Foiling occasions take principal stage on San Francisco Bay – Marin Unbiased Journal
The infamous SailGP event hits San Francisco Bay this weekend showcasing the world’s best foiling sailors on the F50 foiling catamaran. The event, now in its second season, continues to create drama and magic on the water in the world’s best sailing venues for a winner-takes-all-prize.
The F50 is a further iteration from the AC 50 launched early in 2017 for use in the 35th America’s Cup in 2017 in Bermuda and has been a boost to the huge and growing interest in foiling watersports anywhere there is breeze and water. Perfect for kids like Marin groms Henry Vare (13) and Morgan Headington (15) who thrive on fast and exciting.
The pair will be flying high on the Bay along with six other youth wing foilers when they participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, with a practice session for all fleets on Friday afternoon.
Henry’s dad, Michael Vare, spearheaded the opportunity for the youngsters, reaching out to SailGP Inspire, the League’s community outreach program, to coordinate a youth event as part of the San Francisco SailGP stopover. He said the kids are ecstatic to be involved in such a high-profile event doing something they love and excel at. As part of the program, the kids will meet with the SailGP teams and be a big part of the action this weekend.
“The kids put together their bios including their favorite tricks and who they ride for, so they’re very excited,” Vare said. “SailGP Inspire will provide them with bright colored jerseys, they’ll have numbers on their wings and there will be commentary shoreside about this growing sport of wing foiling,”.
Vare and Headington followed their dads into wing foiling some 2 1/2 years ago and now the dads are taking a bit of a back seat as the kids’ passion for wing foiling grows. But that’s okay, says Geoff Headington, a long-time competitive water sports enthusiast, who loves being out on the water with his son.
“I feel like it takes some of the pressure off me from a competitive standpoint,” Headington laughed. “It makes me happy to support him and make sure he’s on the right gear, watch him go and give him tips and instructions, I’m becoming more of a coach than a competitor. I get a lot of joy seeing Morgan improve.”
The boys dialed in some pre-event training when they raced a wing foil regatta several weekends ago on the Bay, the first ever to be raced in the US and hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club. They’re stoked for this weekend.
“I’m really excited to have the great opportunity to race between the F50 races because of the novelty that it has,” Morgan, a sophomore at Redwood High said. “Some of my sailing idols are skippers of these boats and being able to sail alongside them, especially in the same event, is awesome. I’m also excited for the freestyle exhibition because that style of winging is my favorite part of the sport and its super fun to try tricks, even if you fly uncontrollably through the air and bellyflop into the water.
“I’ve been working on my 360 spins for the freestyle event, as well as tactics and mechanics for the slalom racing. For the racing I’ve been practicing speed gybes and my VMG (velocity made good) angle downwind.
Henry, an eighth grader at Del Mar Middle School, was a regular at the St Francis Yacht Club wing foiling race events last year and at just 12 years old placed 3rd overall at the end of the season. He’s been an inspiration for both his peers and adults wanting to get into the sport and is psyched for this weekend.
“I am really looking forward to performing in front of an audience!” Henry said. “I’ve been practicing my racing skills and freestyle tricks leading up to the event.”
Supporting activities that are on the pathway for the next generation of sailing athletes to become inspired and involved in SailGP is as important to the event as staying at the leading edge of technology which ultimately benefits the kind of foiling watersports, like winging, that we regularly see on San Francisco Bay.
“The F50 is constantly being updated, with new wingsails in Season 2 and new T foils being built now,” Russell Coutts, co-founder of the SailGP circuit said. “With the new foils (expected in October) they are predicted to exceed 55 knots of boat speed. The new wings are modular which allow us to use a smaller (faster) configuration in strong winds. The next development will be new rudders. We are also increasing the ‘righting moment’ by making adjustments to the rudder settings which will also make the boats faster.”
Coutts continued, “The F50 is a very good boat for what we are doing because they can now sail both in very efficiently light winds and very strong winds which opens a lot of additional venue possibilities. They are also transported in containers which is essential for this League.”
Catch the foiling action from Crissy Field or the City Front this weekend, info at: https://sailgp.com/races/22/united-states-sail-grand-prix-san-francisco/overview/
