foil sails

I am free riding and not racing - what are the benefits of foil specific sails ?

At what stage in your progression do you benefit the most from them ?

like most new foiler i am using wave sail (max 5.6 )

was thinking of foil sail around 6 for the lighter days

If your current 5.6 wave sail is the biggest, you won't gain much until you get something around a 7 or bigger. I go from a 7.7 freeride 2 cam to a 5.4 wave sail in my quiver.

Pros of a "foil" sail (generalized): lighter weight, shorter boom length, often (7 and above) cams to stabilize the profile and help the bottom end, higher aspect, relatively tighter leach. Most of these characteristics tend to aid sailing in light winds and level flight. Others take advantage of the steadier sailing platform and lower drag at foil speeds.

Cons: Lighter weight and less structure mean possible shorter life and limit use in very powered up conditions on a regular board.

If you want/need a dual purpose sail, a lot of freeride cammed sails do quite nicely. You can foil on slalom sails, no cams, etc but as you begin to step away from the foil concept you start to give up things. Slalom sails will be a bit heavier and the looser leach doesn't really help. No cams often don't pump as well and may have less low end power when they can't maintain their draft.

Use what ya got mate. Perhaps consider a bigger front wing and/or a sail in the low 6 meter range to get the most of the light days with out going to the huge gear.

Let's say that most sails work in foiling but having just went from "regular" sails to foiling sails I have to say it is a big difference. I went from Gun Sails Vector (3 cam), Neilpryde V8 (2 cam), Gun Sails Torro, North Sails X-type to Ezzy Hydra Pro's. All sails are named as pretty good with foiling. And they are, especially the Neilpryde V8 (7.2 and below).

The Ezzy's are much lighter than the Vectors, lighter than the others. They have a much better low end than others, pumping is really from a different planet, similar high end as the cammed sails, much more stable than the no cam sails. I'm using a freerace foil with a freefoil board and a race foilboard. If you use a Supercruiser like foil things might be different but I have no experience with those.
Also I noticed my "skills" instantly get better switching from a normal board to a foil board, and from a normal sail to a foil sail.

I race foils so for me the change to full foiling sails gives me more power to get on the foils earlier and they're more stable once flying.

Race foil sails defiantly give you an advantage in pointing ability, and with 8,9,10m you have a lot of sail to get you going in light winds. That being said you also really need to pair them with a big board and race foil otherwise the balance is off. Think about what you want to get out of your foiling first, then see if the kit you have will do that or if your problems can be solved though tuning your gear. I found borrowing a 100% mast made a big difference in light winds and the sail was much more responsive so got one which then sees use foiling and in normal conditions so was a better investment than a foiling sail.

Ben was out on a proto 5.4 m no cam sail today with his Alien 105 board and metal foil. Think it had a 95cm fuselage.

He was planing before anyone in 5 to 15 knots. Hugely impressed by how early he got it going considering the size of the sail. Guessing in around 9 knots. He did have to pump the sail real hard though.

He was also making the gybes look so smooth and effortless which is probably not down to the gear.

Yep, love the Severne Foil Glide 7.0, mine is on SDM. Easy to put cambers on mast, rotates easily, is powerful and light. Tried it in 5mph tonight and got a few "up on foils" going in the maybe 9mph "gusts"

Thanks to Paducah and North Beach Windsurfing for getting me on to it.

The 7m is 3.6kgs.

www.severnesails.com/sails/foil-glide/

I have a Naish lift 5.7 and a Simmer Black Tip 5.6. Although the sails are almost the same size the Lift is more likely the equivalent of a 6.5 - 7.0 wave sail without the weight. The lift is light and very pumpable but does get over powered quite early. You can link gusts together to keep on the foil whereas the Blacktip needs wind. As soon as the wind drops it feels dead. Pumping just disturbs any flow and kills the speed.
I did have a 6.4m Blacktip last year but it was heavy and actually needed a lot of wind to get it going as it was so stiff it didn't seem to have any grunt unless it was very under down hauled which just made it feel yuk.
I would say Foil specific helps in the lighter and fluky winds. Anything will work if you have steady stronger wind.

I also have the 6.4 Lift but I do feel the 5.7 is more responsive to pumping and is more manoeuvrable so I rarely use the 6.4m any more.

my i99 and 5.7 gets me up in 12mph quite nicely with a bit of effort but feels very light and responsive whereas the 6.4 feels almost draggy with the long boom.

Wave sails will work just fine but I really like having a foil sail to give me more low end power at a smaller sail. Really enjoying my 5.8 Duotone F-type. The cams are easy to rig and give me a lot of great low end power and I don't sacrifice control when the wind picks up.

DC

I guess all answers are good and I realized that everyone has a different objectives with foiling. Some wants to race and go fast, some want to foil in 8 knts...some want a no brainer for light wind. I have a strapless board (JP SUP FOIL) and go foil without an harness with my 5.2 wave sail. I still can't figure out what is really 12 kts looks like but I thing my sessions starts as soon as there gusts at around 12-13 kts. ;-)
It's like going surfing without a leash.

I wanted to reduce the quiver...now please no more how goods are those new foil specific sails are...this will break my paradigm. ;-)
Nr