Lemer Pax, sponsor of the WASZP 2024 French Championship

The Waszp, designed by Australian Andrew Mc Dougall and launched in 2015, is a small 3.9 m long single-handed dinghy equipped with foils, a 48 kg composite hull and an 8.2 m² sail. An alternative to the more expensive Moth Foiler, it is gradually conquering the shores of every continent. Robust, designed with tried-and-tested materials like aluminium and fibreglass, it’s nonetheless very sporty. It flies from 7 knots of wind and exceeds twenty knots without difficulty.  That’s the charm of this atypical one-design boat class. The public are delighted to see this strange flying dinghy take off, and the skipper can also enjoy the new sensations on the water.

Around fifty boats from Spain, Italy, England and Denmark, led by 2023 world champion Hippolyte Gruet (INSA Lyon) or Magnus Overbeck, the Danish European champion, will be taking part in these regattas, with four legs per day, each lasting 20 to 30 minutes. Very compact courses around four buoys, with a windward and a leeward gate, to multiply the tactical choices. All this will be complemented by run and slalom events around the buoys to show the public the boat’s exceptional qualities in terms of speed and manoeuvrability.

Ingenious boats, innovative technological solutions and young skippers, some of whom are engineering school students, are the main reasons for Lemer Pax’s involvement in the French Waszp championship. That’s why Gabin Bali, who came third in the last Grand Prix de l’Ecole Navale in Lanvéoc, will be sailing under the Lemer Pax colours. A further reason to follow the event from a distance thanks to the tracking technology offered by the company MetaSail, which will take us into the antechamber and wake of the America’s Cup, a loyal user of this system dedicated to the general public.