and not at all as intense as with the Elite. In lighter winds I like to sail without the wings because it is a great feeling to foil standing in the trapezing. But when it is more wind I prefer the wings because it feels more safe. I would love to keep foiling in the future. It is such a great feeling when the boat takes off and it gets all quiet! In the future I really hope I get to sail a foiling boat because it is the best way of sailing."