Giancarlo"my foils are not so efficient in these conditions"

Italian Giancarlo Pedote is sailing in a well-established NE’ly trade wind, though his 2015 foils are not terribly efficient in these conditions… “I’m in the NE’ly trade wind blowing at 17 to 23 knots. We’ve finally managed to hook onto it after a bit of a bruiser of a doldrums, which has really tired us out. There’s a swell and it’s slamming a bit… However, we’re climbing northwards, which is good! We’re making headway, though it’ll be a while yet before we hit the true right, namely when the wind veers round towards the east. After that, we’ll have to deal with the centre of the zone of high pressure before we can make towards the Bay of Biscay… It’s the first time I’ve sailed this course in this direction; usually in the Mini or in IMOCA I negotiate this zone from north to south… This way round, it’s a bit less comfortable it has to be said. The boat is very heeled over and as soon as you have to intervene things get complicated! On top of that, we’re going to be spending a lot of time on starboard tack so it’s important to check the gear from time to time, because for now, we’re on a true close reach. The boat’s going well, but I have very small foils, from the old Absolute Dreamer skippered by Jean-Pierre Dick, which isn’t able to take off quite like the others, which are two or three knots faster than Prysmian Group in these conditions. Indeed, the tip, or the vertical section of the foil, is a lot smaller than the other boats of the same generation: Bureau Vallée 2 and Maître CoQ IV and that too makes a difference. I’m kind of compelled to sail on an oceanic beat, because if I pull on the helm, the boat doesn’t accelerate as much as all that. It’s more of a breeze foil…”