So I've had a grand total of 3 sessions on my new Slingshot i99 front wing, mainly in light air (6-10 mph) and one session where I was overpowered on my Severne 7.0 m Foil sail in 15-20 (I should have been on the i76, but I didn't know any better).

It seems that at a certain speed (roughly 14 or 15 mph) the i99 tends to hit a wall and lose grip, a feeling that reminds me of spinning out or cavitating on a windsurf fin. Can anyone give me any tips as to how to recover grip when the foil lets go at speed?

Right now my preferred technique is to crash and start over.

There must be a better way.

Maybe as it hits top speed it is starting to breach and that cavitation like feeling you are getting is it being close to the surface. Are you pretty high when it happens?

When that happens to me I think I quickly try and weight the harness lines as well as the front foot. If it is happening consistently at that speed you could try moving your front strap forward or universal forward.

I know the feeling but for me it is faster (not sure what speed, but above 15 knots) and only very very rarely do i get this spin out thing. Once it was so bad that i thought the whole foil had fallen off!. It might be putting too much sideways force into the board rather than down force - but it hasn't happened often enough to me to diagnose it. Generally i find my i99 gets to a speed limit somewhere above 15 kts and just wont go faster, but remains well behaved unless the wind strength goes crazy.

Keep your back foot out of the strap and step it forward when you start feeling that, or before you start feeling that, and hold on. Sounds like a breach like thedoor says.Keep hanging on and staying over the board and you may ride it out and get going again. I've breached sometimes and recovered, other times I crash.

Also may want to move the mat base a little bit more forward. Maybe .5-1cm at first.

Yeah, I've experienced the same thing with the original naish 1220 foil. Spun out all the time - yaw.
First thing for me was to diagnose the oncoming doom. It would usually happen when I was hitting a gust and the foil was lifting. Often I could feel the foil trying to pop out. The board would slide sideways (yawing). When that happened, I just used my core to twist the board back into position and front foot pressure to drive the front foil back underwater. Sometimes I found letting the sail out with the back hand meant less lift and more control, which stopped the yawing effect from starting in the first place. The risk of letting the back hand go was losing too much lift and coming off the foil. Had some big over-the-handlebars moments.
The other thing that helps is getting the sail matched well to the wind. If you're not overpowered, I think you have better control over lift.

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Foulweatherjack said..
So I've had a grand total of 3 sessions on my new Slingshot i99 front wing, mainly in light air (6-10 mph) and one session where I was overpowered on my Severne 7.0 m Foil sail in 15-20 (I should have been on the i76, but I didn't know any better).

It seems that at a certain speed (roughly 14 or 15 mph) the i99 tends to hit a wall and lose grip, a feeling that reminds me of spinning out or cavitating on a windsurf fin. Can anyone give me any tips as to how to recover grip when the foil lets go at speed?

Right now my preferred technique is to crash and start over.

There must be a better way.

FWJ,

Do you hear the gurgling sound of a breach before the spin out?

Gurgling sound means weight forward to get the Foil and tail plane back under the water enough to not cavitate.

The i99 in 15-20 is the problem it's ok but as you stated being on the i76 would have been the best choice.


in 5-15 the i99 tops out at 15mph I cannot get it to go faster than that, just too much drag.
which fuse length , rear wing and fuse position are you using?

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CoreAS said..
The i99 in 15-20 is the problem it's ok but as you stated being on the i76 would have been the best choice.


in 5-15 the i99 tops out at 15mph I cannot get it to go faster than that, just too much drag.
which fuse length , rear wing and fuse position are you using?

Completely agree, the i99 is great for winds up to 15mph, once it gets over that I'd much rather be on the smaller wings. Nice thing about our sport is it's easier to swap out wings than sails.

DC

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CoreAS said..
The i99 in 15-20 is the problem it's ok but as you stated being on the i76 would have been the best choice.


in 5-15 the i99 tops out at 15mph I cannot get it to go faster than that, just too much drag.
which fuse length , rear wing and fuse position are you using?

Core: I'm using the standard slingshot fuse (I think it's 76 cm) placed in position C. My board has a deep Tuttle box, so the only fore and aft adjustment I can make is via the fuselage. The rear wing is the smaller 42 cm wing.

Even though it's slow, that's not a bad thing at my stage. I'm still trying to get a feel for balance and to develop new muscle memory to make foiling as instinctive as windsurfing used to be years ago.

I miss that "locked in" feeling I used to have when I was hooked in and planing. If you set up your rig correctly, windsurfing is truly effortless in that your body weight and the wind do all the work. I'm not there (yet) with the foil, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

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Foulweatherjack said..

CoreAS said..
The i99 in 15-20 is the problem it's ok but as you stated being on the i76 would have been the best choice.


in 5-15 the i99 tops out at 15mph I cannot get it to go faster than that, just too much drag.
which fuse length , rear wing and fuse position are you using?

Core: I'm using the standard slingshot fuse (I think it's 76 cm) placed in position C. My board has a deep Tuttle box, so the only fore and aft adjustment I can make is via the fuselage. The rear wing is the smaller 42 cm wing.

Even though it's slow, that's not a bad thing at my stage. I'm still trying to get a feel for balance and to develop new muscle memory to make foiling as instinctive as windsurfing used to be years ago.

I miss that "locked in" feeling I used to have when I was hooked in and planing. If you set up your rig correctly, windsurfing is truly effortless in that your body weight and the wind do all the work. I'm not there (yet) with the foil, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

OK yes you have the longer fuse (that's what I use) and the 42 rear.

Try going to position B (that's what I use) and here is why... I now use the Wizard 130 with the twin tracks and I slide the i99 way more forward than the wizard 125 with tuttle box (so similar to position C) it does get you foiling up sooner BUT when you pick up speed and max out the foil feels a little squirely, its very sensitive in stronger winds... so it means spreading the mast base and foil a bit further apart, so going to B means the front wing is more on the back foot.

you may give up a tiny bit of lightwind lift but at 15+ mph you need top end control over the wing.

free-foils in general force you to have a more upright stance and thats probably why you are not feeling the locked in feeling, try taking off the back foot straps and use your back foot pressure to steady things up and then experiment with leaning back in the harness line some more.

Time on the water and you'll get it, its effortless just like windsurfing when you get it all dialed in

"Effortless".
I'd like to see that in our 6-20 knot light winds.

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LeeD said..
"Effortless".
I'd like to see that in our 6-20 knot light winds.

if you used a wing bigger than 600 you would get it!

and in Dallas we have 5-25

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LeeD said..
"Effortless".
I'd like to see that in our 6-20 knot light winds.

Pretty usual around here, no big deal with a bigger foil.