What do you feel is a good gap between sail sizes for foiling? I currently have a 3.8, 4.8, 6.0, 7.0 8.0 and a 9.3 (on order). I found an unused 5.5 Chinook 4 batten sail and matching mast for a good price. Should I add that to my quiver?

Thanks much.

Gap Size would be extremely hard to judge unless its the same make/model. Half a metre in a wave sail is different than .5m in a Race sail in terms of maneuverability and power. If you want to fill a gap in the quiver the sail should be the same make/model of either the 4.8 or 6.0.

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VCRWoody said..
Gap Size would be extremely hard to judge unless its the same make/model. Half a metre in a wave sail is different than .5m in a Race sail in terms of maneuverability and power. If you want to fill a gap in the quiver the sail should be the same make/model of either the 4.8 or 6.0.

That makes sense. For what it's worth, my quiver is as follows... 3.8 Sailworks Revolution, 4.8 Duotone Super session, 6.0 and 7.0 Sailworks Flyer and 8.0 Ezzy Cheetah. The 9.3 is a Duotone S-pace.

The sail I'm looking at is a 5.5 Chinook power glide (Made by Ezzy).

Skip the Chinook.

For me I don't need a tight quiver for foiling.
7.2, 5.2, 4.3, 3.7 covers everything. I rarely bring the 7.2 and if I do it's with a wider board.

Depends what windspeed predominate in your sailing site.
If it's mostly between 8-17, then a 5.5 is a good addition closing that gap in MOST of your sailing days.

Well I guess the real answer depends also on 'how picky a perfectionist' that you are?
And also on how rich you are with regards to investing in more sails or not?

In my earlier life as a wave windsurfing fanatic, then I had all sails with 0.5 m2 intervals, from 3.0 m2 up to 5.5 m2 as my biggest.
I understand from comments here that in windfoiling, then its less critical if you are getting slightly 'overpowered' or not, so up to a full 1m2 size difference is still fine. An alternative is maybe 0.7 m2 or so between each. Personally I favor slightly less difference between each sail in the low size range, while ok with 0.7-1.0 m2 between sails when you get from 5.0 m2 and up.

If the wind picks up slightly and then my aka 5.7 m2 gets slightly overpowered and hard to handle, then I know I can switch to the 5.0 m2 and it will be perfect. No sensation of being overpowered and still full on and easy up with waterstarts and into planning/flying speed.

For the foiling I have bought the special Ezzy Hydra, just the 5.0 m2 and the 6.0 m2 sail sizes.
But have yet to try them out in borderline winds, to judge if the 1 m2 gap between them is too big or not.

Personally I really love so much more all sail sizes from 5.5 and down, due to their so much easier handling.
So for your personal range there, I would probably look for a 5.3-5.5 m2 sail to cover the sweetspot and range there!

3.0-3.8-4.9 wave + 9.0-10.0 foilrace, works for all conditions with some overlap, 9.0 & 3.0 would in theory cover the same range. I used to use my 9.0 for 5-25 knots, now its 12-25 since I have my 10.0, my 4.9 does 12-25 knots aswell, but works better than 9.0 in offshore conditions if the gusts are much higher (35+ is doable). I can start using 3.0 from about 20 knots and have regularly switched from 3.8 to 9.0 when my racing budies arived on the spot, while the conditions remained equal.

I use only 900cm2 with my wavesails, and either 872cm2 or 778cm2 with my racing sails.

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WhiteofHeart said..
3.0-3.8-4.9 wave + 9.0-10.0 foilrace, works for all conditions with some overlap, 9.0 & 3.0 would in theory cover the same range. I used to use my 9.0 for 5-25 knots, now its 12-25 since I have my 10.0, my 4.9 does 12-25 knots aswell, but works better than 9.0 in offshore conditions if the gusts are much higher (35+ is doable). I can start using 3.0 from about 20 knots and have regularly switched from 3.8 to 9.0 when my racing budies arived on the spot, while the conditions remained equal.

I use only 900cm2 with my wavesails, and either 872cm2 or 778cm2 with my racing sails.

I get the feeling you're on a COMPLETELY different level than I am.

