My new North Pacific foil-specific freeride board has the 42" point (in front of the front fin screw) right smack dab in the middle of the sail mast track. They now use a longer than usual sail mast track to make for bigger adjustments.

If you move the sail mast track further aft to "shorten the couple" you will be standing either further forward to compensate or you will be weighting your front foot a lot more than before. This all means that you are getting really GOOD at foiling.

By the way, the equivalent of this is what happens with race foiling. With the super-long fuselages the front wings are further forward, thus closer to the sail mast track. When sailing they are also short-coupled. This apparently makes it better for climbing steeply upwind in a course race.

I'm not a good foiler, it's just way easier to use the gear when setup like that. Starboard, Slingshot, MB, basically everyone building freeride specific boards are moving the tracks back.

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segler said..
No matter what mounting system you use (tuttle, power, plate, tracks), what foil you use (small, big, freeride, wave, SUP), length of mast and fuse you use, how much you can adjust footstraps and mast track, you gotta get the center of lift of the front wing at, or near, the midpoint between front and back feet. All adjustability has exactly this as its primary goal.

If the center of lift is anywhere else but at, or nearly at, the midpoint between front and back feet when riding, you will just struggle to make it work at all. Many of us had had to learn this the hard way.

Get it balanced.

The only exception is for foil racing, where the front wing is further forward but is compensated for by higher than usual mast base pressure from big racing sails.

I think this assessment is right on, however i would add that the balance point is not static; because the wing will generate more lift with more speed and because the wing is cantilevered ahead of the mast so the balancing force of the rider will need to adjust with speed. The rider has 2 primary ways to do this; adjust the centre of effort of the sail or through foot pressure. Lets assume we stay of the same tack
For example if you speed up because you are coming down a swell or the wind picks up the rider will need to move the sail forward and/or apply more front foot pressure. Which can feel unbalanced, UNLESS they do not use foot straps then the rider can just move forward a cm or 2 and feel balanced again.

Sorry I had to jump in, as I am bias to Strapless Riding because I find I can adjust for most (not all) of the condition and riding changes by simply adjusting were I stand. It does not take much getting use to and also allows the rider to put his/her heels on the rail to go upwind or move more over the centreline to jibe or ride a swell.
Bottom line is the forces are not static so why fix your feet. It's not like windsurfing were we get bounced around. Oh its also safer. Hope this helps

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Hess said..

Sorry I had to jump in, as I am bias to Strapless Riding because I find I can adjust for most (not all) of the condition and riding changes by simply adjusting were I stand. It does not take much getting use to and also allows the rider to put his/her heels on the rail to go upwind or move more over the centreline to jibe or ride a swell.
Bottom line is the forces are not static so why fix your feet. It's not like windsurfing were we get bounced around. Oh its also safer. Hope this helps

Yes - if you are on a long enough period swell, this works fine. If you foil where I do, where the chop is short and steep; and the winds gusty, I would disagree. Moving your feet fast enough will (mostly) never happen. Same for someone blasting downwind through swell or boat chop. I will move my back foot downwind vs upwind but it's good to learn to make those changes with sail and body weight or things will catch up with you in a not so pleasant way.

^^^
I always use the rear strap (15cm out from centre for leverage) downwinding and waveriding - moving my body weight forward to counter increased lift from swell acceleration and to turn. Jesper has removed his back straps so moves his feet.

We often ride swells together at the same angles so it seems both techniques work.

We both use the front straps.

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boardsurfr said..

MrA said..
manufacturers could mark the centre of lift on their wings and also have a series of lines on top and bottom of their boards for the various centre between the footstraps positions so you can easily line up the centre of lift of the wing with the centre of your chosen footstrap configuration to give you a starting point. Placing the wing fitted to the fuselage on the board you can then move the foil mast in the tracks to line up withe the mounting holes in the fuselage. From there you are bore sighted and can adjust for different wings easily. I suppose if you do not mix foil and board brands the manufacturer has already dialled that in. But with the tracks you can make small adjustments if you feel like you are back or front foot heavy.

Good idea, but don't hold your breath. I'm still waiting for sail makers to put markers on the sails, like North/Duotone does.

If you took the time to read my post, the centre of lift from your main wing is by far the only variable of the foil alone which determines its balancepoint. Fun idea, as part of a big brands' foil development team I've never ever felt the need.