Q: for overpowered gusty conditions, small sail, foil style, what outhaul position you find the best for smoothest ride?
Neutral
Moderate positive
Max positive
Slight negative
Moderate positive. I use Severne Freeks. 3.3 is my small sail. Downhaul to spec up to 25 knots. Above that +1cm both outhaul and downhaul. What is your preference?
On freeks I use a touch more outhaul. On cambed foil sails I pull the adjustable outhaul and if it's really overpowered I drop the clew hole.
Especially when foiling upwind, a too-loose outhaul feels really squirmy and is not fun.
Always max+ positive for freefoil. Only time I go to neutral is if wind really dies and I am slogging back or switching to fin
Probably a bit flatter than usual. But not flat enough where they get twitchy.
Big thing I've really leaned into this year after going on the journey of discovery of "why do some sails press down" is making sure I have enough downhaul that the sail opens up so a gust doesn't press the nose down. I've always been a fan of rigging my downhaul like I would on fin (maybe excepting my Naish Choppers). I pay even more attention to it, though, in gusty conditions.
Using Duotone Fpace foil specific sails I am moderately positive 90% of the time unless I'm at max positive the other 10%. I know I can get a little more bottom going neutral or negative, but as soon as I am at speed I hate it.
If I can't downsize my sail, I'll reluctantly outhaul another inch to decrease the luff depth. I usually leave the downhaul as is with a tightish leach becuase I dont like the leach flopping around. It's also highly dependent on the sail Mfr. My North Wave requires a lot more outhaul than my Goya sails for regular conditions just to get the battens to rotate. Adding downhaul opens the leach too much for me. Any conditions (gusts) that require a sail smaller than 3.0, don't typically last more than a couple minutes and I'll just wait it out. Having the sail too flat just gets wierd and the power delivery is sketchy. Those are survival conditions for me. Not fun.
Looks like consenses: moderate to little more positive outhaul, with max downhaul. Finishing my vacation in Cabarete,dr. This time every day a bit overpowered on 3.1 Goya Cypher with some rough swell/ chop at a times. Good wingers all bigger than me on 2.5-3.0 m2.. So, good conditions to learn how to ride with more ease when generally overpowered. Wish I can find a better sail with more range than 3.1 Cypher though. Severne RAD only goes to 4 m2, too bad
Select to expand quoteBullroarerTook said..
Using Duotone Fpace foil specific sails I am moderately positive 90% of the time unless I'm at max positive the other 10%. I know I can get a little more bottom going neutral or negative, but as soon as I am at speed I hate it.
That's a thing for a lot of us. The conventional wisdom, well intended, of rigging the sail for more bottom end is meant for beginning and intermediate foilers. Once we have some experience and like OP are really pushing the limits, imho, all that goes out the window and you need to rig for the actual conditions and the behavior you desire.
Select to expand quotemiamiwindsurfe said..
Looks like consenses: moderate to little more positive outhaul, with max downhaul. Finishing my vacation in Cabarete,dr. This time every day a bit overpowered on 3.1 Goya Cypher with some rough swell/ chop at a times. Good wingers all bigger than me on 2.5-3.0 m2.. So, good conditions to learn how to ride with more ease when generally overpowered. Wish I can find a better sail with more range than 3.1 Cypher though. Severne RAD only goes to 4 m2, too bad
Severne have the freek in 3.3, the range for this sail is awesome. Use it from 15 knots to 30
Over 30 my choice is 4.0 freek and fin....
