Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - April 2020

CFC (ALL photos)
Light Wind - Good Fun
Kitefoiling Announces Itself in St. Martin
by Chris Morvan
april 2020 CARIBBEAN COMPAss pAGE 18
Anyone who has ever been to Orient Bay on the French side of the island shared
between St. Martin (French) and St. Maarten (Dutch), will probably remember it as
being breezy. That is what makes it bearable, because Caribbean beaches with
white, sun-reflecting sand can roast you like a chicken.
One end of Orient Bay (or Baie Orientale, to give it its Gallic version) is the island’s only
official naturist beach, and if we’re going to get damaged by the rays, let it be on our backs
and arms, not the areas where the sun doesn’t usually shine. We have to be careful at the
best of times and that breeze might, in fact, compound the problem, as it brings the apparent
temperature down to a tolerable level. It’s like the opposite of the windchill factor.
But the weather has been unpredictable in these parts recently, and February
21st, the first day of the inaugural Caribbean Foiling Championships, which relies
on wind, was hampered by a lack of the blowy stuff.
But first, what exactly is foiling?
The key word here is foil, an abbreviation of hydrofoil. The concept has existed for
many years, and certain boats around the world have been using it since at least the
1960s. The hydrofoil is a relatively thin, sleek piece of metal (or nowadays maybe
carbon fiber), attached to the hull. It starts off beneath the water but the hydrofoil’s
design lifts it as it gathers speed, much as an airplane flies because the shape of the
wings produces lower pressure above than below, making it rise naturally.
So, with a boat you can see how the foil rising takes the hull out of the water,
creating less resistance and therefore more speed.
Apply the concept to a board smaller than a conventional sailboard with an airplane-wing-shaped
foil underneath, and you have a recipe for speed and elegance
with a dash of mystery, as the board appears to be standing on the water on a slim
pole. It is the forward motion that makes it work, and the board is powered by a
Not psychedelic seagulls, but a flock of kitefoilers.
windsurfer-style sail (windfoiling) or a kite (kitefoiling) that the sailor holds onto by
a sort of trapeze handle.
The organizers of the Caribbean Foiling Championships, Max van den Pol and
Sacha van der Wouden, are a charming young couple from the Netherlands, who
came to the Caribbean to work at St. Maarten’s Heineken Regatta and, noting that
yachts tend to be the preserve of older sailors, started thinking about how they could
offer a similar experience to younger people, with equipment that is both less expensive
and more portable.
Max describes kitefoiling as a “discipline,” rather than a sport of its own, because
the skills needed to perform it generally grow from previous incarnations. A seasoned
foiler himself, he brought this first-hand knowledge to the setting up of the event,
including the vital area of safety. Sacha, meanwhile, is what might be described as
an “improver” in the sport, quickly gaining experience but modest in her rating of
her ability. She is the Caribbean Foiling Championships’ PR person, the link with the
world’s media and, this being a youth-oriented event, there is plenty of modern technology
involved, not least in the safety aspect. Electronic tracking is used to keep
tabs on competitors.
As with any water sport, there is a potential element of danger, and, as Max points
out, “It’s not a question of how fast you can go, it’s how fast you dare go.”
All the technology in the world, though, can’t bring wind to a Caribbean beach if
nature is not cooperating, and as 40 hyped-up competitors gathered at Orient Bay,
silent prayers were going up for a large breath of moving air.
—Continued on next page