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As of September 2016, we were working on a new boat. The Quant23, which was the talk of the town at the time, was to be joined by a smaller sister. It is about the Quant 17.
One year later, the first tests took place as planned.
The following description, which went to some of the more important target group members for us, briefly outlines the objectives we pursued with the boat. It is interesting (at least for ourselves) to look back - to the second half of 2016 - and to read a few excerpts from a first flyer for Quant17.
For the competition-oriented junior generation - and in general - for the many enthusiastic sports sailors, it is about getting used to the high speeds that can be achieved with flying boats. It is also about learning the "laws of foiling":
Sailing in foiling mode only seemingly changes conventional sailing physics. When foiling, we only experience familiar phenomena in a highly exaggerated form, which can be confusing at first.
However, what we have learned so far still applies. We are merely discovering new boundaries.
It therefore makes sense to combine boat concepts that were previously considered incompatible (conventional vs foil) in one boat and thus to approach the new limits of the physical conditions in a gradual and controlled manner.
The Q23 and also the Q17 manage this practically without undesirable side effects. The reason for this is the new Q-foil technology for inherently stable foiling in combination with the special hull design, which is not a show but a program.
Foil, hull and a conventional daggerboard work together to achieve the balancing act of creating the various sailing conditions such as displacement sailing, planing, semi-foiling/skimming and full-foiling harmoniously and with smooth transitions.
After the first tests and the presentation of the boat at the "Interboot 2017", the interest in the boat was very high and we collected more interested addresses at this boat exhibition than ever before.
The motivation to finish the development of the boat was great, but the further we pushed the work towards serial production, the more clearly we saw that the real challenge (besides the technically flawless function) would be to bring the production boat to the market for a reasonable price.
To produce for a market that is in upheaval and for which there are no reliable empirical values is the nightmare for every planner. We did not dare to expect high sales figures and we did not want to produce in low-wage countries.
For this reason, we gave ourselves more time to observe the development of foiling boats instead of driving them forward ourselves. We used the time to gain more experience with the boat and to get to know it better.
The performance figures were surprisingly good - but the demands of the boat on the crew were above the level we had imagined for the target groups we were aiming for. The Quant17 turned out to be a really fast but also very lively boat when tested with two other generations of foils - the moth sailors who sailed on the Q17 had their fun.
This (unfortunately) had to be a warning to us - because our company philosophy is to promote mass sport in the area of foiling and not to develop equipment that is more suitable for the professional sector. In retrospect, our decision was probably the right one. It also helped that new opportunities and options opened up for us just at the turn of the year 2017/2018.
The topic "Foils" is still very new for many - we are happy to share our knowledge and experience with you.
