Am just asking for advice for a limited budget foiling sail mabe a older wave sail may work for foiling, what are you guys using adapted or as they come out the bag I'm thinking 5.5 mtr ish for my needs
I'm a massive fan of the Sailworks 4.8 Hucker. Loads of power (built in tight leech) for its size. I rig it on a 430 mast to tighten it up even more. I use it in 10-20knots easily and bit outside these wind speeds a little less comfortably. Durable, stable enough draft, easy to rig.
Any post 1997, not a dud then, TUNED CORRECTLY for the prevailing wind conditions.
anything with bit more grunt, so fuller shape not too flat, eg. Blade/Atlas/Alpha/Gator "power" style wavesails, bit less downhaul to tighten the leech
I am using old sailworks revo 4.2 and 4.8. I rig both in my 430 mast. They might be 15 years old? These are the only small sails I have for foiling so I cannot compare them with anything else but I honestly I don't feel I need newer sails.
same with my old sailworks retro 6.0 and Neilpride two cam 6.7 (I think it is a Solo circa 2005) they seem to do their job pretty well. BTW, I just freeride foil with an infinity 84 so no speeding or waves for me.
My favorite sail to foil with is a 2001 3.5m Aerotech charge wave sail(on its last legs
). Great low end, very pumpable and depowers well for transitions like duck gybes. Can foil in winds when silmilar sized windsurfers are not planing on 5.8m sails(10-20kts). I think for foiling in waves a waves sail might hold up better. Never tryed pure freestyle sails, I bet they would be sweet for flat water foiling moves like downwind 360s
2001 Neil pryde raf jets work good also for foiling. I imagine any sail will work for foiling just depends on how you rig them and what type of foiling you want to do.
I've used NP atlas's for a couple of years...they work, however I think they are too heavy and have too many battens (5) for their size.
so I'd suggest getting a sail with four battens or less
I'm now looking to replace them with the lighter combat, or wizards.
But having seen the great reviews of the Goya Fringe, I may try to get hold of a NP 3 batten Fly as I've got NP masts.
Combat 4.5 works extremely well for me with a huge wind range. I use it if I want to sail in "freeride mode".
I use S2Maui dragon wavesails tuned relatively flat in the outhaul, and with average downahul tension.
In my experience tuning a sail to be more baggy or more thight in the leach than it is designed to be will either make it feel heavy when foiling, or kill the power. Tuning with correct downhaul (so at the very least minimum you'd do for the normal board), and a little more outhaul makes the sail sooo light. Rigged that way really makes things like foiling sail 720's, double / triple duckjibes and chachoo sail stalls and the like easy.
Yes rigging like that will take a little more energy to get up, but once up, you can keep flying for days, and as lobg as you fly your jibes consistently, nothing beats a light sail.
Having sailed a lot with slower wings aswell recently I've found you also want to rig your sail to your foil. A slow foil needs a baggier sail with a thighter leech, the faster the foil (or foiler), the more outhaul and downhaul you can / want to use.
Select to expand quoteWhiteofHeart said..
I use S2Maui dragon wavesails tuned relatively flat in the outhaul, and with average downahul tension.
In my experience tuning a sail to be more baggy or more thight in the leach than it is designed to be will either make it feel heavy when foiling, or kill the power. Tuning with correct downhaul (so at the very least minimum you'd do for the normal board), and a little more outhaul makes the sail sooo light. Rigged that way really makes things like foiling sail 720's, double / triple duckjibes and chachoo sail stalls and the like easy.
Yes rigging like that will take a little more energy to get up, but once up, you can keep flying for days, and as lobg as you fly your jibes consistently, nothing beats a light sail.
Having sailed a lot with slower wings aswell recently I've found you also want to rig your sail to your foil. A slow foil needs a baggier sail with a thighter leech, the faster the foil (or foiler), the more outhaul and downhaul you can / want to use.
I second this. Generally I also go with extra outhaul and average downhaul on my wave sails. I find I can carry 1/2 size more if I rig this way, which makes water starting easier, and the sail feels less heavy when up on the foil if it's flatter.
I am still trying to figure out how to rig my cammed sail.
+1 for the Revolution. I use a very old 5.0 when it gets windy. On the Sailworks website videos they show foilers out on the river mixing it up with both Flyers (2 cam) and Revolutions (camless).
I have also foiled with a 5.6 Hucker, but that is a whole different can of worms out on the water.
My Florida quiver is Aerotech Phantoms (6.2 and 6.8) and a Severne S-1 (5.0). All camless.
One really good way to increase the tunability of even these sails for the conditions is adjustable outhaul (AO). I use AO on everything I foil with, including the 5.0 sails.
For foiling I don't like anything with more than 4 battens and higher aspect sails like the Fringe are my preference.
My foils are of the slower variety and I rig small.
Hello,
I have been using Combat 5,6/ice 5.0-4.2/volt 4.5/Supersession 5.6-6.0 all good so fare
I've just bought a simmer 2xc 6.5 for light wind stuff its brilliant so far I'm interested in the Simmer enduro 5.9 looks like it has low down grunt but light in hand and could use on my slapper too.
I look for 4 battens or less and a short boom length. The Goya Fringe is popular for that reason.
Slightly off topic but when it comes to freestyle sails, Severne Freeks are by far my favorite. I've tried a lot of fs sails but the stability and windrange you get from the 5 battens (most have 4) is just worth the tradeoff of having a very slighlty heavier sail.
Ihad a freek 4.4 and 5.2, aswell as a point7 slash 4.8 and I tended to just skip that sail. Now my 4.8 freek is my most used sail.
The tight leech and wide mastsleeve makes it just fun to sail that powers up very quickly. The sail feels like an on-off switch so you can very much control the power you generate
My observation is that the sail is the least sensitive and twitchy/touchy part of the whole windfoiling kit.
The foil itself is by far the most important. Size, mast, fuse, area, aspect ratio, length, all that stuff. That is your priority. Get it right first.
Second priority is the board. Volume, width, length, finbox type and location, footstraps, mast track location and length, weight, type. Get it right second by making sure the foil fits the finbox and can be balanced (front wing near the mid point between back and front feet).
Third priority is the sail. Any windsurfing sail will work just fine for windfoiling as long as you rig it right and it is about the right size. Differences between wave sails, freeride sails, race sails, dedicated windfoiling sails, etc., are minor compared to differences in foils and boards.
Agree with Segler. Almost any sail is fine as a power source.
After power is handling.
