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Route du Rhum runners and riders: IMOCA
Twenty-two IMOCAs, no former class winner on the start line and a fleet full of proven boats in new hands, along with some new cutting-edge designs still finding their feet. Here’s how the IMOCA class shapes up for the Route du...
The boom that survived on Ferrari Hypersail: rig, sails and seeing in the dark (Pt. 5/7)
Lose the boom? Three reefs or one? How do you see in the dark? Andy Rice hears how the arguments behind Ferrari Hypersail’s rig and safety systems were settled. Every boat is a made up of compromises. The interesting ones are the...
Ferrari Hypersail’s blank-sheet answer to grinding (Pt. 4/7)
Ferrari’s engineers threw out the gearbox and turned Hypersail’s grinders into generators. Andy Rice put the winch-by-wire system to the test. When I was offered the chance to try Hypersail's innovative winch-by-wire system, I...
Route du Rhum runners and riders: Ocean Fifty
Ten 50ft trimarans, no defending champion and a fleet full of Route du Rhum debutants. Here’s how the Ocean Fifty class shapes up for the start off Saint-Malo on 1 November. Four years ago the Ocean Fifty class served up one of...
Route du Rhum runners and riders: Ultim
Eight 32-metre flying trimarans and a record of 6 days 19 hours to beat. Here’s how the Ultim class shapes up for the Route du Rhum start off Saint-Malo on 1 November. If you want to be first to Guadeloupe, you need an Ultim. And...
Route du Rhum 2026: the essential guide
On Sunday 1 November, more than a hundred solo sailors leave Saint-Malo for Guadeloupe in the 13th Route du Rhum. Here’s why this edition is shaping up to be one of the most fascinating yet. No other race on the calendar looks...
‘Full steam ahead and scrambling to keep our heads above water’: Grant Simmer on Australia's Cup comeback
Few people are more bound up in Australia's America's Cup story than Grant Simmer. He was the young navigator aboard Australia II in 1983 – the boat with the wing keel that ended the New York Yacht Club's stranglehold and lodged...
Rising Stars: Nathan Berger, the 17-year-old wingfoiler beating his heroes
This is the first in our Rising Stars series, on the young athletes in sailing and foiling who are making the rest of the field sit up and take notice. Last week in Leucate, at the season-opening stop of the GWA Wing Foil World...
Luca Rizzotti bought a Moth in 2007 and accidentally started a movement
When we launched The Foil at the start of this year, it was understandable that quite a few people incorrectly jumped to the conclusion that it must be a Luca Rizzotti project. After all, this passionate Italian has become...
'The safest is when you're pushing hard' - Billy Gooderham explains flight control
Last season, NorthStar SailGP Team’s flight controller Billy Gooderham spent most of his race time focused on a piece of PVC tape on the bow of the F50. “It is now painted on the boat for us with a new paint job this year, so...
Podcast Ep. 8 - Sydney SailGP preview + Quentin Delapierre on safety
Click here to listen on Spotify and other platforms Sydney SailGP is almost here, but the Auckland collision casts a long shadow. In this week's episode, the team digs into one of the most consequential weekends in SailGP's...
The Olympian windsurfer with a golden future far beyond LA 2028
Having worn the yellow bib going into the winner-takes-all medal race final at Paris 2024, Grae Morris might be forgiven for harbouring a few regrets at missing out on Olympic gold. But the young Australian windsurfer is not...
Why pro sailors dread the Middle Sea Race - Course Preview
The Rolex Middle Sea Race is an incredibly tricky racecourse, so we asked offshore legend Simon 'SiFi' Fisher to talk us through it. The 47th edition sets off from Valletta this Saturday 17 October – a couple of months earlier...
LIVE: 52 Super Series Valencia Sailing Week – the title decider
The 52 Super Series season comes down to one last regatta, and The Foil is there for all of it. We're livestreaming every day of Valencia Sailing Week, 6–10 October, as a record 16-boat fleet from 11 nations races off Malvarrosa...
LIVE: The Ocean Race Atlantic fleet departs New York
The Foil is live streaming The Ocean Race Atlantic's send-off from New York at midday local time today (1 September, 16:00 UTC). Worth being clear on what you're watching, though: this is the parade past the Statue of Liberty and...
Podcast: Can anyone beat New Zealand to win the 38th America’s Cup?
Listen to our podcast on Spotify and other platforms A year out, The Foil’s podcast team ask the key question: can any of the six teams lining up against the Defender really take on and beat Emirates Team New Zealand in Naples at...
Podcast: SailGP vs America's Cup: Can they coexist?
Click here to listen on Spotify and other platforms Sailing has never been healthier – and on this week's pod, that's exactly the problem. Episode 26 sees Neil Cole, Andy Rice, Lewis Smith and Freddie Carr wrestle with a question...
Podcast: America's Cup is back! The full Cagliari debrief
Click here to listen on Spotify and other platforms The America's Cup is finally back, and after eighteen months of SailGP we'd almost forgotten how different it feels. So Neil Cole sits down with Freddie Carr and Lewis Smith –...
The boom that survived on Ferrari Hypersail: rig, sails and seeing in the dark (Pt. 5/7)
Lose the boom? Three reefs or one? How do you see in the dark? Andy Rice hears how the arguments behind Ferrari Hypersail’s rig and safety systems were settled. Every boat is a made up of compromises. The interesting ones are the...
Ferrari Hypersail’s blank-sheet answer to grinding (Pt. 4/7)
Ferrari’s engineers threw out the gearbox and turned Hypersail’s grinders into generators. Andy Rice put the winch-by-wire system to the test. When I was offered the chance to try Hypersail's innovative winch-by-wire system, I...
No fuel, no engine: how Ferrari Hypersail powers itself (Pt. 3/7)
Satellite-grade solar cells, wind turbines on a rear spoiler and the electric axle from Ferrari's first EV. In Part 3 of this series (Part 1 / Part 2), Andy Rice follows the energy. Every big offshore racer carries a secret.
Russell Coutts calls time on SailGP’s veterans, but age is the wrong target
SailGP’s chief executive reckons sailors in their late 40s and 50s shouldn’t be racing F50s. On episode 43 of The Foil Podcast, Andy Rice and Freddie Carr argue the real problem is access, not age – and ask whether the new...
Three legs and an electronic brain: how Ferrari Hypersail will fly (Pt. 2/7)
Foils, a flapped keel and a rudder with ideas of its own – plus a flight controller born in Maranello's road cars. Andy Rice gets up close with the appendages. If the hull is the body of Ferrari Hypersail, the appendages are its...
From partners to opponents: inside the North Sails–Team New Zealand patent battle
North Sails last week went public in its patent fight with Emirates Team New Zealand. It accused the Cup Defender of building a patent on the sailmaker’s own technology, then turning it on the rest of the fleet. In a statement...
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