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Cyber said..
Well I guess the real answer depends also on 'how picky a perfectionist' that you are?
And also on how rich you are with regards to investing in more sails or not?

In my earlier life as a wave windsurfing fanatic, then I had all sails with 0.5 m2 intervals, from 3.0 m2 up to 5.5 m2 as my biggest.
I understand from comments here that in windfoiling, then its less critical if you are getting slightly 'overpowered' or not, so up to a full 1m2 size difference is still fine. An alternative is maybe 0.7 m2 or so between each. Personally I favor slightly less difference between each sail in the low size range, while ok with 0.7-1.0 m2 between sails when you get from 5.0 m2 and up.

If the wind picks up slightly and then my aka 5.7 m2 gets slightly overpowered and hard to handle, then I know I can switch to the 5.0 m2 and it will be perfect. No sensation of being overpowered and still full on and easy up with waterstarts and into planning/flying speed.

For the foiling I have bought the special Ezzy Hydra, just the 5.0 m2 and the 6.0 m2 sail sizes.
But have yet to try them out in borderline winds, to judge if the 1 m2 gap between them is too big or not.

Personally I really love so much more all sail sizes from 5.5 and down, due to their so much easier handling.
So for your personal range there, I would probably look for a 5.3-5.5 m2 sail to cover the sweetspot and range there!

My most used sails so far are the 4.8 Duotone Super session and the 6.0 Flyer. Part of me feels the need for something in the 5.4 range, but then another part of me feels like I may be try to be too fussy. The Chinook sail and matching RDM 430 mast was brand new and only $165 plus about $60 for shipping.

4.8 to 6 is a huge gap if your spot generally blows 7-17 for foiling.
Price is cheap enough.

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LeeD said..
4.8 to 6 is a huge gap if your spot generally blows 7-17 for foiling.
Price is cheap enough.

My 7.7 covers that (and more). I am not a big guy. iirc, excav8ter is bigger than me. A Flyer 6.0 should be good to the lower 20s - with its cams it has a bit of range. The 4.8 can kick in 14-25. It was gusty at my puddle today and sailed a 4.7 in about 11-24 kts.

If he didn't own a 6.0 Flyer, then maybe a 5.4-5.7 wave sail might be the call but that sits pretty much on top of the 6.0 he already owns. Then again, who knows? Maybe he likes collecting stuff in the garage as much as I do. I've certainly made some questionable sail purchases (like this year)

4.2, 5.5, 7.3. If the 4.2 is too much I can go to a smaller front wing.

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WhiteofHeart said..
3.0-3.8-4.9 wave + 9.0-10.0 foilrace, works for all conditions with some overlap, 9.0 & 3.0 would in theory cover the same range. I used to use my 9.0 for 5-25 knots, now its 12-25 since I have my 10.0, my 4.9 does 12-25 knots aswell, but works better than 9.0 in offshore conditions if the gusts are much higher (35+ is doable). I can start using 3.0 from about 20 knots and have regularly switched from 3.8 to 9.0 when my racing budies arived on the spot, while the conditions remained equal.

I use only 900cm2 with my wavesails, and either 872cm2 or 778cm2 with my racing sails.

Mate that shows it all depends! Are you switching to a wider board when you go from 3.8 to 9.0 in the same wind?

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Paducah said..

LeeD said..
4.8 to 6 is a huge gap if your spot generally blows 7-17 for foiling.
Price is cheap enough.

My 7.7 covers that (and more). I am not a big guy. iirc, excav8ter is bigger than me. A Flyer 6.0 should be good to the lower 20s - with its cams it has a bit of range. The 4.8 can kick in 14-25. It was gusty at my puddle today and sailed a 4.7 in about 11-24 kts.

If he didn't own a 6.0 Flyer, then maybe a 5.4-5.7 wave sail might be the call but that sits pretty much on top of the 6.0 he already owns. Then again, who knows? Maybe he likes collecting stuff in the garage as much as I do. I've certainly made some questionable sail purchases (like this year)

I kinda went nuts buying stuff, hoping to cover a wide variety of conditions. The 6.0 flyer does cover a big range for me, and as I get better at pumping I will probably find i don't need so many sails. My 4.8 Duotone is my favorite so far. As for changing front wings to something smaller, I currently only have the i99, i84 and the old Fwind1 (which I've never used). I have been afraid to use the Fwind1 because I don't think i am ready to go much faster yet.

