Hi there, I am otherwise happy with the Unit 5m2, but when it comes to top end, I feel the wind wants to go to the other side leading me correcting this by pushing the back hand instead of pulling as normally riding. Am I doing something wrong or do you recognize this behavior and most importantly, does the 4m Unit has this tendency?
Lastly, what's your comfortable wind range for Unit 4m and also for 5m, please?
Thanks very much!
All wings do it if you steer them too close to the wind. It seems to me the larger wings with bigger leading edges can't point quite as far upwind before they go on the fritz.
I don't have the Unit, but I have another 2nd gen wing, the Carbrinha in 4 and 6. They are very stiff wings (as I assume the Unit is) so they have a very precise "point" in the wind where they suddenly backwind. My older wings gave plenty of warning whereas these just snap violently if I mishandle them.
My way of controlling them is to steer the wing upwind by carefully dropping the front handle toward the water until I feel the pull of the wing decrease, steer the board further upwind and sheet in with the back hand. You can ratchet up the upwind angle from there, just depends on how big the foil is, how much wind, and how cooked your arms and legs are.
I hope this is useful.
Yes, the 4 mtr unit will backwind, like all wings at the top of their range. I have the 4 unit and a 5 wasp, the 5 wasp gets backwinded a lot, tells me to change to the 4. I actually haven't used the 5 wasp much since getting the 4 unit, love it.
I have the 4m2 and 6m2 Units. Both will backwind at the top of their wind range, especially as Clamsmasha says if you are pointing too close to the wind. This is one downside of having extra grunt at the bottom of the wind range. I have a Naish 5.3m2 S25 wingsurfer - it is very stable at the top of the wind range (I don't recall it ever trying to backwind, even when I'm overpowered), but it doesn't have the bottom end grunt of the Unit. With respect to your question about wind range:
Unit 6m2 - 12 to 20 knots
Wingsurfer 5.3m2 - 15 to 25 knots
Unit 4m2 - 18 to 30 knots
Yep , have the 4 and 5 units. Love them. Backwinded on the 4 the other day. As mentioned I was pointing to high and was at top of the range for my weight.
I have 4 and 6m Units. I only really notice the backwinding thing on the 6m. The 4m behaves very predictably throughout its wind range (which is also very good).
Thanks very much guys, very good info! I only have experience with my 5m Unit, so it was good to get the big picture. Good winds and swell to you all!
