THE BEST FOILING PERFORMANCES AND PROJECTS OF 2022 AWARDED IN MILAN
UPON ONLINE PREFERENCES OF THE GLOBAL FOILING COMMUNITY.
THE NEW OVERALL PERPETUAL ‘FORLANINI AWARD’ ASSIGNED TO SAILGP FOR ITS
CONTRIBUTION TO THE FOILING INDUSTRY.
FOILING TECHNOLOGY PAVILION, A COLLABORATION BETWEEN METSTRADE AND
THE FOILING ORGANIZATION FOR THE NEW FORWARD-THINKING AREA OF THE
WORLD’S LARGEST B2B EXHIBITION OF MARINE EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS.
SAVE THE DATE – FOILING AWARDS – NEXT EDITION ON MARCH 14th 2024.
Milan, March 29th 2023 – The prizegiving ceremony of the sixth edition of the Foiling
Awards took place at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan,
in front of an audience of more than 250 guests consisting of members of the Foiling
Industry, journalists and project partners.
Leading the show on stage was “Saily.it” journalist and Social Media Manager of We Are
Foiling, Francesca Frazza, together with the TV presenter of “The Boat Show” and boating
expert Bacci Del Buono.
After welcoming the audience and framing the Awards within the We Are Foiling events
ecosystem, President and Founder Luca Rizzotti highlighted how the growing importance of
the Awards can be attributed to the activity carried out by The Foiling Organization, the
new network of comparison and development for the Foiling Industry and professionals
worldwide conceived and promoted by We Are Foiling.
Before leaving the stage, Rizzotti recalled the tenth anniversary of Foiling Week, which will
be celebrated in Malcesine, on Lake Garda, from June 26th to July 5th.
Next came the Award for the best Foiling Motor Boat of 2022, which went to the Proteus
360 and was presented by Alberto Carriero of Torqeedo to the CFO of the Ebri Global
shipyard, Oleksandr Muratov.
The most valued Sailing Team of 2022 was the one made up of Italians Ruggero Tita and
Caterina Banti, Nacra 17 World Champions who have already won Olympic gold in Tokyo in
- The award was presented to them by Mattias Däldborg, Marketing & Communications
Manager at Garmin.
Artemis Technologies’ EF-24 Passenger ferry has won the Commercial Project Award as
the best project of 2022 for commercial use, which Gianni Cariboni, founder and owner of
Cariboni Marine Hydraulic Systems virtually awarded to Artemis Technologies Ltd. CEO Dr.
Iain Percy OBE, remotely connected.
In a Down Under context, the New Zealand Consul General in Italy Austin Brick presented
the Production Boat Award for production foiling boats already sailing in 2022 to Graham
Porter, Partner of the Australian McConaghy shipyard which builds the ETNZ-designed
AC40s and an integral part of the protocol governing the next America’s Cup.
The first Water-Toy Award, presented by HiNelson Chief Growth Officer Lorenzo Zabban
went to the Manta5 SL3, represented here by European Business Development Manager
Rowan Gyde.
U.S. Helena Scutt, Moth World Champion 2022 in Buenos Aires, won the Female Sailor
Award, virtually presented to her by Mattias Däldborg of Garmin.
Now at its third Foiling Award in six editions of the prize, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli took first
place in the One-Off category with its LEQ12 prototype. Receiving the award directly from
the hands of Marcello Persico, Managing Director of Persico Marine, was Team Director and
Skipper of the Italian team Max Sirena, together with Design Coordinator Horacio Carabelli,
Operations Manager Gilberto “Gillo” Nobili and Matteo Ledri of the Design Team.
With the highest number of votes among Foiling Events, SailGP won the Category Award for
2022. It was presented to Jean Sebastien Chenier Proteau, CEO of Canada SailGP Team, by
GAC Pindar’s Founding Partner, Andrew Pindar OBE DL.
With the active support of World Sailing, present here with its Head of International
Development Koray Ezer, the Foiling Pathway Award was presented for the first time,
meant for the best project promoting foiling on the territory put into practice by National
Federations or Sailing Clubs. It was won by the Canadian project We CAN Foil, represented
here in Milan by Jean Sebastien Chenier Proteau, CEO of Canada SailGP Team, who received
the award from the hands of Niccolò Bianchi, European Sales Representative of Vakaros
sailing instruments.
The Pitot Tubes fluid flow measuring device developed by INEOS Britannia won the
Innovation Technology award. It was collected via the web by Nat Shaver, Head of Foil
Design Department of the British team. On stage in Milan was Niels Klarenbeek, Director
METSTRADE.
