The World’s First Foiling Sailboat
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2026 9:00 am
By: Ken Quant
The first time I saw a foiling sailboat magically lift skyward and race into the distance, I remember thinking that this was a true example of 21st century technology. As amazingly modern as it seemed, little did I know that it wasn’t as new as I thought. That’s because back in 1957, a remarkable experimental craft called Monitor proved that a sailboat could rise out of the water using foils on lake Mendota in Wisconsin.
Widely recognized as the world’s first successful foiling sailboat, Monitor was not the sleek computer designed carbon-fiber racer of today. Instead, she was a wood, metal, and canvas creation from an era of slide rules and chewing gum. Based on an motor driven foiling boat project done by Alexander Grahme Bell back in the early 20th century, Monitor was built and designed by J. G. Baker Manufacturing of Evansville, Wisconsin, in conjunction with the U.S. Navy. Their mission was to research hydrofoil structural characteristics, fabrication methods, and stability control systems for potential military use. Monitor was the one sailboat created in a series of boats all designed back then to explore the potentials of foiling.
The idea behind her was fairly simple in concept but difficult in practice. Like most boats, normal sailboats push their hulls through the water which creates a tremendous amount of drag that severely limits speed. Working with the already proven foiling concept, the Monitor had to sail fast enough that the water flowing over the foils would generate enough lift, similar to an airplane wing, to push the boat up and out of the water. This would leave only the foils slicing through the surface. To do this Monitor used an ingenious ladder-style foiling system that incrementally pushed the boat higher the faster it sailed. Once fully up to speed, it would be planing on just the smallest of the foils for minimum drag.
Anticipating that the boat would be very unstable running on these tiny surfaces at high speeds, Baker also created an ingenious control system designed to manage the changes in lift, pitch, and sail pressure. This system used a set of mechanical linkages connected to the rig and rear foil to adjust the foil’s angle of attack to help keep the craft balanced. A system similar to the computer controlled ones used in many of the large foiling sailboats of today.
Launched in 1955, Monitor quickly showed what was possible. Reports credit it with foiling in moderate winds and reaching speeds close to 40 knots. An extraordinary achievement for its era. Although her legacy has largely slipped into the dustbin of time, her accomplishments changed sailing forever by proving that wind power, design, and hydrofoil lift could combine to almost completely break a sailboat free of the water to reach once unimaginable speeds. In doing so, it also ushered-in one of the most exciting developments in modern sailing.
Today foiling is central to some of the fastest and most advanced sailboats in the world. From Moth dinghies to offshore trimarans and America’s Cup and Sail GP racers, all these boats owe their story to a bold Wisconsin-built experiment that first made sailing flight real. To discover more about the Monitor, visit rchs.us.
Historical images courtesy of Rock County Historical Society.
tags: foiling sailboat, great lakes history, history, Sailboats, sailing
