I've been meaning to by write this for a while now so I can only say that my delay has made me appreciate this board even more. For reference I'm 82 kg, 60 yo, and get over 100 days a year on the water on fin, foil and with the wing. Windfoil is my favorite.
My first foil board was the Fanatic Stingray 125. I still have that board for fall days when a big sail is needed. I briefly owned the Foilstyler 103, but it was a bit too small for me since we often need to uphaul in choppy conditions. Once it was flying I thought it was great though. I basically replaced the Foilstyler with the Fanatic Stingray 115. This was a good board for me and I had a lot of great days on it. My biggest complaint about that board was that the foil box was too far forward, especially using Fanatic's own 90 cm fuselage. This is a very foil forward, slalom style fuse which didn't match my swell style of riding on the SR115. Enter now the Duotone 116.
The Stingray (SR) 116 is shorter and narrower than the Fanatic SR115, and the same thickness. I've spent enough time on both of them to confidently say the 116 has at least 5 liters LESS than the 115. (I'm not asserting which volume is true.) So it doesn't slog quite as well, but it does slog fine and I can still tack it. What really amazed me was how quickly it pops up on foil. Maybe it's the tail cutouts or maybe it's simply the hull shape, but it very noticeably gets flying faster in spite of the lower volume. And once in the air I now have enough mast separation for great control, especially in the jibes. My percentage made immediately increased and now I expect to make the jibe flying rather than hoping I to.
Honestly, the only things I would change are 1) move the grab handle on the bottom forward 10 cm. It's too far back and the nose is heavy when getting in and out of the water. (Thanks for adding the handle though!) 2) I ride strapless so if I could have all the foot strap plugs disappear I would. But I know I'm in the minority here. Using the Fanatic/Duotone 90 cm fuselage I ride with the back bolt of the mast at three cm forward of the back mark, which is 5 cm behind "Windfoil Best". And for one of my foils I move it back even further. I could never achieve this with the SR115. I use it with Fpace sails, 3.4, 4.0, 4.6, 5.2 and 6.4.
In summary, 9.5/10 stars and I absolutely would buy again. In fact, if they drop out of the windfoil market I will scour the earth looking for another. If you are in the market for a board like this, do not hesitate, buy it.
One other thing I forgot to mention: it still works great for wing foiling! I use the 90 cm fuse fully forward in the box. It has a very longboard groovy feel and is very forgiving.
Thanks for the review. I am a similar age and weight. I had the original Stingray 140 which I sailed hundreds of times for perhaps 4 years. I used various foils, Ghost Whisperer, Slingshot and early Fanatic. Then I got the Stingray 115 and the later V3 Fanatic Duotone Foils using the 90cm mast and 90cm fuse. At last I had a fully matched setup. But as you say in order to balance the board the foil track has to fully back and the mast track needs to be almost fully forward. I do wonder if anybody at Fanatic ever tried it!
I ride semi strapless (front only). I find it much easier to gybe when you have a known spot to plant your new front foot.
I have never seen a Duotone 116 and to be honest had not even heard of it. There are not many windfoilers around anymore and the one that are do not buy much new gear.
I would be interested in your distance from the front edge of the foil mast to the centre point of the sail mast.
Select to expand quotetbwonder said..
I would be interested in your distance from the front edge of the foil mast to the centre point of the sail mast.
I have center to center, mast to mast at 35.4". I'm currently running the sail mast dead center.
Just measured my centre to centre and it is 95cm (37.5").
Similar but still a fair difference, my original Stingray 140 was more like 110cm
I'm retired so I get a lot of sailing at my local Lake Macquarie where I live. But I'm still learning to foil gybe. When I'm not powered hang gliding.
I'm really enjoying my Stingray 140 in 10 - 30knt winds. It's lightweight, strong and looks and sails great. Wide tail to get airborne and for upwind tilting. I like the board's long straight rocker (long water line length). Gets airborne easier because of great board speed. Not too wide in strong winds so it doesn't blow around at all compared to my old wide Starboard Formula board.
I use 8.6m down to 4.7m sails. Mostly my 6.6m or 8.6m Severne sails are my preference.
I normally put the foil mast way back for standard foil configurations.
Although, I can get a nice balance by varying the wedges on the rear stabiliser. I have had good foil sailing with the 90cm mast set a lot forward by wedging the rear stabiliser with the + wedges to max plus another + wedge. Seems to have more lift on light days. Board is still nicely balanced. I vary the adjustments to get max lift and nice foot balance.
So it's easy to adjust how the board sails and rides so that you get what you want. If your board is out of balance, just adjust things.
I mostly use front foils Fanatic Glide 725, 905. And 1500HAR on very light days. I don't use my other foils much nowadays. 1250, 1000.
Sail mast track position is another topic, but it adjusts how the board flies too.
Cheers
I still own my first foil board, the Fanatic Stingray 125. On that board you could put the foil at the center of the track and it was pretty close to spot on. Also on that board you could adjust the track position so that the foil mast would be at the same if you were using a Tuttle mast. Not so on the Stingray 115. The farthest back you could put the track mast was still 5 cm in front of the Tuttle mast position. I used to run with a -1.1* shim to try to compensate, and that worked with bigger sails and on flat water but when I was sailing in 3.4 conditions setup was just too lose that way. The new 116 fixes that.
