Been riding a custom naish 1240 setup and learning a few things. For ref I'm 100kg riding absolute garbage mush. Knee to thigh.

fuse length old setup. Shortened the fuse by 1.5" after stripping a bolt and having to relocate mounting and it really hurt my pump, especially low end. Probably wouldn't be so bad on better waves or if I was lighter.

rear wing. Same Experience As the fuse. Smaller rear hurt the pump. Hitting bottom on the tail a lot I can feel when I damage the rear at the mounting and it's starting to go soft.

new setup. Axis 19mm mast(heavier and stiffer) Sabfoil w940 front. Naish chopped rear.

new sabfoil w940 same span as my naish but less area and a faster shape. I know that span works for me so I didn't want to mess with that but wanted to try to squeeze out a little more speed hence the reduction in area. The tips have some nice angle relief to hopefully make the breaches less catastrophic.

new fuse and chopped naish rear. With the reduced area above I wanted to give myself an easier start on the new setup. Fuse is 2" longer than my current setup(as measured from leading. Edge of stab to trailing edge of front wing). Naish rear is chopped to something bigger than my current cause I can always make it smaller(anyone have a wing stretcher?). Got the naish rear cause it was cheap cheap.

Axis 19mm x 75cm mast. Wanted something stuff and the mast weight matters the least of all the other weight. Cedrus would have been $1.20 per gram saved. Too rich for me.

so..... how does it ride? Looks like a sweet combo of parts - use what you have!

Wow thumbs up for keeping an open mind and being resourceful !

More lessons! Hahahhaha

This wing is definately a sticky wicket! Day one, went out and got on foil fine but couldn't keep the speed and couldn't pump at all. Maxed out the shim (rear wing up) and it helped, made a handfull of connections.

Went home, cut that shim angle into the fuse, went out again. Better but same feeling, couldn't get up to speed. Again maxed out the shim and sent the foil all the way to the front of the boxes. Speed was better but i'm still falling out on my pumps, couuldnt even consider Max effort on pumps without the wing stalling.

Went back to the Naish 1240 HA wing setup for the rest of the day and it was a RIOT. Digging deep on pump effort the wing could sustain full effort pumps even at low speeds. Looping 6-7 waves, 2 pump cadences (cruising pump for distance and acceleration for re-connections), loops at the top shooting the peak, sketchy inside shorebreak. Phenomenal, felt reliable like an old friend after the w940.

I think whats happening to me on the w940 is the rear wing is so big when i go to pump its anchored in the water colum, moving more force to the front wing and its dropping out on the downstroke. Cutting a little more of the shim angle into the fuse and putting the rear wing on a diet for next session. I think with a reduced rear wing when i go to pump the rear wing will do a little more kicking (like a doplhin!) and not move the front so drastically causing it to drop out.

Another feature of the w940 thats worth mentioning is the tips have alot of relief to reduce tip vorticies and induced drag etc. This is great except now those tips aren't doing anything so effectively the Surface area is less. Really difficult for me to ride what is already a borderline rig at my size.

Gonna keep at it for a few more sessions (the first part of the session at least) to see what else i can learn about foils, what features correspond to the things i like, and maybe get a new rideable rig. (Maybe save it for LIT downwinders!)

The mast is definately a winner though. The plate is going to get epoxy filled (little movement there that i want gone) but otherwise perfect. Next weekend i'll make a fuse for the naish 1240 HA for that mast and rear wing so i can take a known quantity to get each componenet dialed one at a time.

I spent two years making foils and custom setups and tinkering like you are. I learned so much.
I also went out and bought an Axis then a kujirs setup and don't mess around w anything but stabs now, as far as the wings anyways.
I see someone explaining their tinkering process and It actually makes me cringe lol

have fun

Yeah @martyman I've been building my own foils since I started kite foiling back in 2015. I bought one surf foil back in 2018 but been back on my own stuff since then. 90% of why I do it is stiffness and reliability. Also, there's not many other riders here so I never get to see or touch production gear without buying it. It seems like every time I take a risk and order something I'm really disappointed - boards too heavy, too weak, foils have too much flex, ****ty connections.

that's one thing I'm really proud of on my setups, there is no movement, not a wiggle, I'll stand on the board and grab the ends of the wing and twist it around and **** and there's not a creak, none of the joints move. Haven't touched many production setup that can say the same.

Is the mast to fuse a butt joint or are you using the Axis insert?

@grantmac ive always found a clean, properly torqued, butt joint to be excelent. Like with all things strength is in the design but a wobble free connection is the resuly of a clean fit. Getting a clean fit on 2 flat surfaces is really easy with my mill setup. If i ever have problems i can re-flatten in 30 seconds and i'm good to go. Getting a clean fit on a socket is miserable, the plate is the weak part of that setup and is going to get permanently bonded and epoxy filled this weekend to take out the wiggle.

