A glowing review/ post of the 3.5m frigate
www.facebook.com/share/r/1F3s4K5Mjs/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Some discussion from Dominic Hoskins about the frigate and plume
www.facebook.com/share/p/16VxpmCmH7/?mibextid=wwXIfr
I am liking the look of the frigate, definitely has a lot of the desired characteristics.
Let's wait for others reviews . especially in bigger sizes! The 3 m and likes with 20 knots are all pretty good nowadays.. Would be more interested how the 4.7 m perform in low end / high end
www.otbmarine.com.au/products/f-one-frigate-pocket-wing?variant=42802242879567
OTB Marine already has the frigate up for presale. Prices seem on par with the competition. Available July.
interestingly they give the wind range of the 4m frigate as 15 to 35 knots that seems a bit unrealistic. Maybe 15 knots with a big downwind board and 35 knots if you only go downwind and stow the wing immediately.
Select to expand quoteYoungbreezy said..
www.otbmarine.com.au/products/f-one-frigate-pocket-wing?variant=42802242879567
OTB Marine already has the frigate up for presale. Prices seem on par with the competition. Available July.
interestingly they give the wind range of the 4m frigate as 15 to 35 knots that seems a bit unrealistic. Maybe 15 knots with a big downwind board and 35 knots if you only go downwind and stow the wing immediately.
I can see myself starting on that wang in under 15 knots easily not but not a chance in hell holding it down in the high 20s. Looks like a tidy wang though
That wind range is clearly a mistake as they state a 10 knot wind range for the smaller sizes, should be 15-25 for the 4m.
Select to expand quoteairsail said..
Should be called Frigate Expensive.
Yeah OTB marine is saying they have the 3.5m and 4m currently available on their website but price is $1650 which puts it at the top of the price for pwings available in oz.
As excited as I am about the pwing revolution the ridiculous overpricing is a bit painful. There's no where near as much material or workmanship as an inflatable wing. You can buy a trainer/traction kite in the same size for less than $500. Yes supply and demand, RnD for new products etc. are all factors but even still pwings are ridiculously overpriced. Hopefully options like gong, north (and I heard rumours that smik will be well priced ) will put some downward pressure on pricing.
I usually just wait for the fone gear to become superseded, some of their gear is well priced and others are just ridiculous compared to the competition.
You can listen to the Fone interview in generic foiling podcast and the R&D time is massively reduced on this product. Literally 4 months and less than 10 samples made (I forget the exact numbers). Surely this has to correlate to reduced R&D costs. I suspect this product is paying for average R&D costs across their whole product line, so if you just look at parawing prices it doesn't make any sense. A great opportunity for a new parawing seller to enter the market, copy, tweak and undercut IMO.
Yeah I was a bit shocked and amazed at the brutal honesty from Julian Salles in the recent generic foiling podcast. Julian was basically saying they had put a lot of time into developing the plume then they saw the explosion of interest in parawings and decided they needed to jump on board. Fone doesn't have any experience in foil kites and paragliders so they hired a designer who had already designed a few parawings. He said they only did 12 prototypes whereas they did more than 80 prototypes for the strike v5. He said he felt they came up with something really good but were a bit rushed to production.
Ive never heard such candid honesty from a brand before. Something about those cheeky pommies on the generic foiling podcast really brings it out of people.
Later in the podcast he did say he felt they had come up with a pwing that could stand up to ozone and flysurfer which are foil kite/ paraglider experts and he felt the frigate was up there with the best of what's available. So I guess if he's being 100% honest that's a good thing.
( I might be mixing up his words a bit so if you're really interested worth listening to the podcast)
Select to expand quotePowis said..
A great opportunity for a new parawing seller to enter the market, copy, tweak and undercut IMO.
Come on Scotty and the Smik team you got this!
My two cents . I don't mind paying for performance BUT it needs to work . Paying max price for poor performance for a product that will have poor resale sh**s me to tears. . The early generation Parawings were not good - no bottom end , no top end, unstable, and minimal overall range. Took a hiding when selling them - let the pioneers take the arrows as they say !!
The latest generations are getting better now , they are definitely all different though , try before you buy if possible as you might like the feel of one and hate the feel of another . I don't subscribe to the philosophy that they should cost the same as a low end trainer kite as a lot has to go into them to make them work well - those who have tried a few will know what I mean, it's harder than you'd think to get it right. Of all the foil sports I have tried this one has the highest disappointment and frustration levels so the PW is a critical component - I would pay a bit more to get acceptable performance. Of course I would love them to be cheaper , but would rather they worked well first and foremost - good range , no funky behaviour when over or underpowered, easy stowing etc. No Alibaba for me !!
my BRM V1 sits in my garage. it's not because of its design or flaws, it's because i think parawinging isn't for me. and though i know some have really taken to it, i suspect the majority of wingers will not. just like downwinding is a niche, so will be parawinging. so many brands rushing to it, but i doubt the strength of that market can support them all. maybe i'm wrong, but time will tell.
Select to expand quotebeached57 said..
my BRM V1 sits in my garage. it's not because of its design or flaws, it's because i think parawinging isn't for me. and though i know some have really taken to it, i suspect the majority of wingers will not. just like downwinding is a niche, so will be parawinging. so many brands rushing to it, but i doubt the strength of that market can support them all. maybe i'm wrong, but time will tell.
I can see the used market being flooded with early release PW, how that effects new sales not sure. I think the design will have to become a lot better to be more "wing" like in usability. They are harder to use and smaller ranges than wings so ppl really have to want to go down that route. similarly, what will happen to DW boards, less demand as ppl use PW to get smaller boards working. it will be interesting were we will end up.
Select to expand quotebeached57 said..
my BRM V1 sits in my garage. it's not because of its design or flaws, it's because i think parawinging isn't for me. and though i know some have really taken to it, i suspect the majority of wingers will not. just like downwinding is a niche, so will be parawinging. so many brands rushing to it, but i doubt the strength of that market can support them all. maybe i'm wrong, but time will tell.
I suspect it will be a quiet revolution and wings will disappear. Pwings have so many advantages even at this early stage. V4 will be incredible 
I really enjoyed winging in the waves but now that I have the pw dialed I will only think about winging if it's to light for my pw setup. It's not even close.
Select to expand quotebeached57 said..
my BRM V1 sits in my garage. it's not because of its design or flaws, it's because i think parawinging isn't for me. and though i know some have really taken to it, i suspect the majority of wingers will not. just like downwinding is a niche, so will be parawinging. so many brands rushing to it, but i doubt the strength of that market can support them all. maybe i'm wrong, but time will tell.
For what it's worth, I only had the BRM Ka'a for 3 days and only got a total of 18 miles on foil with it in those three days. Sold it quick and would say I had the exact same perspective as you.
I now have 2 sessions on the Pocket Rockets. My first session was 20 miles in conditions that were genuinely better for winging. My second session was 30 miles in pumping swell and nuking winds. I walked away thinking I might never wing in good wind and swell again.
The differences from one model to the next are absurd. It's pretty much the exact same issue as picking a board or foil in my eyes. Any old board and any old foil will work, but it most likely won't be right for you until you hone in on the right model for your style.
Anyone have any time on the 4.0 or 4.7m frigates like to hear some more recent reviews anyone?
