Open Division
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The Open Division A-Cat is a full-foiling, high performance behemoth. You can enjoy the challenge of equipment development while also sailing against the best sailors in the world - with no qualification!
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Rudder Systems
Rudder systems are becoming increasingly important on foiling A Classes. Differential angles of attack on the rudder winglets allows greater control of righting moment, whereas overall pitch affects the attitude of flight. Making your system simple and easy to use will benefit you on the racecourse - And there are may different solutions to this problem across the fleet.
Helmet
Due to the increased speeds, sailors are now wearing full safety gear to prevent injury on the water.
Complex Internal Systems
The double-skin tramp is common to hide controls and takeups including but not limited to: Cunningham, mainsheet purchase, foil rake, rudder rake, rudder diff, mast rotation, mast over-rotation and associated takeups.
Main Foil
The main foils on the A are designed within a rule that was in place to make foiling very hard. Despite this, sailors have not stopped trying. The results are foils of complex and nuanced shapes, the eXploder Z19-27 being the most widely used in NZ.
Aerodynamic Platform
Much of the recent platform development has gone into the aerodynamic rather than hydrodynamic properties of hull platforms. The latest production boats out of Europe have pushed this to insane levels often with the according insane price tags!
Decksweeper main
Mainsails that used to have power up high (which allowed for easy flight of the windward hull) have slowly returned to a pin-top form, to encourage power down low. This is preferred so the rig has less of an effect on flight attitude in full-foiling mode.
