Just under 2 months to go and then the IQfoil will be in action at the Olympic Games for the first time in its existence. Despite the short existence of the IQfoil class, the necessary changes have already taken place in the material and the rules. Now another few are being added. The new class rules will take effect on January 1, 2025 and will remain valid until the 2028 Olympic Games in LA. We list the changes for you.
Senior and U19 ladies will foil with new HGO 7.3 m2 sail
Many girls in the U17 class (who will soon move on to the U19 class) are very reluctant to sail the relatively large sail. With little wind, checking the HGO 8.0m2 is no problem, but with 25 knots plus full speed at sea, it is really surviving. In addition to strength, this requires a relatively high body weight.
The ideal weight for the ladies with the HGO 8.0m2 is between 75 kg and 80 kg. For many ladies, this weight cannot be achieved in a healthy way. For these reasons, a change of sail size has been proposed and therefore approved.
The last prototypes are currently being tested. Despite the fact that the final specs are not yet known, it is assumed that the new HGO 7.3 m2 will be sailed on the current Severne IQfoil 490 mast. The existing booms (Go 186-236 and Enigma 210 – 250) also fit on this new sail. It is not yet known what the sail will cost. We assume that the sail will be about € 50 cheaper than the HGO 8.0m2.
According to Severne, production will start at the end of July / beginning of August and then the 1st series sails should be available for the IQfoil riders sometime early November.
Senior men will race the HGO 8.0m2
For the same arguments as with the ladies, the gentlemen will also sail with a smaller sail. The senior men will foil with the existing HGO 8.0m2 . The hope is that the optimal weight for the men will go back from about 95 kilos to about 85 kg. In many cases, this results in healthier athletes.
The current HGO 9.0m2 will therefore be discontinued as an IQfoil class sail as of January 1, 2025.
The U19 boys are already sailing with the HGO 8.0m2 and that remains unchanged. The transition of the U19 boys will now be easier. All they have to do is purchase the senior board and the IQfoil enigma carbon boom.
U17 youth will foil with the IQfoil carbon mast
When setting up the IQfoil youth class, the much cheaper aluminum windfoil mast was chosen from a cost point of view. However, the performance of this mast (due to very poor hydrodynamics) makes this mast very tricky to wind foil with.
Many juvenile IQfoilers regularly have nasty crashes due to suctions/molts around the mast. This regularly leads to dangerous situations. The Dutch U17 kids are now going over 50 km/h with the aluminum mast. Crashing at that speed is quite link.
For the kids, the flag is therefore out now that it has been decided to also let the juniors sail with the carbon mast from January 1, 2025. In 2022, for the same reason, it was already decided to let the U19 youth switch to the carbon mast. Now also the U17 class.
Unfortunately, this makes the IQfoil junior set about € 1500 more expensive. And this time there will be NO ‘cheap’ upgrade program from Starboard.
