Foil Kingston Race Day 1

Opening ceremonies for Foil Kingston CORK 2024 were on Friday. Sadly no wind developed so there wasn’t any racing that day. But the forecast was promising for Saturday!

It’s an official race program!

Opening ceremonies

Catching up with Toronto friends
(Who also go to Hatteras and Bonaire!)

With most of my WeCanFoil teaching duties completed from Tuesday till Friday evenings, Saturday was the day to fully concentrate on getting ready to race. It was nice to reconnect with Philip from Bonaire and some of the other windfoil regulars.

I rigged up my brand new 2023 Duotone S_Pace 8.8m sail on the beach. It actually got a fair bit of attention and envy from the other sailors - I’m not really used to that. I was pretty happy not to be rigging a 9m Kona sail or my 20 year old NP 9m. But I struggled getting a few of the new numbers on my sail! It was handy to be able to look at my blog post from last year to remember how to set up my footstraps. I did also take an Allen key this year!

Last year’s blog post - very handy reference!

Rigged and ready


Outboard footstraps

The Launch Site

Paul trying out the iRig - he may be converted?

Small and light iRig & big and strong S-Pace

We watched as the kiters got going. After a fairly long delay, we decided to go out the first race. 

It was a complete slogfest for all but the 4 younger IQ foilers to get out to the start line. The wind dropped again and the race started anyway. That was actually the one race where I came in fourth! All of the subsequent races where more people were foiling I didn’t do as well!

In the later races I was mostly getting up on the foil right after the start and slowly getting up wind. Somehow I kept blowing the last upwind angle and would have to slowly round the upwind mark. Having to do that almost every time, Dennis would pass me on the upwind leg on his NP sail. Luckily, most of the time I then caught him on the downwind legs as I could foil much deeper downwind than he did. We had some good close finishes - one was so close I could have passed him but that would have risked falling into him so I was content to finish safely and within a second or two of him for 6th place.

In between some of the first races while the wind was low we saw Max Robinson out tow foiling. He did a spectacular back loop right in front of us. As we waited for the wind to return I shouted “I don’t know about WE Can Foil, but HE Can Foil!

On the last two races with much more wind I was able to do the full two laps. I was getting more confident on essentially a brand new gear set up for me. Overall I did 25 km in almost 4 hours on the water.

Everyone back on shore

The slog out to the course, and a nice run back!

Speed and heart rate chart! Top speed 15.5 knots

Ready to de-rig and fill up the trailer

Had to give a little lesson to the nice kids
interested in windsurfing gear

A little video from my kids’ lesson

Thanks Ian for the video and sharing the stoke in our chat!

Kingston did deliver with the wind late in the afternoon and actually kept building for a while, even after we came back. There were folks wing foiling in the Lake Ontario Park Harbour but I was too spent. 

Wingers out after the races

Happy with my 6th place

After the racing we went out for a nice dinner with the group at Namaste. 

Ready for dinner!

Thanks Artem for organizing that and I am looking forward to some sleep before one more day of racing.

WeCanFoil Kingston windfoil training

I was excited that the wind forecast for Wednesday suggested a nice SW thermal that would generate enough wind to foil. Yesterday’s conditions were glassy, which did work well for our WeCanFoil tow foiling demos. 

The WeCanFoil (sponsor) money shot!
I’m on the easier to sail gear in the front

IQ foil coaches Anna and Jonathan de Vries asked me to set up the Severne Alien 145L board and foil and I rigged up the 5.7 Severne Foil Freek for the first time. I was asked if I would ride the demo gear to hopefully get some content for the WeCanFoil social media. Well, YES!

Heading out of the Portsmouth harbour

We launched from the dock in the harbour and worked our way up a little bit into the St. Lawrence. Aug came out in the boat to try and take pictures but it was too wavy to capture video from the boat. He suggested to Anna that we sail upwind and get close to the Wolfe Island shore. So when I got close to her, Anna just said “follow me”.

Out on the water

Anna was #1 at the 2019 IFCA Foil World Championships in Switzerland. She helped test the gear that is being used in the 2024 Olympics. She works at North Sails and easily won last year’s foil Kingston event. So it was a bit hard for this old guy to keep up with her. But I managed to get upwind just a bit behind her. The Alien board was relatively easy to use and had the footstraps in the right places. I didn’t need to adjust a thing. The foil underneath was quite stable and reminded me of the one that I used in the Gorge last September that was Svein Rasmussen’s favourite windfoil setup.

We did a very high speed run in the flat water and I got quite a good top speed for the day. 17.5 knots or 32.3 km/h. Almost as fast as last week on my Duotone gear but over a much longer time. 

Aug did get the picture he was looking for (above). Here is a video:

Nice video of us foiling together!

And my videos:

Video when we made it upwind!

And a bunch more photos…

Got the social media content!

Detailed course map

Decent top speed! With only one wipeout the whole session.

Teamwork makes for dream work

Graphic showing how close we were to Wolfe Island

Happy coaches: me Jonathan and Anna

We were out for two hours and I did 25 km. We were pretty stoked when we were all back on shore!

Of course the wind dropped after this…
Just as I was going out wingfoiling

Around 3:45 I decided to try wingfoiling. I launched from the rocks in the parking lot but that wasn’t a great idea. I took the Duotone 5m Echo and 125l Sky board with the 1080 foil underneath.

Didn’t get going with the wingfoil

A little video for my daughter

Another WeCanFoil demo session that evening made for a long day! Details on that will be published on my Launch Pad Academy blog. 

A quick foil before leaving again

We spent most of yesterday and today cleaning up the Launch Pad. It was overdue to have the windows and most other surfaces cleaned!

