Hi.
You can read many different opinions on internet about this. There are many people saying they don't get flying as early as they thought.
At the end of this link in french marseille.glissattitude.com/blog/comparatifs-foilboards.html they talk about this
As I don't want to have big sails (>5,5), I want to get as powerful foil and board as I could for flying in light winds.
However, in that link they say a very wide board (>85cm) is more difficult to get into flying (or planing) with an small sail than a narrower one (70 cm) in the same wind.
Anyway I think the flatter the hull of the board the better for early flying, freestyle, freerace and slalom boards better than freeride boards.
Besides, in some tests say that a very wide board overpower an small foil (e.g. JP 120 and NP glidewind small). I don't know what it means. Does it have anything to do with the width of the board tail and width/area of the foil?
Finally I've felt myself that a powerful foil can be difficult to control with a narrow board, it needs more board width, I guess
I hope my future combination of 5,6 m2 sail, 118 l x 78 cm board and 1500 cm2 foil for 70 kg will be balanced, but I would appreciate any comments about which is the best combination to fly early with small sails and no hard pumping. I think many people on the net need it.
Thanks.
I don't think there is any lightwind option that does not involve significant pumping. If there was one, my guess it would be a big race sail, but then you might need a smaller race oriented wing. But I have only tried freeride gear.
I think even in heavy wind some pumping is to be expected, because if you can easily fly up onto the foil without pumping then you will probably be overpowered once up. Sometimes in gusts I can foil without pumping but if that was the norm for an entire session, then I need to rig down.
PS: The other day I shared a session with my buddy (both about 75kg) who was winging. He had (6m wing, 90L board, and infinity 99 wing) I had (5.7 sail, 140L board and infinity 99). He foiled 50% of the time and I foiled 5% of the time. We were both pumping a lot, but it looked to me like his wing pumping expended way less energy than my sail pumping.
Good comparison, 75kg wing vs foil.
Last time out, 75 to 75kg., my bud on 6 meter wing seemed to get on foil sooner than me on 5.5 meter sail. Hard to really tell, gusty holey shifty breeze.
I'd go way faster once up, but he was on his 1500 foil while I had a 600.
He's an energetic 27 year old while I'm 71.
I am surprised in the french forum they don't talk about the Naish, because it would match your requirements. The Naish Hover with the track mount allows to move the foil more forward, making it easier to fly with small sails. I have both a stingray 140 (85 wide and about 10 kgs heavy) and the Hover 122 (77 wide, much lighter, feels like a 100 litres board), and with small sails the Hover flies earlier. The difference is more noticeable with the standard 1150 windsurf wing.
Select to expand quotethedoor said..
I don't think there is any lightwind option that does not involve significant pumping. If there was one, my guess it would be a big race sail, but then you might need a smaller race oriented wing. But I have only tried freeride gear.
I think even in heavy wind some pumping is to be expected, because if you can easily fly up onto the foil without pumping then you will probably be overpowered once up. Sometimes in gusts I can foil without pumping but if that was the norm for an entire session, then I need to rig down.
PS: The other day I shared a session with my buddy (both about 75kg) who was winging. He had (6m wing, 90L board, and infinity 99 wing) I had (5.7 sail, 140L board and infinity 99). He foiled 50% of the time and I foiled 5% of the time. We were both pumping a lot, but it looked to me like his wing pumping expended way less energy than my sail pumping.
My rule of thumb is, I need a 1 m2 lesser Wing than the Windsurfers use around.
Same with windfoiling, 1.5 to 2 meters smaller than windsurfers.
The conflict is between windfoiler and windfoiler for light winds. It appears wings have more range at the top end, while windfoiler can slog home if breeze drops below 3 knots.
