For years now I have been juicing up my rear wings, in the early days Naish had easy rear wing adjustment that I always rode at "Max Power", now recently I have been using a thin washer between the back bolt to get between approx. 1 & 2 degree of increased lift angle in my rear wing. This has felt great and I loved it.

The other day I stumbled on KD Maui's shopify store as I was considering one of his rear wings to see how they go, when I say he offers up a shim file for many brands. I downloaded the file and got James at ProKite to print me up a few. OMG, the 2 degree shim on the Naish 1040 HA with 220HA rear was ridiculously epic.

Shimming is nothing new, we've been doing it for ages, but using an actual purpose built shim that fits perfect and follows the contour of the wing and fuselage is unbelievable amounts better than a washer. So tight and precise! This made such a huge difference on a foil setup that I had previously said was a little too small for me and a little twitchy at my weight. I had one of my best foil sessions on this set up the last 2 days.

I just wanted to share and put it out there. The washer is a great to to play, but it is no where near what is achieved using a proper shim. Highly recommend playing with these. You may not need them, and prefer the setup as per ex-factory, but they are a great option to have in your tool kit.






The Naish file has two sized, 1 and 2 degree. Pictured on my foil is the 2 degree.

Kane DeWilde (KD MAUI) shop is found at - kdfoils.myshopify.com/

Anyway, just worth considering. IT is already soo good with Naish foils that you can interchange every model and every style of foil, this just adds a little more tweakability to the whole thing - Awesome .

Ride safe,

JB

Thanks Very much JB.
KD Maui's great people ! they even allow you to download the file to 3D print!!
Not usual these days! They cost just 5Dollar but to ship them to portugal 40 dollars!! Better try to print...

Just a couple of doubts...
i am still using a thin washer to shim my back wing.. i use a thin rubber/silicone one not to damage the fuselage. do you use a hard steel one? that doesnt damage the fuselage? You say a thin washer on the back stabilizer bolt does about 1 or 2 degrees ? thats enough to feel some diference, right?

Another thing.. To shim the plate mount i heard that a credit card under the plate mount is the easier way to do it. Do You know how much a regular credit card thickness adds in degrees? For you to feel diference in the board, do you think the thickness of just one credit card is enough, or better more?

Thanks Very much

Hey that's cool, thanks for sharing that. Now just need to find a 3d printer!
I am playing around with shimming gofoil stab and the help with pumping is impressive.

I am using a washer, but planned to go the credit card route. Do up a few and experiment to get the degrees desired.

Thanks JB, you inspired me to go for extra lift!
I use Starboard foils and you 'can't/ don't need to' shim because the stabilizer has a slots and a mating curved profile that lets you change the angle of attack. I've always played in the minimum lift to flat area thinking that increased lift would make the foil breach. Just tried going into more lift and was amazed to find that my high aspect front foil felt less inclined to breach and all that weird up and down flutter effect disappeared. Maybe having that lift gave me more front foot pressure and calmed the whole thing down. Found foot switching and gybing easier as well. Awesome

Select to expand quote

JonathanC said..
Thanks JB, you inspired me to go for extra lift!
I use Starboard foils and you 'can't/ don't need to' shim because the stabilizer has a slots and a mating curved profile that lets you change the angle of attack. I've always played in the minimum lift to flat area thinking that increased lift would make the foil breach. Just tried going into more lift and was amazed to find that my high aspect front foil felt less inclined to breach and all that weird up and down flutter effect disappeared. Maybe having that lift gave me more front foot pressure and calmed the whole thing down. Found foot switching and gybing easier as well. Awesome

Which front and rear wing are you using? I'm on Starboard as well but I use it for windfoiling with a custom fuselage.

Primarily the X Type 1100 with the flat 250 Razr stabilizer.

interesting because I didn't ever try the increased AOA with my 1300 E foil, pretty sure it would have made a big difference. Always thought the E1300 was too big for me at 64kg, probably just how I had set it up - live and learn

I'm 95kg, I tried the Razr250 and it was far too back footed no matter what. The original Surf 270 and 370 work better for windfoiling. The 370 especially is very easy and not slow.

I think the Razr is a very loose tail and the E-type tends to ride like it's on rails which makes the tail feel even looser.

Can anyone supply me with a copy of the gofoil shim 3d printer file.

I went to KD Maui's shop but the products page is closed at the moment... catching up with orders

Thanks in advance

EDIT - found it with a bit of googling
kdfoils.myshopify.com/products/shim-pack