Just after a bit of info on how to treat foil corrosion.

I have a slingshot I76 and the fuselage has a small amount of corrosion where front wing joins. Obviously I havn't been keeping up with the maintenance properly, although I thought I was???
I have been loosening all screws and rinsing with fresh water every session and have pulled apart and re-greased everything (yes fuselage and inside wing) twice in that time, and use teflon tape on bolts as well, but have then been leaving the lower section of foil all secured together - it's only 4 weeks since I first got it wet though -yes, salt water.

Any way, lesson learnt - pull apart more frequently , more grease etc...

But how do I treat the corrosion???

Do you just use sand paper and rub it back???

I presume once it has started it will be a never ending journey of treatment for it???

Any tips would be greatly appreciated... Cheers

If it's just surface corrosion, sand the effected area until the corrosion is all gone, repaint area with epoxy primer and top coat. Always rinse the foil after use, no need to disassemble. The grease between the joints will protect them. And never leave a wet foil in foil covers, allow to dry thoroughly after fresh water rinse.

Check everything regularly and thoroughly, especially all aluminum parts and pay extra attention to the hidden areas (where plastic parts cover the material) to avoid my experience:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Foiling/fuselage-tether-?page=1#28

Corrosion is a bitch!

FWIW I did marine grease + teflon tape for a while, then switched to tefgel.

I've left the wings and fuse attached since then, and haven't had a problem which flipping the switch fuse or the front between 76-99. And it's always been in salt water.

I don't think you have to worry so much about the area where the wing fits over the fuselage. The big worry is the mast to fuse bolts - the front one in particular. That's where the switch fuse tends to break. Fortunately, the i76 floats with just that broken part of the fuse in it, so you don't lose it. It does tend to put a hole in the bottom of your board, though. But, then you get a new fuse that is all nice and shiny black!

I think it's time more foils came out with carbon fuses. Al is nice and strong and stiff--until it corrodes.

My AFS-2 and LP FRS both have carbon fuses. Some others, too.

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segler said..
I think it's time more foils came out with carbon fuses. Al is nice and strong and stiff--until it corrodes.

My AFS-2 and LP FRS both have carbon fuses. Some others, too.

Aren't they also are much lighter? I picked up a friend's Lokefoil and was shocked at how light it was. I would think the freestylers would be clambering for carbon fuses.

Tefgel stopped that corrosion for me, salt water foiling.
Others here have told me they used marine grade grease with good results.

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lwalker said..

segler said..
I think it's time more foils came out with carbon fuses. Al is nice and strong and stiff--until it corrodes.

My AFS-2 and LP FRS both have carbon fuses. Some others, too.

Aren't they also are much lighter? I picked up a friend's Lokefoil and was shocked at how light it was. I would think the freestylers would be clambering for carbon fuses.

They also need strength for landing jumps. The Balz model freestyle foil from Sabfoil uses a high strength (HS) fuse

What makes a SAB fuse HS? Apart from the 8mm frontwing threads.

Have ordered the 900 HS, so wonder what i get

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PatK said..
What makes a SAB fuse HS? Apart from the 8mm frontwing threads.

Have ordered the 900 HS, so wonder what i get

A little more beef. 900 is 1.125kg (39.7 oz) and 900 HS is 1.258 kg (44.4 oz) on my scale. M8 and angle of attack is different. Guys that don't ride 940 plus front wings don't need the 900 HS. And if you do, just drill out the M6 to M8. Out of the 3 holes , you are only messing around with 2 holes that are anodized. Factory attaches 2 screws (1 front & 1 rear) to dip the fuse and are not anodized anyway. Hope that makes sense.

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lwalker said..

segler said..
I think it's time more foils came out with carbon fuses. Al is nice and strong and stiff--until it corrodes.

My AFS-2 and LP FRS both have carbon fuses. Some others, too.

Aren't they also are much lighter? I picked up a friend's Lokefoil and was shocked at how light it was. I would think the freestylers would be clambering for carbon fuses.

Free style carbon is good. Racing another story. Lokefoil just upgraded their race foils away from carbon. Phantom, F4, Starboard are all not with carbon. There are reasons.. long story.

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ZeroVix said..

lwalker said..

segler said..
I think it's time more foils came out with carbon fuses. Al is nice and strong and stiff--until it corrodes.

My AFS-2 and LP FRS both have carbon fuses. Some others, too.

Aren't they also are much lighter? I picked up a friend's Lokefoil and was shocked at how light it was. I would think the freestylers would be clambering for carbon fuses.