I've never touched a doohicky connection in person so i can't speak to it but i can get a Butt Joint PERFECT (+-.001) and keep it that way. Two Machined pieces 3d pieces is a tricky thing to make perfect and even more difficuly to keep it that way. As i said before i test my connections my standing on the board and putting 30+ lbs of pressure on a wingtip, feeling the mast flex and still 0 movement in the mast fuse. Not many other setups i see on the beach perform as well on that test.

ADJUSTMENT UPDATE. Putting the rear wing on a diet made a huge difference. Nearly equal performance to my 1240 now but faster and less rear foot pressre. Slippery in the turns is nice but taking some getting used to. The pump is still not 100% but making long tripples and with cadence adjustments it will improve and i can see it eventually being atleast equal. It was bigger today so i don't know if its going to end up as my daily driver but time will tell.

3 sessions of adjustments to being happy on a new wing is good for me.

The insert connection I'm used to (Starboard) is phenomenal, but definitely a lot of fasteners to make it so.

I see you are just keeping the fuselages uncoated, are you using them in the ocean?

@grantmac yes, i use them in the ocean and being uncoated is a feature.

The galvonic corrosion that occurs between carbon and aluminum occrs at a rate determined by the amount of exposed carbon...and acts on the area of exposed aluminum. This mean that if you have alot of exposed carbon(wings with worn through paint) in the water lots of corrosion is going to occur, but where it occurs is based on the aluminum coating. If you have an uncoated aluminum part you get a light coating of corrosion everywhere. If you have a coated aluminum part that corrosion will find the one scratch or weak point in that aluminum part and go crazy in that spot. I've seen moses factory fuses with structural problems because all that corrosion occured dramatically and catastrophically in an area the size of a pencial eraser where a small scratch had occured. The only spots i coat are those essential to the connection, i thoroughly lubricate tapped parts and seat the front wing in a layer of epoxy (with release agent applied to the wing).

Best thing to do is paint the wings white so you have a better view of what carbon is exposed and you can touch up to keep it to a minimum. Its hard to see where carbon is exposed on a black or clear coated wing.

Super interesting! That matches my experience with a slingshot fuselage which self destructed very quickly once scratched. I've used raw 6061 for various parts and it help up very well.

I remove my wings every time and don't use butt joints so I expect I won't need to be as thorough with coating.

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TooMuchEpoxy said..
@grantmac ive always found a clean, properly torqued, butt joint to be excelent. Like with all things strength is in the design but a wobble free connection is the resuly of a clean fit. Getting a clean fit on 2 flat surfaces is really easy with my mill setup. If i ever have problems i can re-flatten in 30 seconds and i'm good to go. Getting a clean fit on a socket is miserable, the plate is the weak part of that setup and is going to get permanently bonded and epoxy filled this weekend to take out the wiggle.

I've never touched a doohicky connection in person so i can't speak to it but i can get a Butt Joint PERFECT (+-.001) and keep it that way. Two Machined pieces 3d pieces is a tricky thing to make perfect and even more difficuly to keep it that way. As i said before i test my connections my standing on the board and putting 30+ lbs of pressure on a wingtip, feeling the mast flex and still 0 movement in the mast fuse. Not many other setups i see on the beach perform as well on that test.

ADJUSTMENT UPDATE. Putting the rear wing on a diet made a huge difference. Nearly equal performance to my 1240 now but faster and less rear foot pressre. Slippery in the turns is nice but taking some getting used to. The pump is still not 100% but making long tripples and with cadence adjustments it will improve and i can see it eventually being atleast equal. It was bigger today so i don't know if its going to end up as my daily driver but time will tell.

3 sessions of adjustments to being happy on a new wing is good for me.

Right on. I had to try build without a mill. I came up with a few good working fuselages but they were heavy. Eventually I went and bought an Axis fuselage and then I could focus on building good wings. Then I bought a bunch of axis wings...then I bought kujira lol. I still make my own stabs though. pic below of the last one I made.

@martyman Damn thats some good looking work! I don't have the patience to make front wings. I ended up buying the mill for $400 after making the first one with a drill press and a grinder and its been a pretty great way to try new stuff without throwing down on a whole new system. (Saved $1200 on this moses setup alone!)

Making a naish fuse for that axis mast today, Easy peasy once you've done a few. I've got a big machine (1000Lb) but its all dooable on a smaller mini mill if your really patient.

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TooMuchEpoxy said..
@martyman Damn thats some good looking work! I don't have the patience to make front wings. I ended up buying the mill for $400 after making the first one with a drill press and a grinder and its been a pretty great way to try new stuff without throwing down on a whole new system. (Saved $1200 on this moses setup alone!)

Making a naish fuse for that axis mast today, Easy peasy once you've done a few. I've got a big machine (1000Lb) but its all dooable on a smaller mini mill if your really patient.

Can you send me a picture of your mill?

I've got access to a fair sized Bridgeport mill as well, along with a lathe and everything else I'd want except a TIG welder.

I think this coming week I'm going to make a windsurf version of the Starboard QL fuselage. I really like their design for attaching wings.