Back in the day, when captained my college football team cue up Springsteen’s Glory Days”), always felt a little nervous during the ritual of pulling on the pads, when the adrenaline and butterflies started to simultaneously stir. Last July, I'm having a deja-vu moment of that particularly unpleasant sensation as I’m handed a helmet, wetsuit, rash guard and life jacket moments before heading out for my first-ever attempt at helming a foiling craft, the Persico 69F. The name is derived from the boat’s 6.9-meter length which translates to 22 feet, 7 inches).
The fledgling one-design class’s welcoming motto is foiling for everyone,” a notion am definitely about to put to the test.
After a pair of previous winter events in Miami for a half-dozen international youth teams” 25 and younger) and an appearance at South Carolina’s Charleston Race Week, the 69F roadshow has rolled into Newport, Rhode Island, as part of the New York Yacht Club’s Race Week. This is the fourth stop on the American 69F opening season's stateside circuit. Still ahead is a mixed series with the NYYC; an event in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and the grand finale in Pensacola, Florida, the 69F Cup presented by American Magic. That makes sense because the 69F is purportedly the only other crewed foiling monohull outside of the America’s Cup.
The 69F ringleader in the United States is Miami-based Alex Sastre, a sailing-crazed yacht broker and promoter a separate 69F European circuit is under different management). Sastre’s 69F mantra is simple: We are training the next generation of sailors.” But he’s also organizing foiling academies for adults outside of the youth initiative, presumably for numbskulls like me.
This story is from the Fall 2022 edition of Sailing World.
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This story is from the Fall 2022 edition of Sailing World.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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