Quite the machine

This month will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the already colourful racing scene on Lake Geneva with the long awaited fleet debut of the sophisticated extremely light and powerful, yet also ‘allegedly’ unusually user friendly, TF35 high-speed foiling cats. One of the key members of an extraordinary design and engineering team behind the project, Dirk Kramers shares the story.

First some history The racing scene on Lake Geneva is no stranger to unique and interesting boats. When you explore the history of the Bol d’Or event you will find that catamarans competed as early as 1960 and since 1990 we have grown quite used to seeing wingsailed cats and trimarans that were wider than they are long and numerous experimental foilers. There has even been an America’s Cup cat taking the start in some style. The current king of the hill is the D35 one-design cat, which was first launched in 2007. Very much a light-air machine even today she is really difficult to beat in her conditions by any foiler.