At the training camp on Lake Garda, Harry made his mark in the history books of windsurfing. His coach filmed the first completely foiled tack. When asked, Harry spontaneously and confidently called the foil tack "The Harrack". Anyone who has ever ridden a course race, whether with a fin or foil, will have a rough idea of what this technical milestone means. On a normal tack, you come to an almost complete standstill and have to start again on the new course or pump the board back onto the foil. Not so with the foil tack. You can change course to windward with almost no loss of speed. This probably gives the Foil Tack a decisive advantage over the competition, which has to make a stopover.
"Ever since I foiled my first jibe, the foil tack has been on my mind. I managed it for the first time in March," said a delighted Joyner, who comes from Fremantle in Western Australia. Even before his invention, Harry had already finished on the podium at the national championships in Australia. Like many other iQFOilers, he is a career changer: "I sailed single and double-handed dinghy classes. I grew up on the sea and sailed at Fremantle Sailing Club. I also gained regatta experience there, which I was then able to transfer to windsurfing. My biggest success was 4th place at the Australian Youth Nationals in the 29er class," says Joyner in an interview with iQFOiL Class.
So why the switch to windsurfing? "After seeing the Olympic windsurfing class change from RS:X to foiling, it seemed like a good idea to expand my skills and move into a foiling class. The Western Australian Institute of Sport has set up an iQFOiL programme to give me the support I need to develop." Now Joyner wants to compete in various international regattas and try to get the edge with his foil tack.
The competition never sleeps - Foil Tack quickly finds imitators
The entire foil scene quickly realised that the turn flown was likely to be a game changer in future regattas. Olympic champion on the old RS:X, Kiran Badloe, who is now also successful on the iQFOiL, said: "It's crazy and so cool to see the next generation of the sport pushing their limits and showing us that there are no limits! I've worked on the foil tack myself but it wasn't a big priority as no one else could foil through. That has now suddenly changed. The answer from all-rounder and freestyle world champion Amado Vrieswijk was not long in coming. Just a short time after Harry's video première, the powerhouse from Bonaire showed his version.
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The first races of the iQFOiL-Euro are currently underway on Lake Garda. There we will be able to see for the first time which riders have already mastered the foil tack and whether they can use it to gain a decisive advantage. After the first four races, the favourites Luc van Opzeeland, Nicolas Goyard and Sebastian Kördel are in the top three places. Fabian Wolf in sixth place is another German in the leading group. Harry Joyner performed creditably as a youngster in 69th place in the field of over 150 participants. Here you can follow the Euro on Lake Garda .