Niels Klarenbeek was in Italy to announce an important collaboration between
METSTRADE, the world’s largest trade exhibition for marine equipment, materials and
systems, and The Foiling Organisation, the new network of comparison and development
for the global foiling industry and professionals conceived and promoted by We Are Foiling.
The partnership will lead to the creation of the first ever Foiling Technology Pavilion,
entirely dedicated to foiling technology, which will be set up in the new Hall 7 during
METSTRADE 2023 (Amsterdam – NL, November 15th to 17th) to showcase the Foiling
Industry’s hardware and technology manufacturers and connect them B2B with the visitors
of the show.
METSTRADE Director said: “With the Foiling Technology Pavilion we cannot wait to
unveil the latest of our forward-thinking feature areas and we anticipate wide interest
from visitors and exhibitors alike. METSTRADE has been at the forefront of providing a
significant knowledge platform to highlight the developments that will move our industry’s
essential decarbonisation efforts from ambition to reality. It is a logical progression for us to
take a leading role in partnership with The Foiling Organization to encourage the
mainstream adoption of a technology that has such great potential to reduce energy
consumption while increasing the pleasure of those who go afloat.”
Luca Rizzotti, Founder of The Foiling Organization, commented on his part: “I am confident
that the Foiling Technology Pavilion will provide a major boost to accelerate innovation and
economic growth in the foiling segment to the satisfaction of all of those who will have the
opportunity to take part in this showcase.”
The Award for the Project still under development went to Team American Magic’s
Hydrogen Chase Boat in production at Bluegame, and was collected by Luca Santella, Head
of Product Strategy of the shipyard.
Garmin Marketing & Communications Manager Mattias Däldborg returned to the stage to
present one of the most eagerly awaited awards of the evening, that for the most voted Male
Sailor of 2022, which turned out to be Frenchman Thomas Ruyant, winner of the last Route
du Ruhm in the IMOCA 60 class aboard LINKEDOUT.
The Sustainability Award, for the 2022 initiative with the best environmental impact, was
presented to the boats of the SuMoth Challenge, the challenge between engineering and
naval architecture universities from around the world to design, develop and build the best
performing and most sustainable boat. Delivering it to the students of the Milan and Turin
Polytechnics on stage together with Challenge organiser Bruno Giuntoli was Nadia Meroni,
Councillor of the Italian Sailing Federation.
With the active support of World Sailing, represented here by its Head of International
Development Koray Ezer, the Foiling Pathway Award was presented for the first time,
destined for the best project to promote foiling in the territory put into practice by National
Federations or Sailing Clubs. It was won by the Canadian project We CAN Foil, represented
here in Milan by its President Greg Johnson, who received the award from the hands of
Niccolò Bianchi, European Sales Representative of Vakaros sailing instruments.
Jordi Aranega, Vice President of HRC Group and CEO of Engenuity, outlined the key
features of their engineering system for the characterization of composite materials with a
focus on possible impact cases.
The most relevant novelty this year is undoubtedly the institution of the Forlanini Award,
dedicated to the Italian foiling pioneer Enrico Forlanini, who at the beginning of the 20th
century conceived and experimented with the first prototypes of hulls that rose above the
surface of the water.
The ‘Forlanini’ is an ‘Overall Perpetual Award’ given by a Jury composed of awardees from
previous editions to one of the Category Winners of the current edition, for the most
significant contribution to the world foiling industry in terms of innovation, products,
design and ideas.
The Jury was composed by: Arnaud Psarofaghis (Alinghi, Team Award 5th edition), Sue
Putallaz (MobyFly, Commercial Project 5th edition), Fabio Bignolini (NLcomp, Sustainability
5th edition), Mylene Hovington (Mer Concept, One-Off and Motor Boat 5th edition), Arthur
Yanai (Level Foils, Innovation 5th edition).
The first Forlanini Award was assigned to SailGP, the Foiling Event Category Winner of this
edition, and presented to Jean Sebastien Chenier Proteau.
On stage together with Putllaz and Bignolini, Mylene Hovington explained as follows the
leading reasons of the Jury: ‘It was not an easy decision. All the projects on the short list
were capable of giving a substantial contribution to the Foiling Industry. We decided to
award the Forlanini to SailGP because they were able to greatly expand the foiling
catchment area by offering an excellent show with a high level of media exposure, while at
the same time strongly emphasising their great commitment to environmental
sustainability”.
Before declaring the evening over, the Masters of the ceremony Francesca Frazza and Bacci
Dal Buono announced the date of the next Foiling Awards, which will take place on March
14th 2024.
