Test Sailing the Flo1: A totally different feel

Erik Jeuring is the owner of De Randmeren, a sailing school and boat rental service in Harderwijk (Netherlands). He has been a sailing instructor for years. We took the Flo1 to Harderwijk and had Erik have a go and tell us how it felt.

Erik testing the Flo1With Flo1 we are aiming to create a boat that is easy yet exciting to sail. Especially the ‘easy’ objective is a challenging one. Erik as a sailing instructor is around sailing enthusiasts on a daily basis – the people that will be sailing the Flo1 soon. We thought Erik would be able to provide us with some valuable feedback in order to achieve an easy-to-sail foiler soon.

Erik’s first impression of the Flo1 was good. “It looked pretty impressive and ‘cool’ compared to other foilers. Despite of my experience I was a little nervous before sailing it.”, Erik confessed. We decided that for our purpose – being able to sail the boat easily – it was best to have Erik sail it without any instructions. He started out slowly, but fortunately got used to it pretty quickly.

“Foiling was just something I had never experienced before. When you pick up speed you don’t lean over, but contrary to what you expect you sail straight up because the foil starts generating lift. It also feels quite astounding to take off in light winds and then feel the water resistance decrease as you rise out of the water.”Erik – Lift off

After his first foiling experience, Erik concludes that sailing on hydrofoils has a huge future ahead.
That is, not as a replacement of ‘regular’ sailing but as another way of sailing. “I see a lot of opportunities. It is just a totally different feel – it is exciting for less experienced and very experienced sailors. It offers a totally new way of jibing and tacking.”

Erik predicts that his sailing school will start offering foiling courses in the near future. Sailing with him we determined that Flo1 would be an excellent platform for people to start foiling on. Will be continued, for sure…

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