Looking at the bottom half speeds of these results, half the field seemingly spent considerable time not foiling - does any one have the story behind the story? We all know how hard it is, but there are some good dwd foilers in there, so I can only think the ocean went dead on them. PS. Tiago takes the Trooper Award!
I was there, it was supposed to be 40km but they switched to a shorter run 20km because the forecast was not looking good (around 10nd).
But the main problem was the Sargass which are seaweed that comes from time to time, difficult to predict.
The day before the race it was super windy but impossible to stay up, too many of those on the way.
During the race we had a part of the run with a lot of Sargass, I would say at least it was 5 km of hard foiling, as we had to go around, trying to stay up despite having those stuck in the mast or the stab, on the front wing it was easy to get them out.
Anyway, everybody had to stop at some point, Paul who won was able to stop only once, he was able to muscle up.
Other than that, the bumps were nice even with 10/12nd.
Without the seaweed we would have been able to the 40km easy.
And for my part, I stopped x3 times but was able to get up fast, I was on a way to a decent timing being 4th place but got lost and went to the wrong beach... I had to ask my way and get back to the outside to finish 1km away.
Yoy can see all the trackers with lines, speed, etc...
It is a good race, really popular with surf ski and oc, sup. I can see a good futur in the foiling division as we don't have to many races like that.
Next year they will propably have a waiting period for foiling division.
Select to expand quotePeterP said..
Tiago takes the Trooper Award!
There's an obvious mistake there. Tiago made in less 10 hours than what is stated. I only texted him once after the race, but he said the conditions were bad. He can do way much better than that.
Thanks for updates, sounds tough with the weed (hard enough as it is....). 10-12kn really is little wind, what foils were the guys using?
Select to expand quotePeterP said..
Thanks for updates, sounds tough with the weed (hard enough as it is....). 10-12kn really is little wind, what foils were the guys using?
Bigger foil was the way to go.
1st place 1480 fone
2nd kujira 1440
3rf army 1325
4th Axis 1050
Thanks, Greg, very good info. Couple more questions - what do you currently use as your lightwind dwd foil and would you agree with following assessment - As a rule of thumb, foils larger than 1500sqcm have too much induced drag to enable sustained pump and glide irrespective of body weight? Larger foils will be easier to get up on foil (than 1500 and down) but at the expense of too much drag for long sustained bump riding?
Select to expand quotePeterP said..
Thanks, Greg, very good info. Couple more questions - what do you currently use as your lightwind dwd foil and would you agree with following assessment - As a rule of thumb, foils larger than 1500sqcm have too much induced drag to enable sustained pump and glide irrespective of body weight? Larger foils will be easier to get up on foil (than 1500 and down) but at the expense of too much drag for long sustained bump riding?
I'm 1m70/75kg, my biggest foil is the Kuira 1440 with 220 stab, this is the one I use when it is light (under 15nd).
Then I have Axis Art 1099 and 999 when it is 15nd +.
I also have Unifoil Hyper 190/170/150 but lately I've been trying the Axis art.
For the last few weeks I've been using only 75cm mast, I used to have 82cm but I think 75cm works best (easier to get up, stiffer, more control).
I think what matters most when it comes to efficency is the ratio wing span/cord more than surface area. Also it depends on conditions.
For exemple a heavier guy can be faster than a ligher foiler using a smaller (supposely faster foil) especially on big days.
One thing I know for sure is, it is better to fly non stop slow than struggling trying to keep up to fly fast and having to stop.
Axis 1150 is a good example, probably one of the easiest foil to fly on small bumps, it might be not super fast but anyway on a slow run you will go slow anyway. So then it is all about compromise, for example Axis 1050 (1500cm2)/Kujira 14440 can be a good choice for lighter riders.
I was trying to put this in terms of wing loading, because a foil is only big or small relative to the weight it carries.
Do not see this measurement being used in foiling, in aviation it is very relevant.A hang glider or paraglider will behave very differently with high or low wing loading.
So for Frenchfoiler setup i tried to calculate like this:
75kg (rider)+ 3kg(wetsuit,paddle,leash?)+5kg (board)+2kg(mast and plate above water)=85kg
-Kujira 1440 (low wind setup) would have a wing loading of 70grams/cm2
-ART 999 (high wind setup) wing loading of 84grams/cm2
So the high wind setup has a 20% bigger wing loading.Which means...whatever :)
Foil design is ultra relevant factor , and even with the exact same foil design and wing loading i suspect bigger riders will still have an efficiency advantage due to viscosity,Reynolds and all that scaling thing.
But it is a reference point ,maybe more informative than just size.
Sorry ,i was bored :)
