Moths and ETF26 end Foiling Week 2024

The eleventh edition of Foiling Week ended today, more than 380 sailors traveled to Lake Garda to participate to the first and unique global event committed to the amazingly fast foiling boats and boards, their sailors, designers, manufacturers and followers.

In terms of racing, after the end of the WASZP, BirdyFish and Switch one Design classes, the event concludes with the Moth and the ETF26 class races, both featuring many foiling stars onboard.

In the Moth class, participants include future competitors in the Unicredit Youth America's Cup, such as back-to-back winner Enzo Balanger (Orient Express Racing Team), Lucas Calabrese (American Magic), and Jann Schüpbach (Alinghi Red Bull Racing). Additionally, Spanish Tokyo 2020 Olympian and SailGP Spain star Joel Rodriguez Perez was on the starting line, along with Olympian Simon Hiscocks, who also competed after grabbing the silver medal in the Switch class.

The Moth Class wraps up Foiling Week with a total of eight races sailed. French Enzo Balanger wins the event once more, after a pretty successful 2023 edition, ahead of New Zealander Mattias Coutts and British Simon Hiscocks. German Lisa Schweigert is first among women, while Swiss Antonin Radue is the best Youth Sailor.

The ETF26 class sailed ten races in various conditions. Last year's winners, Entreprises du Morbihan, skippered by Matthieu Salomon, reclaimed the title, finishing on top of the scoreboard ahead of Team Rockwool, skippered by SailGP Denmark Nicolai Sehested, and Blueshift Sailing Team, skippered by Henri Demesmaeker.

Garda's first-ever SUP downwind foil race from Torbole to Malcesine and back was held on Friday, June 28th, and was won by foiling pioneer Philippe Axmann, followed by Lukas Schuler and new foiling “guru” Gwen Le Tutour. Three-times SUP Foil World Champion Olivia Piana was the first woman to finish. On the evening of Saturday June 29th, Piana presented the short film Chasing Horizons, dedicated to her pump foiling exploit along the Portuguese coast, as part of the Foiling Film Festival.

The Foiling SuMoth Challenge saw the participation of 11 teams from the most important technical universities in the world. The Foiling SuMoth Challenge is composed of three stages, for a total of 1000 points. The first, on design, is worth 500 points, performance trials second stage is worth 300 points. Racing is final and is worth 200 points.

Rafale ÉTS (CAN) won the design stage, followed by the Politecnico di Torino Sailing Team (ITA) and the Chalmers Formula Sailing Team (SWE). The second stage was won by last year's overall leaders, Audace Sailing Team (ITA), with the Politecnico di Milano Sailing Team (ITA) taking second and the University of Southampton SuMoth Team (U.K.) third place. Last, racing stage, was won by the Politecnico di Milano Sailing Team (ITA), with Rafale ÉTS and the Politecnico di Torino taking second and third place. After the toughest competition ever, the Politecnico di Milano Sailing Team is the overall winner of the 2024 Foiling SuMoth Challenge.

Foiling SuMoth Challenge Manager Bruno Giuntoli declared: “2024 has been the greatest SuMoth Challenge ever, with eleven boats that made it to stage one and eight boats on stage two and three. I couldn’t be happier with that, we keep pushing for a sustainable change in the marine industry, we’ve seen a lot of innovation in these small boats, they are getting better and better and hopefully we will see them racing with the Moth fleet in the upcoming years.”

But, as always, Foiling Week is not just about regattas. This year's edition was dedicated to Youth Sailing. In addition to the well-attended clinic for Under-19s organized in collaboration with the XIV district of Italian Sailing Federation (FIV), the concrete commitment to the young people of the Azores Islands, and the impetus generated by the prizes dedicated to the Youth categories, the initiatives related to this topic will continue throughout the year.

The clinics were also run in collaboration with the Magenta Project and team member Caterina degli Uberti stated: "The Magenta Project is a global non-profit collective of passionate volunteers committed to developing pathways and opportunities for female sailors, so to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in sailing. Our Foiling Pathway is the missing piece, providing opportunities to advance female talent both on and off the water, as team members serve dual roles in sailing and campaign management. Our first goal would be to race as a full female team in elite foiling classes, such as 69F and ETF26. We are also working to organize similar formats in the USA, Canada, and Australia, so we are open to cooperating with all possible foiling classes."

Among the many initiatives this year, a Sustainability Panel promoted by World Sailing was held on June 28th. U.S. Journalist Christopher J. Museler led the debate with the participation of World Sailing Vice President Yann Rocherieux, ROCKWOOL Senior Vice President Marketing, Communications & Public Affairs Mirella Amalia Vitale, Scott Over of Sporting Giants, Patrick Pacchetti from Recarbon, Virginia Jacquemod of Biodesign Foundation - that also organized a beach and boat park clean up on occasion - Bruno Giuntoli of Foiling SuMoth Challenge and Luca Rizzotti, Founder and President of The Foiling Organization.

At the end of the panel, Yann Rocherieux stated: “We held the Sustainability Panel here at Foiling Week and I think that for World Sailing it was great to see so many people sharing the view and the initiatives around sustainability, because for the International Federation this is a central theme. Being at the boat park here has been incredible, I’ve seen a lot of young sailors and I am pleased to see how much the new generation is caring about sustainability’s project.”

The construction of an Azorean (former) Whaler replica will provide new opportunities for young Azorean sailors while showcasing the positive heritage of the (former hunting) whaling culture.

A charity auction to benefit Azorean youths is open online at the following link: https://app.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/Foiling-Week-Terra-Baleeira-Azorean-Kids-Charity-42388

Auction participants can win exclusive experiences with sailing stars, stays in the Azores, and products and services kindly provided by Foiling Week Partners. On the website it will also be possible to make free donations to support young sailors of the Azores Islands.

SailGP Denmark and Rio 2016 bronze medalist Katja Salskov-Iversen, together with We Are Foiling Master Coach Francesco Bianchi, ran a two-day clinic as part of “Steering the Course”, a global initiative promoted by World Sailing to bring together sailing communities, highlighting the achievements of women within the sport and attracting newcomers. She declared: “We are here with the Steering the Course program, all coaches here today are women, and we are here to inspire them to go for that dream. It’s important, we need to get more women in sailing, not just as sailors or coaches, but also in other roles around out sport. Here at Foiling Week there’s so many cool opportunities, I wish I had these when I was younger, but we have them now and it’s just great.”

We Are Foiling and The Foiling Organization’s Founder Luca Rizzotti declared at the end: “11th Foiling Week successfully completed the races for all participating classes despite uncooperative weather. It was exciting to see the boys and girls of the Sumoth and Youth classes, to whom this year's event was dedicated. The trials generated great interest from an increasingly large audience, while the seven training sessions were fully booked, demonstrating great success. The participation of many Corporate partners with their guests further increased the number of attendees, contributing to the spectacle of the event.

Our social theme for next year’s edition will be “Re-Generation” and the goal will be to work towards restoring regatta locations to a state similar to the pre-anthropic one, promoting practices that reduce environmental impact and foster the regeneration of marine ecosystems and embracing a holistic vision that also includes equity and inclusivity. This integrated approach aims to transform not only environmental practices but also renew the social and community energy around the Foiling Week events, making them models of sustainability and inclusion for the future.

Pensacola will be the location of the next Foiling Week at the end of February 2025. The interest of the international sailors present at the Malcesine event was sparked by the Pensacola logo on the bows... We are confident that the response we will receive from American and international sailors will, in the coming years, bring an event on the same scale as Malcesine”.