I'm considering either Fanatic Falcon 200 or JP230 for club foil racing.
Using 1500 Flo foil and AL90 fuse.
Anyone have any advice? Pros/Cons? Experience?
Thanks in advance
I am also interested in answer - also what about starboard iq foil ? - May be better off in foil section ?
Hey guys.
I'm not sure there would be many in the country that have these first two boards and I know there would be people with more expertise than me to provide a good answer. However you deserve a response and I am keen to see more foilers out on the race course.
To my knowledge all three of these boards (Falcon, JP and IQ) will provide a great platform for course racing. With the added width of the first two (with width all the way to the tail) you will potentially get greater upwind angles than the IQ and a more comfortable stance. Though the IQ may be more comfortable downwind and when reaching with the back foot further in. All of them have great volume in the tail for light wind takeoffs etc.
I have never used a freeride foil on a full course racing board but just remember that these boards are designed to be used with full on racing foils where the centre of lift of the foil is much further forward than a freeride foil. This may mean that the freeride foil might not balance properly and make your stance a little awkward. Happy to be proved wrong though.
Hope this helps.
I have the 2021 Falcon Foil TE 200 bought from WSS in October 20. It's a fine board, very light, with interesting tucked in bottom rails & scooped out deck. Touch downs are easy. With a 115cm fuse & race foil, I have the mast position almost all the way forward (116cm). With a freeride Moses W790 vento wing & 90cm fuse, I have the mast position all the way back to get enough lift from the foil going upwind.
The riding position is also different. The race foil wants to be cranked to windward & has better speed & vmg. The free ride foil stance is more vertical & less hectic in general. Both foils are heaps of fun though I prefer using the race foil.
There are a number of great course boards (incl Tabou Air Ride 100 & Patrik foil comp). As Mitch said, tail volume & very deep cutouts make it much easier to unstick these wide boards.
In any case, foil course boards are like hens teeth. I ordered a JP230 in June 20 & it's still not arrived in Australia. When I was looking, only Patrik & Fanatic boards were available.
I have settled for the Fanatic from WSS. Just awaiting delivery/pickup.
Have been using the foil on my JP170 formula board with mast base as far back as I can get it but have to work at getting the board to lift. On Sunday I tried out a 9m sail, an old NP RS5. I was surprised at how heavy it felt at first after using smaller sails. I soon got used to it and got flying in a light breeze without coming to grief which is now happening less often thanks to Sam Ross's Flight School videos.
I've now had my Fanatic 200TE for a few weeks and been getting used to it. At first it did not feel much different from my JP170. I seem to have to work hard to get the board to fly and often it would stall and I'd have to start over. I persisted but felt something was not quite right. It only seemed to want to fly in stronger winds say. 12kts +. Until yesterday.
I had been thinking that some tuning of the foil was needed as I had been using it "out of the box". I decided to try a spacer under the stabiliser to see what difference it would make. The foil kit came with for shims(?) -0.25, -0.50, +0.25 and +0.50. I went for the +0.25.
First chance to try it was yesterday arvo at Marmong Point. There was a light NW about 6-8knts, no white tips at all. I rigged my NP 10.0 EvoX for the first time (on this board). Out on the water the difference in performance was immediately noticeable. For the first time I was flying on almost flat water with almost no effort. Also, I was flying easily on port which I usually found more difficult than on starboard - for some reason. After about half an hour the wind dropped away too much so I called it a day happy with the performance change from that one small shim.
Still learning this new foiling concept.