Free style carbon is good. Racing another story. Lokefoil just upgraded their race foils away from carbon. Phantom, F4, Starboard are all not with carbon. There are reasons.. long story.

Lokefoil still has slalom pro foils that are all carbon with a 95 cm fuselage, but for the longer 110 cm race fuselages they went to aluminum, guessing carbon flexes too much over 95 cm. Maybe a carbon fuselage reinforced with a metal core for lengths over 95 cm? AFS has a 95 cm carbon fuselage, but the F1080 cm2 wings will not fit it by design probably because that relatively large wing applies too much torque to the longer 95 cm carbon fuselage.

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Sandman1221 said..
AFS has a 95 cm carbon fuselage, but the F1080 cm2 wings will not fit it by design probably because that relatively large wing applies too much torque to the longer 95 cm carbon fuselage.

With their redesign, they changed the shape of the fuse (more square cross section) so the older wings don't match the curve and width of the new fuse on the 95 and 105. Their F series 85 is still compatible with your F1080.

LP did this, too. Their stock FRS wing is 940 cm2. You can get bigger wings, such as the 1300 cm2 with an adapter. They won't sell you their 1600 cm2 for fear of breaking their windfoiling carbon fuse. I can kindof understand this, but in a way it does not make sense. If I am foiling along in balance, my overall weight pushing down is equal to the force lifting up regardless of wing size. What differs is the speed.

They reserve their 1600 cm2 wing for kitefoiling and wingfoiling, where the wing is located closer to the foil mast. Less bending moment on the fuse.

If everybody changed the shape of the fuse to more of a vertical ellipse cross-section, a carbon fuse would be plenty strong without adding a lot of weight. It's a matter of design and tooling. They already have a lot of design and tooling in their masts and wings. Now extend that to fuses.

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segler said..
LP did this, too. Their stock FRS wing is 940 cm2. You can get bigger wings, such as the 1300 cm2 with an adapter. They won't sell you their 1600 cm2 for fear of breaking their windfoiling carbon fuse. I can kindof understand this, but in a way it does not make sense. If I am foiling along in balance, my overall weight pushing down is equal to the force lifting up regardless of wing size. What differs is the speed.

They reserve their 1600 cm2 wing for kitefoiling and wingfoiling, where the wing is located closer to the foil mast. Less bending moment on the fuse.

If everybody changed the shape of the fuse to more of a vertical ellipse cross-section, a carbon fuse would be plenty strong without adding a lot of weight. It's a matter of design and tooling. They already have a lot of design and tooling in their masts and wings. Now extend that to fuses.

Agree segler, I mean Boeing and Airbus have carbon parts on their planes that handle a lot more stress than any foil fuselage. Armstrong uses a titanium core on their carbon fuselages. I keep reading about all the problems with aluminum fuses on this forum, and know I made the right decision going with AFS from the start. Now the F1080 wing is probably not the best wing to practice foiling gybes on because it is relatively fast and certainly smaller than the i84 wing which is almost twice the surface area, but that is not stopping me, going to get it this Winter and/or Spring! Really never practiced doing it much before, but finally got comfortable with in-flight foil pumping and I think pumping the foil through the gybe will be essential with the F1080 wing at slower/safer speeds.

Alloy fuselages are cheap, you can have a few different sizes for the cost of one carbon fuselage that may or may not break. I class the alloy fuselage as consumable, $300 for a brand new one every couple of years is a small running cost.

www.lokefoil.com/en/pack-foil-en/wind-foil-en/wind-foil-speed-en
How about a 4.8kg 316SS fuselage? The Lokefoil plan appears to have 316, aluminium & carbon fuses available. Seems overkill but French foil design & engineering is world leading. As noted above, certainly a design u turn after the 20/21 monoblock carbon mast fuselage.

Where carbon fuselages seem to struggle is in the mast joint area. You either get a bonded joint and fixed geometry or there is some slop.

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Grantmac said..
Where carbon fuselages seem to struggle is in the mast joint area. You either get a bonded joint and fixed geometry or there is some slop.

I do not see a drawback for the T-bar mast and fuselage, though I have not tried to fly with it, but if I did would make a thin plywood case/box to carry it in.

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regal1 said..
www.lokefoil.com/en/pack-foil-en/wind-foil-en/wind-foil-speed-en
How about a 4.8kg 316SS fuselage? The Lokefoil plan appears to have 316, aluminium & carbon fuses available. Seems overkill but French foil design & engineering is world leading. As noted above, certainly a design u turn after the 20/21 monoblock carbon mast fuselage.

