TheVirtual Flies - Launch day for the second foiling R Class

TheVirtual (R607) on foils is finally ready to go, in addition to building the foils we also had to setup a new rig and sails (as we'd sold the previous set with Subwoofer). It's a few weeks later than we'd hoped, but the last couple of weekends weren't very nice anyway. Its getting to be late autumn here and the dinghy season is officially over.

Jess and I weren't looking forward to getting immersed launching, but it wasn't really too bad. Initially the breeze was light (under 10kts),very variable, and only where the large fleet of trailer yachts were racing. The first wand we tried was too flexible and even with the maximum adjustment the cable still wasn't giving enough lift to foil consistently. We were just barely able to foil upwind in the larger puffs. Fortunately we were carrying another wand and once we swapped things went much better. The breeze also steadied and built slightly which made foiling upwind easy. This makes for two successful R launch days with both boats lifting off first time out. There are a few small changes we need to make before next time, but we were really pleas ed with how well everything worked. The new rig and sail profiles are great and we're looking forward to trying them out in more breeze.

Sean Milner and David Pairman were a great help the chase boat with their coaching advice and support.  I'd like to also thank David for his help building our foils. David and I spent quite a few late nights building the two sets of foils for our boats. David and Tim will hopefully be out soon on the 3rd foiling R.