I am interested to hear from anyone who has used the short mast and foil and whether it would be viable as a light wind fin for shallow locations and give lift to help early planing or is it purely a learning tool? Wondering if it may suit a board like sb ultrasonic or jp slw to get going in very light winds or would the drag be too great?
I used all the different slingshot masts when i was learning to foil. Fantastic when learning so the stacks aren't too bad but no good for what you're thinking. I don't think you'd be able to sustain flight, just constantly breach beacuse theres no time to correct.
Whitey is right. I used Slingshot short masts in Bonaire shallows. The shortest one is only useful for a couple of days, just to get that feeling of initiating the flight. You can maintain the flight for a bit, but will end up either breaching of spinning out. Even 60 cm one is too short to really enjoy flying, however, better than the shortest one. Used them on Fanatic Ray 120 and Ultrasonic boards. Switched to Starboard Race and never looked back. Slingshot drags a lot more than SB, and is slower. However you will plane a lot sooner and with a much smaller sail with the foil comparing to regular fin.
Thanks for the replies. The search for a light wind option in shallow water continues.....
Hi Mr A
How shallow is the water at your sailing spot?
The shorter masts for the foils is only really for the beginning stages.
As mentioned above I used the Slingshoot School set of masts, that lets you build up your confidence gradually.
This is great as it takes the first 'intimidating' thoughts of trying foiling and the potentially imagination of getting lifted to high and fall down.
However after a few days or a little longer, then you will get used to the longer masts and this will fell more safe. To go back from a longer mast and use a shorter is then difficult.
The idea with the short masts is to get the idea of the balance / lift and then as a 'bonus' not falling to hard if you get out of control.
If you really want to use a smaller mast for more shallow waters, then I would not go under 60cm or so.
It is shallow. I am looking at a couple of hundred meter wade out through ankle deep and knee deep water at high tide to get to deep enough for a fin. Then the tide goes out...Mud bottom so hard to carry gear back in when the tide drops. I get about a 2 hour window to sail in at high tide and have to hope there is enough wind at that time. I need a hovercraft.
If it's shallow you need some kind of delta fin. Check out Maui Ultra DeltaXT or Black project kestrel. They come in big sizes to suit light wind boards.
Foiling needs deeper water unfortunately.
I think to your point about helping the board plane better is correct. If money isn't an issue, why not get the shorter mast? If you are good about controlling height/altitude, then the shorter mast may be a good call. Regardless, I find that I'm planning better due to the extra lift from the wings, so yes, this will get you planning quicker. You should be able to set the straps up to keep it closer to the water than perform a flight.
If it's that shallow, something with sweep will help a lot when inevitably touching bottom. I think the Delta, etc suggestions are good ones. Foils don't have sweep. While it's true that a foil does promote early planing, on that short of a mast, when you come out of the water, you have almost no margin for height error. I'm currently using a 75cm mast as a short-term thing and it's been a big adjustment coming from my usual 90. I'd freak out going a lot shorter, especially in shallow water.
I think this is one of the rare cases where it's safer to put up the extra sail, instead.
