Flying on the water?

Early September, my Dad and I finished putting together the newest boat of our family, a Waszp, named Dunes XI. A flying boat, a real fast boat.

So we go, Saturday Sept 3rd for our first practice, at that point I'm pretty stressed. My Dad goes out first: he doesn't fly right away but he is getting used to the boat. Then, Dan the head coach at Richmond Yacht Club who joined us for this first session goes and he flies immediately (Dan is a Moth sailor). Then comes my turn, so I finish putting my wetsuit and get into the boat.

Since the boat has a 8 square meter sail and I'm 50 kgs, I'm a little light for the Waszp. As soon as I pull in the mainsheet, the boat starts going, and then foils and falls back down. At that point I capsize. When I get the boat back in order, I do all the things my coach told me to do, and I start flying again. When you fly all the pressure on the hull goes away, you feel like being a feather going fast in the air. At that point you know that if you move the rudder too strongly you are for sure going to crash: the boat is going fast! Another thing worth noticing is that take-off and flight require to keep the boat very flat if not windward heel, meaning that you can get pretty close to the water at full speed: if your body hits the water, you are going to almost fly out the back of the boat, becoming an anchor!

In the world of flying singlehanded boats, there are basically two leading boats: the Flying Moth and the Waszp. Actually the Waszp was designed by one of the leading Moth companies , with the goal to be twice cheaper and easier to fly, aiming at becoming an ISAF class overtime. The foils of the Wazsp are aluminium (as opposed to carbon on the Moth), they are a lot cheaper to replace, they can also come up so it's easier to launch. Another difference is that the Waszp doesn't have stays: it's safer when you crash!

There are many other flying boats being developed these days, and the Waszp is certainly the cheapest&easiest while the Flying Moth remains THE reference: see for example this video of my friend Philippe.

Here are some pictures:

Hoel21169 on the Waszp:

My coach Dan from RYC:

This is my Dad flying:

Overall this was the best time of my life!