Up, up and away with Drew (+ video)
by John Curnow 2 Feb 2018 14:56 PST
Up, up and away all right! © Andrea Francolini
Andrea Francolini is in Adelaide for the first ever SuperFoiler Grand Prix. As expected, there are plenty of thrills and spills to be had, with tech2 the most visible, and ultimately catastrophic. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Tech2 Skipper, Luke Parkinson, talked about how they clipped and dragged a mark on their starboard side earlier in the race and the crash, “We had the boat fully lit up there coming to the finish doing 30 knots,” said the tech2 Skipper, “We are pushing the boundaries these things haven’t gone this fast before. Even not to finish fourth is disappointing. To be questioning if we will get it out there to battle it out tomorrow is tough. We are going to do everything we can to get back out there racing tomorrow and for further races,” said Parkinson, “We are going to work all night.”
As positive as all that is, the gutted crew and SuperFoiler management have had to send the craft back to it's maker in Nowra, NSW (Innovation Composites) for major repairs. The hope is to have it back on the start line for the Geelong (VIC) event.
Of the one race held (of an expected three), it was Euroflex that won, which is not surprising seeing as they probably have had the most time on board. “Everyone said it looked easy but it wasn’t easy on board,” said Nathan Outteridge, the skipper of Euroflex, “The effort and training paid off for the first race we were just waiting for it to come crashing down.” Pavement claimed second place in the inaugural race, and Paul Campbell-James was proudly flying the British flag rounding out the podium aboard iD Intranet.
The racing continues with live-streaming beginning on Saturday and Sunday at www.superfoiler.com with Saturday’s stream running from 1pm-3pm ACDT and Sunday’s from 2pm-4pm ACDT.
About SuperFoiler
The SuperFoiler Grand Prix is contested over five weekends at five iconic marine locations across Australia (South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales) from February 2018.
The first regatta will be held on Adelaide's Outer Harbor from February 2nd- 4th. The Summer series will see the best sailors from around the world compete onboard six SuperFoiler's for the Ben Lexcen Trophy. The Grand Prix series runs from February to March and will be livestreamed on Plus7 with immersive post produced coverage airing on 7mate.
Fan Zones and Corporate Hospitality experiences are also available for live viewing - here