Anyone try extending there rear stab to get more glide or lift in light winds? I have the custom equivalent to a sabfoil windsurf fuse 880cm long. It is really fun in all wind conditions but I feel like it just needs a little extra power and lift in low wind conditions on my 5.4m mostly using the moses 450 stab and 799 front wing. My thought was to make a 6" aluminum bracket with 4-5 holes counter sink the two holes that mount the bracket to the fuse and just use two nylon nuts for mounting the stab futher back that way I dont have to tap the bracket. The hardware stores around here have 1/8" thick by 3/4" wide lengths of aluminum. I think 1/4" thick would be stiffer with less change of bending, not sure if 1/8 would be strong enough? I can also get stainless steel in that size but more expensive and harder to work with. I dont want to make anything fancy yet as I want to see what it feels like on the water hence the quick, cheap and easy idea. On my foil the distance from the trailing edge of my mast to closest rear wing bolt is around 37cm which is similar to my old slingshot hoverglide setup but had a total fuse length with the infinity 76 closer to 100cm.
Can anybody measure the distance from the trailing edge of the moses sabfoil 900 fuse to closest rear wing bolt?

My current fuse with 2.5 deg shim is still too back footed for my 873 wing. Ideally this could correct that? I already have the front wing sitting 1.75" futher foward then the sabfoil 900 fuse.

I would talk with the guys at Sailworks and see what they say, looks like you got a SAB/Moses? wing from them based on the Sailworks custom wing cover above the circular SS decal on the board in the second picture.

And the other comment is about light wind technique, I used to use a 9.0 sail in 8-10 knots, then realized 8.0 was just as good, then got a lesson with Andy Brandt and now use a 7.2 (all sails Aerotech Freespeeds), with the same foil AFS W95 and F1080 cm2 front wing, Goya Bolt 135 slalom board, I weigh 84 kg. Was out yesterday gusts 8-11.0 knots max based on two elevated weather stations, 1 station out in the bay at the end of ~70 yard long dock on a post, other just off the bay on a home, gusts on the shore at ground level were 7-9 knots, no white caps, just a light ruffling of the water surface by the gusts. Part of trick to getting up is to lean body and head out over the water while pumping the sail.

Interesting way to experiment, but you'll definitely risk losing your stab and potentially more. I'd try larger sail or something else before going down that route but....

With aluminum (think the fuse is aluminum?) you shouldn't have a galvanic couple to the fuselage, with stainless you would. I'd go thick as you can, but I'm a bit doubtful about stiffness to both bending and torsion. Stainless is stiffer but you'd have to protect the joint so it's stiff and doesn't corrode the fuse and plate. If you try it and it shakes or hums while you ride it I would get off the foil IMMEDIATELY, slog back, and remove the mod.

Hey CAN17, try to do a search. A year or two ago somebody on this forum did what you initially asked about. They extended their fuse to locate the stab further aft.

Finish it off today. Total build time 5.5hrs and cost 0$ but I did use two heli coils I already had from another project. Used a piece of aluminum I already had and only had to cut to length and file the edges.

I can now mount the stab in 3 different positions. Position A(without the adapter) is 89cm from trailing edge of stab to leading edge of my 799 front wing. Postion B is 93 cm and position C 97cm max span.

Hopefully will test it out this weekend.
What would the characteristics of the longer fuse be in position C(97cm) vs 89cm.

More pitch stability
Better glide
More lift front foot pressure?
More drawn out turns
Less maneuverable

Very cool. Let us know how it goes. I'm a little concerned about the meat left on the extension after the countersink but it should offer more stability and maybe some more lift with the same shim setting.

That aluminum piece will probably corrode badly unless its a special marine alloy, best to rinse and dry after use. I did mine out of a yacht track piece. Only tried once, the effect was to slow down the pitch movements, then got the longer fuse from Naish.
I am a bit worried to use it in case it would detach and lose the stab or damage the fuse.

I think that as the fuse length increases rearward the stabilizer gets smaller, so your current stabilizer may be too big when moved rearward, just something to keep in mind if it is too lifty, shimming could help.

