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duzzi said..Dishpet said..
A question I haven't seen answered. It's all nice and dandy flying around in sub 10 knots, but how does a board with a foil underneath behave once the schlog-fest starts at 3 knots ? Is it any easier than the experience with a normal fin or perhaps even harder ?
Plenty slogging here because I keep rigging too small. It is as easy as a normal windsurf of the same size, the foil if anything makes it more stable. Where I sail (San Francisco Bay Area) windfoil is starting to dominate over kite foils: when they are stuck in light variable winds the windfoil cruises through or can reach distant wind lines in displacement.
Duzzi, that's interesting about it starting to dominate in the Bay Area. Is see the videos of the guys kitefoiling strapless under the Golden Gate chasing freighter wakes on their tiny paipo foil boards and strutless kites and think about how sketchy it would be if the wind dropped given the currents, traffic, the man in the grey suit and more. I came to windfoiling from kitefoiling and found that for that it works better at my spot for the same reason, I can always easily get home in flaky after work winds when I'd otherwise be swimming with a kite in a knot of strings.
Dishpet, I'll take schlogging a windfoil board any day over a fin board largely because the foil mast acts a bit like a centerboard for keeping me up wind and makes things a bit more stable too. Also my windfoil board is about 120L and I'll often use it in winds where I'd otherwise be out on a 100L-ish board, the extra volume is nice.