You normally would not associate foiling with seagull racing. But this is not your average seagull racing story and Michael ‘Happy’ Henderson and colleague Joe ‘Mama’ Leureux are certainly not your average racers.

Inspired by the foiling catamarans previously used in the 34th and 35th America’s Cup, Henderson decided to equip his 16ft dinghy with the same hydrofoil technology that reduces drag and increases speed.

“This all started in 2016-17 after befriending someone from the America’s Cup,” Henderson told The Royal Gazette,

“We started talking shop and it piqued his interest. That is where it all started and the modification was involved.

After a lot of work, the results of the modification have been profound.

“It handles great at a certain speed but can be a little scary at certain speeds,” Henderson said.

“They are designed to do a certain speed around 14 knots. However, it has proved itself to do much better than that, and still has potential to go even further, but we are also keeping safety in mind.

“The hull without the foils did about 11 knots but that is just a guesstimate as we never got a true reading last year as we were on a time crunch. We built it in five days, threw it overboard and raced without even a test run.”

The transformation of Henderson’s boat did not come without challenges.

“It is a very delicate balance to make it all work but fortunately I have a buddy that’s been around it for long enough and has an idea on the whole set-up,” he said.

The sight of Henderson’s boat slicing through the water on razor-thin foils has sparked much interest and positive feedback among the local seagull racing community.

“The feedback has been very positive from almost everyone with very few armchair admirals,” he said. “Seagull racing is a family and people genuinely want to see it succeed.”

Henderson is not the first on island to equip his boat with foils, with that distinction going to rival Nigel Pollard.

“We actually are not the first to foil and have to give credit to Nigel to try it first,” he said. “He has had some success and Joe and I wish him the best of luck.”

The two rivals are among a large racing fleet competing for honours in the Heineken Round the Island Race taking place on Saturday.

“Joe and I are looking forward to racing on Saturday and wish all involved the best of luck,” Henderson said. “Just remember, if it’s brown, go around.”

The race starts and finishes in Mangrove Bay, Somerset. Racing begins at 7.45am.