I was also packing up my gear to take to Kingston for the WeCanFoil event and Windfoiling races.

It was teasing all afternoon with winds around 9-13 knots. As we finished up at 7pm it was still 11 knots. I quickly took out Jen’s 142l Sky WS board with the 2,000cm2 foil under it. The 6m Unit was rigged and waiting…

I managed to pump up onto the foil on the way out and then again on the way back. Heart rate hit 130 while doing it!

I wasn’t able to pump the board all the way through the wind shadow back to the dock… Jen got a photo of me slogging back… Part of the problem I learned later was having the leash wrapped around the mast. DOH.

Looks like Google has new imagery of our area - seems to be from early May based on the water level and our shed construction progress!

Fastest Windfoil speed so far! 33.8 km/h

It looked like a typical gusty northwest cold wind day so I lazed around a bit during breakfast and then headed out to the Launch Pad at 12:30. 

Thanks Liz for the photo!

I was pretty excited to try the new wind foil set that I got down in Hatteras but haven’t used yet. I expect to be using it racing next weekend in Kingston, so it’s about time to get out and give it a try. 

The  Fanatic 1,000 cm2 foil with the 90cm mast and long fuselage was easy to assemble under the Stingray 140. I didn’t bother putting on foot straps because I only had an hour. I figured that with the wind looking pretty strong and gusty I didn’t need a big sail. I took out the 5.6 Idol that I had used the other day.

It was a quick slog down to the wind line out by Whistler Bay. Sure enough the wind was super gusty and strong - 15-25 knots. I worked my way upwind tacking easily and only over foiled and exploded once. The 90 cm long mass is pretty forgiving. 

Once I was upwind and starting to worry about shoals I started on my downwind run and was pretty impressed with how stable that longer mast and fuselage were.  

YouTube video of my return to the dock

I got my fastest foiling speed of all time! 33.8 km/h = 18.2 knots!  (Last top speed was 14.6 knots) Of course that is way slower than top windsurfing speed of over 50 km/h but it is a completely different kind of wind/water sport - and around 2x the speed of a typical sailboat.

Fastest foiling speed so far! And it was pretty comfortable.

I could definitely cruise faster than I ever have
with the dedicated windfoiling foil

My course up into the gusty north wind and back

Coming back upwind to the dock

Weather station data - colder than yesterday!

It is nice to see the every turbine in the wind farm running and generating electricity. Of course at 4pm it stopped entirely for a few hours.

The night before at one of our neighbour Paul’s retirement party and fish fry I met a new neighbour. He sounded very interested in coming out and trying some sailing and windsurfing as he used to be an Olympic class sailor. I’m looking forward to spending the latter part of July and early August up here with lots of time on the water.

Windfoling is definitely the better of both wingfoiling and windsurfing for the wind we had today. Really happy with the ability to slog out to the wind and then ride the foil back so easily.

Wing foiling tops Wind surfing

My jump on the way back after 90 minutes and 2 sports!

It seemed like 15+ knots so when I got to the Launch Pad, I was excited. I took the Skate 108 to the point and then went out with the 5.6 Idol sail in my 2 mil long legged wetsuit. Air and water were 19c.

I over estimated the wind (or it dropped a bit) and slogged back-and-forth barely getting going once. Back to the dock without falling though.

Quickly topped up the 6m Unit wing and put the 1080 Aero foil under the 125L sky board. I worked my way out of the channel in the southeast wind. As soon as I was to the wind line, I got going but prompty hit a shoal just off the point of the Launch Pad. Ouch, my first scratch on the 1080 carbon foil. I swam out a bit and then got going again and started working my way (south) upwind towards the open south of us. 

My upwind / downwind track!

I did jibes all the way up the channel and eventually was doing some heelside tacks and even got a couple of heelside tacks. It was a bit of a surprise to get I three of those in a row consistently!

Some heelside and even toeside tacks!

I started my downwind run and got a lot more jibes in a row despite falling twice. I was doing some duck and spinny typed jibes. After my second fall I felt pretty wobbly trying to get going again and thought I should head back in. 

18 kms in 90 minutes

I made it back into the harbour on one really nice long run went around the old cribbing and worked my way back towards the dock. A last couple of jibes and pretty decent jump which I got on the dock cam.

Just after I got in the rain came through and it looks like the wind might be done for a while. It had been the windiest place on Georgian Bay.

What a nice little pre-Canada Day session.

Sup Paddling in Collingwood

I went to Sunset Point to see whether there was going to be any wind materializing after the thunderstorms and front went through. Indeed there was a bit of Southwest wind turning to West, but not quite enough Northwest for it to fill in along the shore. 

So I decided to take out the used Fanatic AllWave 150L SUP that I got in the spring but haven’t used yet. I paddled upwind on my knees towards the Inukshuk. Then back down wind standing up, checking out the shoals and very, very clear water. 

My thermometer wasn’t working properly but the water was really quite chilly for the fourth day of summer. Overall just 1.5 km enjoying the nice sunset over the lighthouse island to the west.

Post SUP photo

SUP paddling trail

Not sure why the speed dropped off for extended times?

I finished my session and decided to check out a new secret launch that is very close to home. I saw a fellow WhatsApp chat member Jake coming in from his session. It had been windy enough to foil but it had definitely shut down for the day. I think that launch will be high on my list in the future!

Visiting the secret spot after my session

Local at the secret spot - it was windy enough earlier…

I was pretty sore that night! I’d already done my morning hike up the grind…

My morning hike up the Apple Crusher / Grind

A record time for me up the Grind

Let’s see if there is a dawn patrol wingfoiling session on Wednesday.