Onwards and upwards

John Ilett discusses his future plans

Whilst the new Prowler Zero made by John Ilett and Fastacraft struggled during the two day Moth World Championships last week, the boat continues to have a strong following. So strong, in fact, that Illet (the inventor of the current design of foiling Moth)has just not been able to keep up with demand. In an effort to increase supply the Australian) announced last week that he was to move operations out to Vietnam where he is able to produce boats in a much higher capacity.

Ilett is a quiet man and seems slightly uncomfortable in the public limelight, clearly preferring to be out tinkering with boat parts or on the water in one of his foiling Moths. It is, perhaps, this shyness that makes Fastacraft such a low key company throughout the world. Rarely does one hear about a latest design change or significant achievement without hearing the news through the grapevine first. This is something Illet admits he should work harder on. However, until now promotion was something that was hardly needed at all with the company only able to produce in the region of 15 boats per year at present and significantly more demand for Prowlers than that.

It is the demand for boats and the limited capacity of his factory in Australia that has had Illet looking overseas for several years now, to find the right spot to produce his boats on a larger scale. “We have just had a lot of demand for our boats over the years and so much more than we could ever deal with,” Ilett explained to TheDailySail. “So we want to be a part of that but it is difficult to make that step as a small business. There is no investor to throw anything at it and take a chance. We found this factory [in Vietnam] that is prepared to work with us, I have looked at a few factories over the last few years but none of them were right.”

Moving production out to Vietnam is a risky move for Ilett. On the one hand he will never be able to competitively produce up to 200 or so boats per year in Australia so it makes a lot of sense if the company is to grow. However, the Prowler Moths that Illet produces have built up a very enviable – and well earned – reputation of reliability over the years. In short, of all the big manufacturers at present if you want a Moth that is fairly unlikely to break you buy a Prowler and nothing else.


Above: A recent development, the F box allows sailros to adjust their main foil position.

Of course the obvious problem with moving operations elsewhere and having lower skilled, cheaper builders manufacturing them is if something goes wrong in just one batch then that reputation becomes tarnished and is very hard to re-build. Ilett is very aware of this possibility and is taking a softly, softly approach to the move. At first only the manufacture of hull will be moved to Vietnam with the moulded, sanded and painted bare hulls being shipped back to Perth where the foils, wing bars and all the other extras will be made. “Further down the track we would like to pass on other bits but we want to start on just the hulls,” Ilett explains. When pushed further on how much of a risk it will be building the boats elsewhere, the answer is simply ‘not as risky as it is for others’. “This particular factory is very confident and determined to make sure they build a high quality product,” he comments. “Plus it is an advantage that we already know how to build our boats. Bladerider started out and had to learn how to build the boats as well as doing it in another country. So it is just a question of us passing on our know-how.”

Something that has always been very noticeable about the Prowler hull is that it has changed very little since Ilett built his first foiler back in 2003-04. We wondered why this was when much of the fleet were experimenting with new, lower windage hull shapes? “As you know, with the foils the hull is not as critical a part of the game,” he explains. “As a small business it is costly to make a change or to start from scratch so we have not changed so much. It would also really slow down production.” However, just because the company is reluctant to make any radical changes does not mean there have been none. The most recent Prowler Zero design has had a few tweaks for example. “We still had to make a new mould for the hull but it was a simple mod so it did not cost us too much time in production. It is slightly smaller in the bow and the centreboard case is a little further forward but that is it really.” Ilett adds that most of the hull shapes are relatively aerodynamically stable at present and he does not really see the drag modified by a fractionally bigger or smaller hull as something that will make a significant difference.

If Ilett believes hulls are not where the big gains are going to come from the obvious question is where does he see significant performance benefits being found? “There is a general issue with overall drag which seems to be a bit of a brick wall at the moment for some,” he comments. “Smaller foils have proven faster but only on a reach. It seems that the current foil size is about right so I can’t see anyone going much smaller. If this is the case drag from the rig, wings and sailor are most important. When you look at most hulls I would say they are very good but the wingframes and the tramps and the sailor and the rigs are not so refined.”

Below: The Prowler Zero control system.


Along this same vein Ilett has an interesting view of foiling Moth development over the past four years, and in many ways sees little improvement. “You might have noticed the boats today are not really going much faster than they were four years ago when we had the big square foils, less experience and less development in the control systems,” he comments. “So even with all the development it seems like everyone is making we are not producing faster boats, although they are quicker round a course and easier to sail. That is really where all the development has gone; control. Top speeds are still the same and that has got to come down to drag.”

At this point in time it is easy to get the feeling Ilett is focussed with drag reduction but a quick look over his most recent tweaks, modification and projects shows this is not necessarily the case. Significantly, in a class so dominated by one sail manufacturer, Ka Sails, Ilett is testing his own Moth rig at present. “We have our own sail which we have been working on for over a year and have made around ten now,” Ilett comments. “We make them two or three at a time. The sailmaker is very into it and has just got a new Prowler Zero and has really been putting the effort in. His name is Phil Smith. He has a background in the Windsurfing side of production sails in the past working for Hotsails Maui. He also has a background in landyachts, which are quite similar to Moths now in terms of apparent wind.” Perhaps rather predictably for a rig designed by a landyacht sailor, Smith and Illet have been looking a lot at lower mast bend in the fleet. “I have a higher set of hounds which is part of our progression. We felt the length of the tip of the mast is quite long and with our big head sail when the top of the mast bends, the bottom bends, which takes the draft and stability out of the bottom of the sail. We are trying really to control the bottom of the sail rather than the top by moving the hounds up. That seems to be working,” Ilett explains.

Alongside this rig development Illet has also been doing some work on his foil sections. “The foils have a new vertical section which is something probably nobody notices but they are different from last year. They are half a millimetre thinner. We have a designer working with us who is really good and really experienced at writing software for gliders and aircraft design. He is helping us with a lot of things. Not that we have made many changes but he has looked at a lot of things and done a lot of consulting with us,” he concludes.

Ilett’s move to Vietnam will be an interesting one to watch. His boats have a reputation for reliability and this is something he is clearly keen to maintain. In addition to being able to produce a vastly higher number of hulls in Vietnam the move should also free up some of his own time to allow for greater development of the boat. We feel Illets focus on rig and wing drag should produce a number of interesting developments over the coming years.

It is an interesting challenge to meet demand with a new foreign factory set up, we hope that Ilett can juggle this with continuing to refine his designs in such a competitive class that still has a wide open development path ahead of it.