Brett Burvill on Windrush's alternative C foils

We contacted Brett Burvill from Windrush Yachts Australia as he is offering and delivering to some top riders their new C daggers. Interesting to see how the flex approach is maximized to generate the extra lift similar to Js or Ls ones. In Formula Windsurfing foils flex is key and depends on the conditions too, and I always wondered if someone has ever done some specific tests in racing beachcats. I once discussed this with Andrew McPherson and he told me the stiffer the better for the F18s.

For the As, and as Raphael Censier's custom tests using a home made flexible dagger provide him with airborne time with a legal conf even before Mischa's DNA Js.

Below feedback from Brett on his new A-Cat daggers.
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"I have been developing over time a foil for the A cat that is a curved C foil as per the old Standard DNA and others C foils. It has a radius of 1200mm .Windrush have developed a way to manufacture the foils so that they can bend quite a lot and this has the effect of increasing the vertical lift component of the foil for the same surface area.

This is the easiest way to fly yet for A cats, if you have rudder wings already then just slide in the board and fly from about 12+ knots . The difficult thing is to make it bend without failure and to date we have had great success. You will have seen the picture with 190 kg standing atop the A board!!

We have 4 different specifications of laminate from X stiff, stiff through flex to soft .
Jack Benson has sailed with all 4 and his feeling is that the soft gave him the best advantage. Upwind he was not suffering any loss of height and as the wind got up and speeds became high he had more lift upwind too.

It took him a few days to get the feel for the rake setting, he has a standard DNA boat with the foil rake adjustment being a set and forget as per standard. The soft foil acts a bit like a shock absorber and so the lift is a little more subtle and not as harsh as with a super stiff board. ( which we also make as a direct replacement for the DNA)

We can make these foils for a really good price and with the form shown so far I would be surprised if people would pay all the money to go to a worlds and not want to have this sort of an advantage which is a direct fit to most boats.

I expect this will fit the Nakita, Arrow etc but people will have to try them for them selves. At this stage I plan to be in Auckland from the 5th Feb until the start of the worlds to assist with set up and plan to have foils available for testing / sale for use at the preworlds so people have time to adjust there standing positions etc as the Nacra 17 teams have found , body weight can make a huge difference to flying.

We only have a limited amount production capacity left before the worlds and with a week away from the shop for the F18 nationals next week in Frankston , Melbourne -3500km, we are restricted in how many sets we can get to Auckland. We have some sets already in production and on order for a few worlds competitors and would like to get more on the water .Who Knows, the master ( Ashby) might even get to fly on them, he was apparently impressed when Benson did a number on him in the last race of the Aussies recently.

Apart from this standard C foil we also have another foil set up that will fly the boat upwind and down but I did not have time to fully make this for production and didn't want to send it untested to the worlds.

I had been keen to be involved with the AC last cycle with all its foils iterations and sent messages to Adam May a few times, I was really impressed with what those guys did in such a short time after the disaster that ended in Barts death. Hats off to them and just imagine where could they have gotten to with some more on water time with Big Blue.

Some times I feel that that little moth has led us all down this fantastic path to foiling and cant help but feel a warm feeling inside that somehow it sort of re started form the Foiling Embrio that was that moth and winning a few heats of the 2000 Moth Worlds in Perth.

All the best, talk soon.
Brett Burvill ,Windrush Yachts
http://www.windrushyachts.com.au/