America's top foiler

Bora Gulari talks foiling tacks and preparations for his first Moth World Championships

If you pay a visit to Detroit either in the evening or on the weekend, you are more than likely to find a lone boat foiling around in circles again and again in the cold waters of the USA’s far north.

For almost exactly one year, 32 year old Bora Gulari, has been learning the art of foiling – he bought his first ever Moth mid-May 2007. Since then he has gone from being an American sailor who was getting to grips with the class by buying a Bladerider, to one of the top contenders for a World Championship win this July in Weymouth.

So who is this new threat to the world title? Gulari was actually a fairly latecomer to sailing. Early on he could be found out on the water windsurfing and spent a lot of time course racing those. When the short board revolution kicked off he spent less time course racing and a lot more time short board sailing. After spending time in California and Hawaii he was then due to head to Michigan to study for his Aerospace Engineering Degree. “Going to school in Michigan and being a short board sailor does not quite work. There is not really enough breeze, he explains. “I stumbled across club sailing at college and off we went from there.”

Following his college sailing, Gulari moved into high performance dinghies, specifically the 49er. Starting off helming his own boat, he then started crewing for Ty Reed, the pair going on to become members of the US Sailing team and competing in the Olympic Trials for the class. It was after this, Gulari decided he would sail the Moth. When asked about this interesting path of windsurfer, 49er, foiler Gulari simply admits, “I don’t really like going slow too much.”

Like many recent Moth sailors Gulari was drawn to the class after seeing the new foiling boats both in the press and online. “I read an article in Seahorse [magazine] that Rohan [Veal] put together about the Bladerider. When I was still 49er sailing I had seen some videos of him foiling in his Prowler, but it was really hard to find a boat. The Bladerider guys came along and said they were mass producing them and that was that.”

In the past the US used to have a number of International Moth sailors but the class slowly evolved out of the International Moth rule set – by adding spinnakers – and dwindled somewhat. Of course this meant by buying an International Moth Gulari was effectively condemning himself to sailing, if not the only foiler, then one of only a handful in the US. “In the 49er, to even be in the class you have to commit to travelling coast to coast all the time. There are just not that many guys sailing the boat. To get to a regatta you really did have to travel. So I was not that bothered by the lack of fleet in the US,” he explains.

Gulari was able to convince a friend to buy a Moth too shortly after his had arrived, but as he is a professional sailor he is not around all that much. So, up in Detroit by himself how has Gulari managed to reach a position where some of the top Moth sailors believe him to be one of the fastest in the World? Perhaps unsurprisingly the answer is practice. “Luckily I work for my dad and he is a long time sailor too. So basically as soon as I get off work I head down to the yacht club and get a couple of hours sailing in every day. Once it gets dark or if it is not a conducive day for sailing, I work in my garage on bits for the boat,” Gulari explains, adding “I really don’t have a whole lot else going on. There are other things I do outside of Moth sailing – such as Melges 24 racing - but in the last year or so I have really drawn back from those things.”



Of course living in Detroit, as one might imagine, there are quite a few days, particularly in the winter that are, as Gulari puts it, not conducive to sailing. “There were basically five months that I was off the water. I augmented that with spending a month in Australia sailing and then another month between Dubai and California, so I really only lost three months sailing.” The trips to Australia and Dubai saw Gulari with a chance to race against other Moth sailors, a rarity for the man from Detroit.

The Moth fleet is known for attracting those with a penchant for tinkering with boats and equipment and Gulari is no exception to the rule, putting his Aerospace Engineering degree to good use. “It is so rewarding because you can quantify and make changes that actually make a difference. It has either done what you want or it is totally wrong,” he explains.

Much of the talk about the Bladeriders’ dominance at the World Championships in 2007 was of control systems for foiling and this is the area Gulari has been focussing on the most with his technical development. “I have mostly been trying to make everything as friction free and as slop free as possible and have been playing around with the wand to flap ratio,” he explains. Although at some point in the future Gulari says he will want to work on building new foils and other bigger parts – he has just bought machines to make moulds with – he is currently trying to stick to engineering improvements into the existing systems as opposed to inventing entirely new ones.

Gulari is adamant the big gains come from the foils and the control systems for them and views the hull very much as “something to hold all the bits together.” Specifically, he has been focussed on the way the foils behave in a variety of conditions. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a man that sails in 4degC waters but has also spent time sailing in Dubai and Australia, water temperature, and its effect of foiling seems to be an area of great interest to him. “Everyone has problems with Ventilation - I call it a stall but Amac [Andrew MacDougal] disagrees with what the correct terminology is,” Gulari comments. “Just messing around with that has been the biggest thing lately. The foils are critical and are not forgiving in the cold water. They very easily ‘let go’ and the boat wants to wipe-out from under you. I have been trying to fix that. Of course that should not be a problem when we get to England because the water should be a lot warmer. It was very important for me to get some of those issues sorted, because it was very frustrating to have the boat misbehave when you have done nothing wrong.”

In addition to the technical innovation he is bringing to the boat, many Moth sailors believe Gulari will do well at the Worlds through his rapidly improving boat handling skills. Watching videos of him out on the water (such as this impressive Youtube clip) are evidence he is definitely up there as one of the top Moth sailors in terms of boat handling skills. Over the last few years, having mastered the foiling gybe, the foiling tack – or Fack – has become something of a nirvana for top Moth sailors and Gulari seems to be well on the way to mastering this elusive art. “I would say now my success rate is between 70 and 80%,” he states. “It is really interesting to me that there is a very small window where I can pull off a Gack [a gybe instead of a tack upwind to keep the boat on the foils] and not a foiling tack. It is at the bottom end of the wind range and there is maybe a one knot difference in wind speed. If I can hike I can pull of a foiling tack.”


Above: Midway through a foiling tack.

Gulari is keen to clear up a misconception many have about the foiling tack and states that, in his mind, the boat does not have to be out of the water the whole time for a foiling tack to be achieved. Although this sounds a little like a contradiction in terms, Gulari is very clear on what he thinks it comes down to. “When I say 70-80% that I nail, they are not always out of the water the whole time. [The boat] might skim the surface of the water but the foils will be fully loaded and you do no really lose anything. You do not come to that point where load comes off the foil and the boat crashes. If the foils are always lifting I do not feel any appreciable difference between that and a tack where you are fully out the water the whole time,” he comments.

As previously mentioned Gulari is now widely recognised as a potential winner of the World championships this year in Weymouth. The UK Moth Class have listed him with the same chance of a top three position as they have ex-world champion, Simon Payne, and another newcomer, Matt Belcher. Scott Babbage meanwhile lists Gulari as his top pick to win the whole event. When asked directly about these predictions, Gulari seems to evaluate his chances fairly, if a little modestly. “I am not really going into these Worlds to win necessarily. I am training hard and want to do well but I am coming to have a good time I am excited about putting forth a good effort but I don’t know. I have not really done many regattas. I would like to see where the fleet is. I think my virtues are that I put more time into my boat handling than most. However, I do not have the luxury of lining up against many people all the time so I am not sure where my straight line speed is.” Gulari is looking for sponsorship to get to the World Championships in Weymouth, though he says he is coming either way - it is just a question of how much debt he goes into to get here.

And what of the future for this lone foiling Mother? “I am not going anywhere. The whole package is so user friendly and easy to deal with. I can lift the boat and put it on a car myself. Compared to the logistics of a 49er it is just great. Everything is easy and it is an absolute joy to sail. I live about five minutes from my boat and can leave the house and be on the water 20 minutes later. I love the class and I am here to stay,” he concludes. Keep an eye out for this one come the summer we could well see the first US International Moth World Champion for many years.