Tiesda You
“Mr Starboard Foils” (Ep 110). A technical conversation covering software optimisation of foils, building a “non-athlete” career in the industry, the potential disruption of AI, and Starboard’s Universal Connection System (UCS).
Ep 110 (2025-06-17) — full detail
French national, grew up in Qatar windsurfing from age 10; studied mechanical engineering at UCL; interned at Starboard in Thailand in 2000 after ~150 speculative emails and has been there 25 years, starting as a windsurf shaper apprentice before moving into foils in 2017. Spun up Starboard Foils as a separate, Thailand-registered, deliberately “location-agnostic”/cloud-run company licensing the Starboard brand name.
Designed Starboard’s Universal Connection System (UCS): a saddle-core-with-sleeve-cover front/tail-wing connection (continuous carbon strand for strength, sleeve for shape flexibility) plus a four-bolt saddle mast mount (replacing an older socket system), with hidden internal shims for adjustment. Released UCS as an open, downloadable, USB-C-style standard — no royalty, an optional “Works with UCS” logo — aiming to cover ~90–95% of use cases rather than 100%. Wants a future comparison conversation with Bobby Johnston (designer of Slingshot’s rival “One Lock” system).
Describes being personally “displaced as a designer” ~2023 when a computer-optimised foil wing (built with Martin Fisher’s optimisation process) outperformed anything he could hand-shape — the basis of Starboard’s “7000X” optimisation marketing (~7000 iteration loops converging on a shape from real-world race/wind/structural parameters). Distinguishes optimisation from AI as marketing terms. Believes board shaping (unlike foils) hasn’t been optimised the same way yet because water-surface interaction is harder to simulate than a foil’s single-fluid environment. On the parawing trend: personally flip-flopped from sceptical to intrigued, and views it currently as an accessory to downwind foiling rather than a new discipline in its own right, since it doesn’t change foil design, only foil choice. Cites his own casual wing foiling (19–24 knots on a home lake near the Starboard factory in Thailand) as an everyday example of where optimised gear gives an efficiency “hit.” (Ep 110)