The Prince of Speed International World Championship took place in the famous La Palme in France from the 21st to the 30th of April. Our 2023 Slalom World Champion and Starboard rider Matteo Iachino took part and claimed first place in the windfoil category. He showed great skills and control on the foil. The conditions were challenging as many days the wind reached gusts up to 40 knots. To handle the foil in such high winds takes a lot of power, experience and technique. Matteo reached on the foil a maximum speed of 38 knots and 35,8 knots average speed on 500m. We asked him about his speed setup, how he approached the technique differently compared to slalom racing and what equipment he used. Matteo started his season strong and we are excited to see him again on the race course chasing another win.
What windfoil equipment did you use?
“I have been using the Starboard X-15 79. I chose this board because of the speed it has together with the control. The conditions were really strong. I didn’t sail many times with such a strong wind on foil. The wind was between 30 plus knots and way more than 40 knots in the gusts, so the control was the most important part on the speed run together with the release from the gear. When you do speedruns you want a lot of release from the foil and the board to cut the air. You want the sail to be able to accelerate as soon as the gust hits you without getting the sail full followed by touchdown with the nose and killing yourself with a catapult.
The aim is to have something that glides through the air as fast as possible and as smooth as possible. You don’t want the power to climb upwind, you don’t want anything like that that you actually want in slalom racing normally, you just want a lot of release and a lot of speed on a downwind leg. And this is what I gained with the Starboard X-15 79.”
How did you change the set-up and approach compared to the Slalom racing?
“In Slalom, you want the power to get close to the starting line with a medium speed and without stalling and falling from the foil. During the gybes, you want something that actually gybes good and stays up in the air at low speeds, but also accelerates and goes fast straight especially on a tight downwind course. At the speed competition, you have 500 meters between two buoys and it is a deep downwind course. You just want to release and go to the top speed as soon as possible and keep it throughout the 500 meters as easy as possible without crashing. This is what you aim for. There’s nothing about acceleration and the gybes because you try to hit the beginning of the course already at a high speed so the average speed is higher. Then you just try to maintain the top speed as long as you can if the gust comes with you. If the gust hits you in the middle of the course you don’t want to lose speed you actually want to use the gust to accelerate even more. That’s the trick and key to being fast on the course.”