The stainless fuse also comes with an eye-watering price: 917 euro excluding VAT
www.lokefoil.com/en/products-en/fuselage-100-world-cup-inox-shop-en

When I flew (airplane) with my AFS-2 in November, I packed it in a big artist box (4' x 4' x 6") with all kinds of extra padding inside. The empty places on both sides of the mast were filled with other stuff such as clothes and a fish finder. It all packed together well and survived the flight in good shape. The dimensions still came in under the Delta maximum for "sports equipment."

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Sandman1221 said..

Grantmac said..
Where carbon fuselages seem to struggle is in the mast joint area. You either get a bonded joint and fixed geometry or there is some slop.

I do not see a drawback for the T-bar mast and fuselage, though I have not tried to fly with it, but if I did would make a thin plywood case/box to carry it in.

Fixed geometry means it'll never be used for serious racing where fuselage changes are part of the game.

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Grantmac said..

Sandman1221 said..

Grantmac said..
Where carbon fuselages seem to struggle is in the mast joint area. You either get a bonded joint and fixed geometry or there is some slop.

I do not see a drawback for the T-bar mast and fuselage, though I have not tried to fly with it, but if I did would make a thin plywood case/box to carry it in.

Fixed geometry means it'll never be used for serious racing where fuselage changes are part of the game.

I adjusted the fuselage angle using shim in the foil box.

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segler said..
LP did this, too. Their stock FRS wing is 940 cm2. You can get bigger wings, such as the 1300 cm2 with an adapter. They won't sell you their 1600 cm2 for fear of breaking their windfoiling carbon fuse. I can kindof understand this, but in a way it does not make sense. If I am foiling along in balance, my overall weight pushing down is equal to the force lifting up regardless of wing size. What differs is the speed.

They reserve their 1600 cm2 wing for kitefoiling and wingfoiling, where the wing is located closer to the foil mast. Less bending moment on the fuse.

If everybody changed the shape of the fuse to more of a vertical ellipse cross-section, a carbon fuse would be plenty strong without adding a lot of weight. It's a matter of design and tooling. They already have a lot of design and tooling in their masts and wings. Now extend that to fuses.

Not entirely true. Peter did make stronger fuse (custom) and the RS wind foil series was up to 1600cm wings. I know someone that actually has a 2200cm wing on wind foil fuse that was purchased as a wind foil setup. FRS was the old system. I think LP is not doing much anymore.

Starboard and F4 did testing on carbon race fuse without success. There is a reason why Phantom, F4 and Starboard don't make carbon fuse. From a cost standpoint it would be very expensive to acquire multiple carbon fuse and they couldn't achieve stability on longer fuse. I think up to 95cm it works and longer than that it exhibits issues.

Good to hear about LP. Thanks.

When I look on the website, I don't see anything there about the RS. Used to be, but not yesterday.

I'm perfectly happy with the 1300 on my FRS fuse with the wing adapter.

That said, my Moses stuff is so good that my LP stuff hardly ever gets wet. Moses stuff uses aluminum for fuses.

These french guys do their carbon fuselages really well and lasting.
But it needs some skills and know how to do them light and strong, for sure.

Before switching to winging, I had their V1 Windfoil (only 2,8 kg!), which worked really amazing, but it had a tuttle mast and the largest wing was too small for winging. A friend still has their V2 shown below, which has a new fuse/mast connection, he is a 100+ kg big guy.

Now i'm considerung ordering their new Wingfoil, because these guys really build amazing foils.

www.aeromod.fr/windfoil/windfoil-v2/

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AlexF said..
These french guys do their carbon fuselages really well and lasting.
But it needs some skills and know how to do them light and strong, for sure.

Before switching to winging, I had their V1 Windfoil (only 2,8 kg!), which worked really amazing, but it had a tuttle mast and the largest wing was too small for winging. A friend still has their V2 shown below, which has a new fuse/mast connection, he is a 100+ kg big guy.

Now i'm considerung ordering their new Wingfoil, because these guys really build amazing foils.

www.aeromod.fr/windfoil/windfoil-v2/

The foil mast base is really close to the front wing, but those are the wingfoil fuses I guess, could not balance on my 2019 Goya Bolt, but windfoil fuse look good, no English website?

Yes, wingfoil fuse, windfoil is longer.
No English page, unfortunately.