Tested it out today in C position longest fuse setting in pretty light wind around 12kts on my 5.4 and 799/450 moses wings. It felt good, I could feel the extra lift and most of all upwind performance was great. It feels like the foil glides better also but that might be because of the extra lift it creates making the foil more powerful not a lot but could move the base further forward a couple cm. I didn't feel any extra flexing from the fuse or noise. I couldn't carve as tight as my short setting but think the extra foil power was nice to keep my speed up in those conditions and really fun in the small 2ft swell we had today. Think I finally have my ideal light wind foil setup

Good to hear it is working for you, just keep an eye out for stress fractures, do not want to lose the stabilizer.

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Sandman1221 said..
Good to hear it is working for you, just keep an eye out for stress fractures, do not want to lose the stabilizer.

Right.
I sail in fresh water but think over time it might start to oxidize and corrode. Wounder if there is anything I can coat it with. Spray paint would probably just come off?

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CAN17 said..

Sandman1221 said..
Good to hear it is working for you, just keep an eye out for stress fractures, do not want to lose the stabilizer.

Right.
I sail in fresh water but think over time it might start to oxidize and corrode. Wounder if there is anything I can coat it with. Spray paint would probably just come off?

Rustoleum Automotive enamel paint will protect it, just give the paint a week to cure before exposing to water. That or get some waterproof two part epoxy and color it black, then coat the cleaned fuse. extender. Of course you could anodize it, maybe someone local can do it for you, takes some toxic chemicals but can be done at home, see instructions and the video at the bottom with the complete process shown. www.wikihow.com/Anodize-Aluminum

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Sandman1221 said..

CAN17 said..

Sandman1221 said..
Good to hear it is working for you, just keep an eye out for stress fractures, do not want to lose the stabilizer.

Right.
I sail in fresh water but think over time it might start to oxidize and corrode. Wounder if there is anything I can coat it with. Spray paint would probably just come off?

Rustoleum Automotive enamel paint will protect it, just give the paint a week to cure before exposing to water. That or get some waterproof two part epoxy and color it black, then coat the cleaned fuse. extender. Of course you could anodize it, maybe someone local can do it for you, takes some toxic chemicals but can be done at home, see instructions and the video at the bottom with the complete process shown. www.wikihow.com/Anodize-Aluminum

The easiest option though is to use BoeShield T-9 anti corrosion spray, leaves a hard wax layer over the anticorrosion chemicals.

If it's 6061 and you aren't leaving it assembled in contact with carbon it'll be fine.

FWIW,
I left my hover glide completely assembled for a year (stays on my boat dock when not in use). Disassembled everything when I got the Phantasm. No issues in fresh water. There was still grease on all the bolts. The hoverglide aluminum mast is not anodized. The black dye faded in a month of continuous exposure to ambient UV (in the shade 90% of the day). Just cosmetic, no issues.

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WsurfAustin said..
FWIW,
I left my hover glide completely assembled for a year (stays on my boat dock when not in use). Disassembled everything when I got the Phantasm. No issues in fresh water. There was still grease on all the bolts. The hoverglide aluminum mast is not anodized. The black dye faded in a month of continuous exposure to ambient UV (in the shade 90% of the day). Just cosmetic, no issues.

how do you know the aluminum mast is not anodized? they add a dye to the aluminum after the anodization process, see video in the link I posted.

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Sandman1221 said..

WsurfAustin said..
FWIW,
I left my hover glide completely assembled for a year (stays on my boat dock when not in use). Disassembled everything when I got the Phantasm. No issues in fresh water. There was still grease on all the bolts. The hoverglide aluminum mast is not anodized. The black dye faded in a month of continuous exposure to ambient UV (in the shade 90% of the day). Just cosmetic, no issues.

how do you know the aluminum mast is not anodized? they add a dye to the aluminum after the anodization process, see video in the link I posted.

OHM meter.

The HG mast is anodized, just very poorly.
The HG fuselage however seems to just be painted and uses a particularly corrosion prone alloy.