I recently picked up a 2018 Exocet RF91 foil board. Mine is the AST construction, but the board is also available in a lighter full carbon version.
Board specs are:
- 235cm long
- 91cm wide
- 160 Litres volume
They also make a smaller RF81, which is 81 wide, 135 litres
www.exocet-original.com/en/rf-foil.php
I've been working on foiling since mid 2017, with some limited success. I was initially using an 82w slalom board, then switched to my formula board. My aim is to foil in light winds, then move onto slalom gear once it picks up. At 95 kgs I realised for light wind foiling I needed a board with plenty of volume and thickness/width in the tail. The Exocet RF91 seemed to fit this well so I put in an order.
Price wise the AST version is very attractive (roughly in line with the JP 135 ES version) so its a great way to get a dedicated foil board without breaking the bank.
The shape is quite different to a "normal" board - very wide/thick in the tail and narrowing down at the nose. The front underside is quite curved, which should make for smooth touchdowns. The rails are tucked but start to sharpen up around the mast base, graduating towards the tail. The deck is very flat, and the top rails are quite square, which makes the board seem very thick compared to a "normal" board which have a more domed deck and curved sides.
One feature of the deck is a rectangular cutout for a carry handle! This is a great inclusion as manhandling a wide board with a foil hanging off is pretty tricky. With my Naish foil attached, the board is well balanced around this handle.
It has some cutouts in the tail very similar to my exocet formula board, which should help when touching down in gybes. I'm not at the foiling gybe stage yet.
Being a dedicated foil board, the footstrap positions are well inboard. I found that this made it a lot easier to pump up onto the foil from the front strap, compared to the outboard straps on my slalom/formula boards. The deck has a large foam area and a raised foam hump between the back straps that should be helpful for foiling when not in the back straps. It also has options for inboard back "chicken straps" which might be good for downwind.
I've only had the chance to use it once so far in very light wind (5-8 knots) with an 8.4. When flying it felt very stable and easy to control.
Thanks to Remi from The Windsurfing Shed for getting the board in for me.
I have a similar setup with the Naish Foil and the JP 155 board.
With the Exocet can you pump onto a plane with both feet in the straps, or just the front foot?
With the JP I can only keep the front foot in the strap and I need to get some speed then move the back foot into the strap and then I take off. I am thinking a board that I can be in both straps while pumping would have some nice advantages.
What is the purpose of the raised foam hump between the back straps? I always use this area when I ride swells downwind and I am wondering what the advantage is of having it raised there.
How was the balance of the board. I noticed they have the tuttle box about 10 cm further forward then the JP board. Were you able to fly with equal weighting on your back and front leg?
I am impressed you are flying in 8 knots!
Quite an interesting board and can see how it would be sweet for foiling with smaller rigs. I'm quite surprised they didn't put outboard footstrap options on it for racing. It's built at the apparent (may yet still be changed back to 1m?) pwa width for next season of 91mm but with those strap position it limits what looks like it would be a sweet racing board.
The straps look good to me. I noticed on my JP 155 as my foot starts to curve around the edge of the board it becomes much harder to control.
From that experience I could see how having your entire foot flat on the deck at all times gives maximum control. The strap position looks like that would be the case with this board.
I assume it will also allow leaning the board over at an angle and still keeping your entire foot on the board which again is great for control.
AST and carbon versions are identical shape, footstraps positions included.
As opposed to standard windsurf boards, you do not rail the board up but sail windward rail dug in (more power/control over the foil), hence footstrap position further in:
Different foil being used in the vid as the one in the pics. The one in the pics has a vertical stabilizer at the tail, like on an airplane, I can't say that I've ever seen that before, improved yaw control? Was yaw control ever a problem, or is that just an experiment?
I was told by my local Naish store that the vertical stabilizer helps to prevent spin outs. They tried it without it like their SUP foil and it just worked much better with it. They tried different sizes too before coming up with that size as working best.I have used a big SUP foil before with no stabilizer and with that foil I had a ton of spin outs. With this Naish foil I think I have had only 1 spin out and I think I was near the top of the water so the stabilizer was probably partly coming out.
Select to expand quoteMastbender said..
Different foil being used in the vid as the one in the pics. The one in the pics has a vertical stabilizer at the tail, like on an airplane, I can't say that I've ever seen that before, improved yaw control? Was yaw control ever a problem, or is that just an experiment?
NP alloy and Manta have them.
Thanks for the comments. Only early days and will post an update once I've had some more time with it.
There's a lot of options for the footstraps - i mounted mine mostly inboard just to get going - no doubt I'll move the straps out as I get more time on the board.
The foil I'm using at the moment (pictured) is a Naish Thrust WS1 (alloy).
I think the hump in the foam is for something to push/brace your foot against when out of the strap.
I look forward to more updates. For me this board is the most interesting foil board available right now.
Select to expand quoteThe Windsurfing Shed said..
AST and carbon versions are identical shape, footstraps positions included.
As opposed to standard windsurf boards, you do not rail the board up but sail windward rail dug in (more power/control over the foil), hence footstrap position further in
Yeah absolutely, which is fine when cruising. When racing, which is typically done bordering on overpowered if possible, leverage and righting moment is king, particularly upwind. The recent nationals was won on a formula board (bulk width) and there were current foil boards there modified for more width. Everything at the front of the fleet had straps basically on the rail or as outboard as possible.
Next season I think the racing foil boards will be basically formula boards with the nose/front modified for lower drag and larger footstrap position options front to rear (as lift centroid changes a bit between foil brands). If anything else happened I'd be very surprised.
Sorry to get off topic, I was just surprised they didn't have full outboard options for racing.