I live in Holland, Michigan and our wind speeds can be all over the place. Rarely are they steady. Saturday i was getting readings from 15 to 27mph. I went with the 6.0 and realistically could have used the 4.8 I think.

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excav8ter said..
The 6.0 flyer does cover a big range for me, and as I get better at pumping I will probably find i don't need so many sails. My 4.8 Duotone is my favorite so far.

I think you've answered your question... (For now) Maybe long term, as you get used to the 7.0 Flyer, you'll consider trading the 6.0 Flyer for a mid 5 Duotone (or not). Having 3 sails within about a meter with a fair amount of overlap will have you spending 20 min every time you go trying to figure out which sail to use anyway. WoH is probably an edge case compared to most of us but there does seem to be a natural jump from a large cambered sail to small freeride sails and it's the 6 something that tends to be less used. Windbot is a good example and I do something similar.

The range in about 10 minutes at my puddle today was 10-26 mph according to a local windmeter. I feel your pain.

Edit: rereading your quiver - I wouldn't be surprised if the 8.0 Cheetah doesn't get that much use long term. It's a great freeride finned board sail but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much on a foil. The Flyer will cover more of the Cheetah's range than you might expect.

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Cyber said..
I understand from comments here that in windfoiling, then its less critical if you are getting slightly 'overpowered' or not

I'd argue that, instead, it's less important if we are underpowered because of the ability to glide through lulls and fly through jibes that would have a normal board dropping off a plane. Our ability to jam way upwind in the gusts and then unwind downwind in the lulls is a bit like storing energy that a regular board can't.

On race gear I'm using
10m to 10knots
9m from 10- 14/15kn
8m around a steady 15kn
7m from 15-18kn
after that it's wing time.

on free foil
5.6m around 10kn
5.3m 10-15kn
4.8m around 15-18kn
after that it's wing time as well.

I'm 75kg

Agree with Snides8, same weight.

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utcminusfour said..

WhiteofHeart said..
3.0-3.8-4.9 wave + 9.0-10.0 foilrace, works for all conditions with some overlap, 9.0 & 3.0 would in theory cover the same range. I used to use my 9.0 for 5-25 knots, now its 12-25 since I have my 10.0, my 4.9 does 12-25 knots aswell, but works better than 9.0 in offshore conditions if the gusts are much higher (35+ is doable). I can start using 3.0 from about 20 knots and have regularly switched from 3.8 to 9.0 when my racing budies arived on the spot, while the conditions remained equal.

I use only 900cm2 with my wavesails, and either 872cm2 or 778cm2 with my racing sails.

Mate that shows it all depends! Are you switching to a wider board when you go from 3.8 to 9.0 in the same wind?

Definately, my 3.8 is on a 65 or 72 wide, 9.0 on a 100 wide.

Btw, im 92kg / 205 pounds and athletic, I feel a lightweight would loose more in the high end than he/she would gain in the low end. Also, being able to pump effectively helps tremendously in bringing the low end down for someone my weight. All in all I think its better to be on the heavier side because the downsides for a heavy person are more easily countered with technique, practice and athleticism than the downsides for a light weight are.

Excav8tr I reckon 1m gaps between sail sizes is fine for free foiling. But a lot of this depends on what your local conditions are like. We regularly experience sea breezes that are 10-15 knots. I have a 5.7 lift (Naish foil specific) which gets me running in 10 knots. When it gets consistently above 14 knots, I will switch to a really crappy old 4.5m wavesail and it's great for that. Can spill wind in the gusts and enough grunt to get up and going. If I was to sail in wind of consistent 20 knots (which I rarely do), suspect I'd go for my 3.7 or 3.4. I think there's enough overlap in those 3 sails for all my windfoiling. But if it's REALLY gusty, then having sail sizes in between may suit better as you can find a sail which fits the wind range better. I can't justify the expense.