Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

Don't bother not suitable.

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windac said..
Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

Also tried it with my Naish 120L crossover, adapter plate and a fin. It was okay for light wind training not planning.
Very interested where is this lake near London?

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Henners said..

windac said..
Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

Also tried it with my Naish 120L crossover, adapter plate and a fin. It was okay for light wind training not planning.
Very interested where is this lake near London?

Thanks, good to know it was not my lack of technique causing this (which is a first ??).

The place just outside of london is Queen Mary Sailing club. Actually not a lake but one of the largest water reservoirs (over 700 acres - 4 miles perimeter) supplying fresh water to London. Great spot to sail and windsurf for those of us too far from the south coast

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windac said..
Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

With something that short and wide, it's difficult to get your geometry similar to that of a regular windsurfing board. Your back foot is about as far out as on a formula board but instead of a, say, 9.5 and a 70cm fin, in this case, you were on sail and fin 30% smaller. Add to that windfoil mast tracks are a bit further back in many cases, too, which is why some older wide windsurf boards made crummy windfoil boards without some modification. Add to that, windfoil board decks tend to be flatter to accommodate a more upright stance as well.

My first true windfoil board was a "convertible", about 220x86 and I could fin (verb) it with a 7.0 and 65cm fin (noun) pretty well. The tail was a bit more narrow than most windfoil boards now that size. I'm actually going to widen the rear deck to improve its foiling ergonomics.

Being underfinned and with your back foot so far out, it is possible that you were digging in the upwind rail more than usual, contributing to the tendency to round up into the wind.

I think we need to clarify that we are talking about planing windsurfing. A windfoil board is perfectly good for learning on if it has volume at least 50L over your bodyweight and you don't have other options.

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Paducah said..

windac said..
Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

With something that short and wide, it's difficult to get your geometry similar to that of a regular windsurfing board. Your back foot is about as far out as on a formula board but instead of a, say, 9.5 and a 70cm fin, in this case, you were on sail and fin 30% smaller. Add to that windfoil mast tracks are a bit further back in many cases, too, which is why some older wide windsurf boards made crummy windfoil boards without some modification. Add to that, windfoil board decks tend to be flatter to accommodate a more upright stance as well.

My first true windfoil board was a "convertible", about 220x86 and I could fin (verb) it with a 7.0 and 65cm fin (noun) pretty well. The tail was a bit more narrow than most windfoil boards now that size. I'm actually going to widen the rear deck to improve its foiling ergonomics.

Being underfinned and with your back foot so far out, it is possible that you were digging in the upwind rail more than usual, contributing to the tendency to round up into the wind.

Paducah, how are you planing on widening the tail of your board?, was thinking about doing that for my Bolt, something removable attached to the rear foot strap screw holes.

I do this with two foil-specific boards, both 85/86 cm wide. For fins, I cut down a couple old formula fins to 50 cm. They work just fine.

Don't go shorter than 50 cm. 50 cm is what we used to use for the original AVS (flapper) boards from Roberts years ago. Those had the same 80-85 cm widths, so we know it works.

Note that finning with foil boards is not going to get you all kinds of planing performace since the rails and rocker are not optimized for it. But, with a big enough fin, they work.

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Paducah said..

windac said..
Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

With something that short and wide, it's difficult to get your geometry similar to that of a regular windsurfing board. Your back foot is about as far out as on a formula board but instead of a, say, 9.5 and a 70cm fin, in this case, you were on sail and fin 30% smaller. Add to that windfoil mast tracks are a bit further back in many cases, too, which is why some older wide windsurf boards made crummy windfoil boards without some modification. Add to that, windfoil board decks tend to be flatter to accommodate a more upright stance as well.

My first true windfoil board was a "convertible", about 220x86 and I could fin (verb) it with a 7.0 and 65cm fin (noun) pretty well. The tail was a bit more narrow than most windfoil boards now that size. I'm actually going to widen the rear deck to improve its foiling ergonomics.

Being underfinned and with your back foot so far out, it is possible that you were digging in the upwind rail more than usual, contributing to the tendency to round up into the wind.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Very insightful

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segler said..
I do this with two foil-specific boards, both 85/86 cm wide. For fins, I cut down a couple old formula fins to 50 cm. They work just fine.

Don't go shorter than 50 cm. 50 cm is what we used to use for the original AVS (flapper) boards from Roberts years ago. Those had the same 80-85 cm widths, so we know it works.

Note that finning with foil boards is not going to get you all kinds of planing performace since the rails and rocker are not optimized for it. But, with a big enough fin, they work.

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
I think we need to clarify that we are talking about planing windsurfing. A windfoil board is perfectly good for learning on if it has volume at least 50L over your bodyweight and you don't have other options.

Yes I was asking about planning windsurfing, not light wind/learning. Thanks

I did windsurf my Patrik AI 91 Hybrid (160 ltr., 91 cm width), too.
I used a 48 cm Chopper Slalomfin and a 8,4 qm Avanti Machine M7.
The Patrik was easy to get planning and to keep gliding. My max. speed was 48 km/h.

But in direct comparison to my PD AI 130 Slalom (43 cm Chopper, same sail, 53-56 km/h speed) - the Hybrid 91 was like a big truck on the water - boring compared to a dedicated low wind slalom board.

At the end, I sold my AI 130 SL and used the AI Hybrid 91 only for Windfoiling at 8-14 knots, where it was much more fun and adrenalin than slalom surfing (with the biggest package) for me.

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Sandman1221 said..

Paducah said..

windac said..
Hi everyone, I am new to windfoiling and recently bought a second hand starboard 144l foil board (213x87). I would like to also use this board with a fin so was wondering if this is possible and any advice on how to select the right size fin. I tried using it with a 40cm fin and 6.4m sail but it did not feel right. I was not spinning out but the nose kept on pointing upwind and loosing power.
I realise this is a foil specific board but is there anything in the design of the board that would make it unsuitable for windsurfing with a fin? Or is it just my lack of skills? Or both?. I tried different mast track positions but could not figure out what was best.
Any advice would be highly appreciated. I windsurf inland at a lake close to London.

Thanks!

With something that short and wide, it's difficult to get your geometry similar to that of a regular windsurfing board. Your back foot is about as far out as on a formula board but instead of a, say, 9.5 and a 70cm fin, in this case, you were on sail and fin 30% smaller. Add to that windfoil mast tracks are a bit further back in many cases, too, which is why some older wide windsurf boards made crummy windfoil boards without some modification. Add to that, windfoil board decks tend to be flatter to accommodate a more upright stance as well.

My first true windfoil board was a "convertible", about 220x86 and I could fin (verb) it with a 7.0 and 65cm fin (noun) pretty well. The tail was a bit more narrow than most windfoil boards now that size. I'm actually going to widen the rear deck to improve its foiling ergonomics.

Being underfinned and with your back foot so far out, it is possible that you were digging in the upwind rail more than usual, contributing to the tendency to round up into the wind.

Paducah, how are you planing on widening the tail of your board?, was thinking about doing that for my Bolt, something removable attached to the rear foot strap screw holes.

Major reconstructive surgery. I've seen people make removables but my mod will be rebuilding the back of the board. I've already done a formula board and it came out pretty well.

Best removables I've seen are similar to the ones Starboard once listed for the IQfoil - glass/pvc foam/glass topped with EVA foam with screw holes so the straps hold it on.

I run two large k4 fins in my Naish hover 122l. I needed to go quite big around 30cm as the box means they twin fin very close together. No problems planning and sails really well. Carve gybes on the plane have a bigger arch. Good as a backup board. Not as good as dedicated Freeride but surprised how it handles. It works