It is not always easy putting yourself in new situations, but it’s the only way to truly grow. Lately I had the chance to do just that by sailing the Persico 69F.

The evolution of foiling sailboats is exactly what my 14-year-old self would have been jumping up and down with excitement for!  Foiling, fast paced, and a little dangerous.  Well, let’s be honest even at my age it makes me happy and giddy.

This past weekend we got the chance to sail the Persico 69F foiling Monohull.  With only 3 days of practice we mostly saw the back end of the fleet during racing, some water from up close, but sometimes we also carried our good starts all the way to the finish.

The concept of the Persico 69F is simple and to the point, get people foiling. For about EUR 12,000 the Persico team will provide you with a turnkey boat and even a coach that will walk you through the intricacies of this wild 22 ft foiler .The boat managers do a perfect job of providing a boat that is in great condition and each day you rotate boats (there were a total of six charter boats available).

This is not for the faint-hearted and I would highly suggest bringing one or two team members along that are used to sailing above 20 knots. There is not a lot of time to think with closing speed over 40 knots!

We actually had not considered sailing this boat at all until COVID-19 hit and our team was not able to fly to the USA. (Our goal this year was to win the M32 Worlds in Miami and we had shipped our boat to the USA).  Luckily our Section 16 team (which I manage) has plenty of foiling experience, including our owner and myself having raced moths ourselves. Completing our team was Will Alloway, who also sails on the GC32 Blackstar. So, lack of talent was not an excuse!

The practice days went as you can imagine. We quickly learned that the boat can capsize, but that it also has an insane speed potential at a good level of control. Foil jibing is quickly mastered. The foiling tack on the other hand is still a hard-sought prize that will need quite a bit more practice to master (but it has already been done by some!).

The number crunchers at Wilson-Marquinez (Argentinian Design firm) did a spot-on job in regard to the foiling configuration. With so much foil induced righting moment (due to the foils sticking so far out to leeward) the boat can be sailed with either 3 guys hiking upwind and hitting 20 knots or with just two on the rack at about 15 knots. Downwind its usually better to get the weight in quickly (again, remember all the foil induced righting moment).

The most hiking is actually needed in marginal foiling conditions when both foils need to be down to create enough lift to get the hull out of the water. In this case the windward foil is negating the righting moment of the leeward foil.

Staying on the foils or (at least being very good at getting back on the foils) is paramount as the speed difference between foiling and not foiling is usually over 10 or even 15 knots!

For us this has truly been a horizon-widening sailing experience. We not only literally had to relearn on how to sail a boat, but also figure out every single maneuver in terms of weight placement, foil position, sheeting technique etc.

Yes, it was a humbling experience, but we are definitely better sailors now and have bonded even more because of it.

We very much enjoyed the boat and wish the team around Giorgio Benussi, Santi Lange and Dede De Luca all the best on pushing the Persico 69F circuit to the front of the sailing competitions. A big thank you also to the tireless shore team that kept all the boats in tip top shape!

For our Section16 team, it’s a bit of a waiting game now as our M32 catamaran is currently in transit back to Europe. Hopefully by the end of October we will be putting the complete team (and boat) back together and getting our feet wet again.

Chris

All photo credits go to Studio Borlenghi