In 2007 Canada entered its first challenge for the International C-Class Catamaran Championship and was victorious in capturing the trophy with five straight wins by Alpha CAN 6 over the venerable Cogito from the USA.
Two boats were designed for this challenge - the first was Alpha, a wingsail catamaran, which incorporated some new thinking on sail configuration and hull shape. This made it a successful evolutionary, but not revolutionary, step from the current state-of-the-art boats. Compared to Cogito, the main rival, she had a taller, narrower and thinner wing, lighter construction and more circular hull cross section. The second was Rocker, the bold hydrofoil catamaran, using hulls from the same mold as Alpha and an identical wingsail as the driving force. The daggerboard hydrofoils automatically controlled the ride height with trim tabs, while the control of the rudder elevators was left to the helmsman. Although she flew well, was very controllable, and was spectacular to watch, Rocker could not match the 20 knot plus speed of Alpha.
