Moth vs A-cat foiling

Moth runs away. First thing I noticed, the moth's mast angle was 20 to 30 degrees more towards the wind.

I am truly "old school" and love my H16, but that flying cat just looks so cool and one heck of a smooth fast ride. How fast do you suppose those boats are going?

Edited by martyr on Jan 16, 2017 - 12:29 AM.

Moth runs away. First thing I noticed, the moth's mast angle was 20 to 30 degrees more towards the wind.

All due respect:
I disagree.
45 seconds of 104 seconds:

the moth has 1/2 the drag (1 set of foils vs a multhull)
weighs much less
was nose for nose up until the right moment to shoot above the other boat
then the vid ends ...

I did the same thing racing a gcat5.7, 5.0, h16 and h18 yesterday.. (trying to get to an island first) we all had our moment and 8 miles later.. all landed on the beach within 30 seconds of eachother

every boat has its perfect angle/wind/conditions

the moth may have had it's moment at the end of the video but RACES are won by going around a point (a pin, an island, etc) and sailing in many conditions (upwind, downwind, offthewind, surf, flat, heavy and light air conditions)

so a true race would be around a point and back....
if it's a speed race ... that looks like it would be a close call

Edited by MN3 on Jan 16, 2017 - 08:52 PM.

The moth is certainly faster around a race course for now. That may change with a couple more years development from the A-class.

Martyr, in the video they are probably close to 20 kts. Top speed on a foiling moth is in the low 30's, on the A it's in the upper 20's. From personal experience, once you are up and foiling on the moth, you are screaming. I'm sure the A is fairly similar, though at least on the Nacra F20C the effect was much less pronounced since we were already absolutely ripping when the boat came clear out; when I got the moth up on foils it was like BAM, accelerate from 3-4kts to 15-17kts instantly.

In this regard, the foiling A's and mulithulls are easier to get foiling. The delta is the Moth is pretty stable once up on foils and fast around the race course. They've also been at the foiling game for roughly a decade! The A is playing catch up, with a rule not particularly friendly to foiling. Speed wise but they are getting there-Aussies are reporting speeds close to 18 kts upwind at lower angles and with more sideslip, but its starting to pay to foil upwind now, and the boats are fast downwind, same ballpark as a Moth. Reality is you need to spend a fair amount of time on the water and be a pretty good sailor to play in this world, but its also accessible tech to the mere mortal! Their is a Boyer Mark IV in Canada that needs a ~$2k set of foils and is ready to rock and roll; $5k for a foiling boat is about as cheap as it gets!!