Probably a bit of a stupid question but has anyone tried putting a formula fin in a foil racing board??

I'm moving away from my local spot for a few months for work and can only really take 1 board to cover all the wind ranges, I was thinking about taking my foil racing board and getting a formula fin as well so I'm still able to sail on both fin and foil, sadly I don't have a big slalom board with a foil box so have to pick between a foil racing board or medium slalom board.

Has anyone given it a go?? The board's a tabou air ride 91 if that makes any difference.

haven't tried, and surely "works" but I'm wondering: what conditions are you aiming to cover that you wouldn't be able to cover with foil? or is it just a matter of water depth?

I have put the 68cm iqfoil fin in my 95cm iqfoil board just to see, but it was lighter than I expected out of the wind shadow and I didn't get planing. Riding it, I didn't like the extreme outboard foot strap position for fin, or at least how it felt. Felt really different to my other fin boards. Really seemed like it would take some serious practice to get used to it vs. the foil. Would rather just foil with it. It's also commonly weedy and the foil tends to blast the weedbergs apart but the upright high aspect fins tend to grab weeds like they're a huge fishing net.

The Blast I have is only 77cm wide and I did both foil and fin on it regularly until I went dedicated. Way easier to use it for either than a really wide board. But it's not a real slalom board, but mostly a fin board that does foiling pretty well. Your slalom board doesn't have a foil box?

But, also my level of experience isn't that high so I'm sure other people will say what I could have done to make the wider board work better...

My 91cm Tillo Convertible is equally at home on fin or foil but it's designed that way. Footstraps are fine for either without moving them, and the thing really flies with a 62cm Kashy underneath and a 4-cam NX8.6 up top, and isn't bad with a big weed fin either. A true 70cm formula fin works too but is cumbersome except steeply upwind.

I now foil on an 85 cm Alien 155 and I'm dying to try a fin under it, for shallow conditions or just blasting around. Planning on using a 52cm though - the big Kashy generates a ton of lift and with the shorter overall length I'm not sure I could keep the nose down.

I have used a cut-down formula fin (cut down to 50 cm) on a 85 cm wide freeride foil board. Not foil race board, granted. The combination works fine but is not particularly fast.

Running a 70 cm formula fin on a 91 cm wide board seems to me to be an ankle-killer. That's why the combination of 70 cm fin under a 100.5 cm wide formula board with far outboard straps was the cat's meow for years.

I've got a JP135 foil board and recently tried it with a fin. At 215cm long the shortest board I have ever sailed with a fin. I used a 48cm fin and it worked great. A little hard to get to bear off at times when getting going but all good. The wind dropped and I put my foil in and extended the wind range quite a bit, all with my foilglide 7.0 that day. The board gybed fine too. In fact, I have even ridden a JP105 with a fin a while back, and that is only 209cm long.

Also just in the last 2 weeks, rather than foiling on my Formula board, I just fined it using a formula fin and IQfoil 9.0 sail - top speed was higher than the foil .....

So I'm happy mixing and matching at times for sure ....

The original jp 135 foilboard from 2019 i think works really good on fin, but something around 50 to 53cm.
Some years ago there whas somebody in holland that got around 54km/u speed with this setup and a 7m slalomracesail.

I have a future fly 145 flying camel foilboard 2019.
It works good on fin but something around 50cm.

Select to expand quote

segler said..
I have used a cut-down formula fin (cut down to 50 cm) on a 85 cm wide freeride foil board. Not foil race board, granted. The combination works fine but is not particularly fast.

Running a 70 cm formula fin on a 91 cm wide board seems to me to be an ankle-killer. That's why the combination of 70 cm fin under a 100.5 cm wide formula board with far outboard straps was the cat's meow for years.

Hi segler
Which 85cm wide freeride foil board do you have? I am looking to learn windfoiling but I can only keep 1 board at the club, so having the option to fin a foilboard (accepting it won't be the fastest setup) in highwinds it is a very good option.
Cheers!
Marc

Hi MarcRider. My foilboards are the Exocet Freefoil 132, and the Fanatic Stingray 140 LTD. The Fanatic works better with a fin because it has harder rails than does the Exo.

Hi Segler, thanks!

My only foil board Is a 100cm wide race SB. Sailing with fin Is out of my mind, in this board. Formula fins gone forever, I gave them away. With the 9.0 we sail till 20-23 knots (pros much higher) on the foil. Stoked every session still on the foil.

But thats not the dominant winds around here.

If youre on a slalom foil I guess that's mucho more convertible than a meter race one.

My other board Is a Goya custom 4 94 lts, when it blows and there are some waves at the Beach.

Today I finally had a decent opportunity to try my Alien 155 with a fin. Wind was 18-22mph and I rigged a 7.5 Hotsails Speedfreak and a 40cm Black Project Dragon. The board wants to round up when not planing, and really needed to be bullied to swing off the wind. Once I bore off I was able to pump the board onto a plane very quickly and it accelerated hard. Ride was pretty darn fast but jarring even in pretty moderate chop. Once I was able to get my weight way into the back foot the board railed to leeward and the bouncing went away as I rode the fin. I then switched to foil and a 4.7

So is chop or waves an issue when finning on a shorter foil board?, seems like it would be easy to accidentally catch some chop or a wave top with the shorter nose.

Select to expand quote

Sandman1221 said..
So is chop or waves an issue when finning on a shorter foil board?, seems like it would be easy to accidentally catch some chop or a wave top with the shorter nose.

That wasn't my experience. The 155 Alien is 215cm and at my 100kg weight the board rode high and felt light through gentle chop and decent cross-chop and the nose never was close to catching. Plenty of scoop and bevels up front kept that part of the ride easy. The rough ride had more to do with how the bottom shape receives chop. The 155 has a subtle single-concave before transitioning into a very flat double concave so until it's railed over a bit you feel every ripple. Subtle rocker right at the Tuttle box allows you to get way back and ride the fin. I left the straps where I have them for foiling (half straps in back) and had the mastfoot where it would be for an 8.5 foil sail - not all the way forward.

I have tested my Patrik Hybrid 91 with fins.

Instead of 8,0 Phantom Iris RF for Foiling a Avanti Machine M7 8,4 qm.

Fin: 48 cm Chopper

Good at planning, fast (48 km/h topspeed) but it makes no sense against it's foiling capabilities at low wind conditions on our lakes.

Straps very wide outside - not very comfortable for SL-Surfing.

It wasn't quite high tide and I was a bit skeptical so I rigged my iqfoil board and sail with the 68cm drake to explore, try to get planing on it, and test depth before the tide came in and putting a foil in.

with it pretty far forward in the mast track I got planing in both straps and pointed pretty well upwind. Downwind I was amazed at how deep I could go compared to my other boards, but not quite getting past 18.5knots or so. It felt really weird compared to my blast and other fin boards but fun to experience. My jibes slowed down way more but I can tell how formula boards would be fun.

Much more upwind/downwind capable than just a regular shortboard. But felt like even the 900 wing was faster at all angles.

Also of note was how much more loaded the sail felt. That's to be expected but it's a bit different when you are using the exact same board/sail as foiling on a fin right after each other.

It was 15-20kts today and all I brought was a 9.0 and my race foil setup so, being a bit intimidated, I plugged in the 68cm fin at first to give it a go.

It didn't feel anywhere near as good as when it was more like 12-14 or so, chop was beating me up, etc. I switched to 900/115+ foil and it was actually way more fun and easy to ride, and jibe. I can see why they don't bother using the fin in even higher wind on iqfoil. I can't imagine that setup in 30kts.

thanks for testing!