I "lost" my plane (wings+fuselage) once, luckily it was all carbon and floated. I was using too short screws for the fuselage-mast connection and stripped the inserts. I have a number of those foils around and quite the extensive supply of titanium screws to fit all the different sizes of prototype parts. Sometimes that goes wrong. I just lost it during flight with no real cause other than I was pumping. (105L/4.9)

I think the most common causes of loosing the whole thing is when using a non-foilready board, and having the foil break loose with a part of your board or when the screws break. i've broken the back screw a number of times, but I think you either have to forget to put the front screw in there, or you have to do something incredible to get the front screw to break as there is normally no preassure on there. Maybe if you try to keep flying after loosing the backscrew..

I've seen the top of the screwwells of a lot of (not my F-One boards luckily, but cobra production) foilready boards break or show wear in 2-3 years of heavy use, so if even those can give out the average box is not ready for the forces, definately with prolonged use.

And $2,000 foils.

Grantmac said..
I lost a Slingshot because their 10mm to 6mm converters are junk. But it was in 3m of water at high tide and I got it back the next day.

That's interesting, I know several foilers been using the reducers for couple of years and no issues. They do tie a leash to be on the safe side though.
Did the bolts come out of the reducers or did the bolts break?

CoreAS said..

Grantmac said..
I lost a Slingshot because their 10mm to 6mm converters are junk. But it was in 3m of water at high tide and I got it back the next day.

That's interesting, I know several foilers been using the reducers for couple of years and no issues. They do tie a leash to be on the safe side though.
Did the bolts come out of the reducers or did the bolts break?

The reducer broke. Specifically the rear one. Titanium was a very poor choice for that particular item since it is brittle.

I've since done a much better 6mm conversion by machinging in 13mm bushing locations like most foils have.

I've got a leash on mine just incase

No. However, it depends on what you mean by "stable."

Titanium resists saltwater corrosion so well that the navies of the world use Ti for submarines and ships. Ti has electrochemical and kinetic properties that allow it to be in galvanic contact with carbon and other metals (such as aluminum) without corrosion.

However, for our use Ti is overkill. It is expensive, is subject to spalling, and is not necessary when a good stainless steel does the job just as well. Most stainless alloys also can be in galvanic contact with carbon and aluminum without corrosion.

If your equipment came with Ti fasteners, great. Keep using them without worry. If you have to replace them, go stainless.

In any case, cheap insurance is grease for all surfaces that come in contact with other surfaces, such as screws and bolts. Marine grease, white lithium grease, tefgel--it all works.

This gives me piece of mind.

www.windance.com/NSI-SUP-Rubber-Mounting-Plates/13560/

So I read here above that the foil fin can go MIA under various circumstances, but would enjoy to get better clarity on the root cause behind it?

Aka the cases mentioned on when the entire finbox or back end of the board is ripped off with it, I suppose its either because the rider went onto rocks in the water or the board itself had been worn out/not made for windfoiling, so in both cases a real material breach where one is direct riders own fault (sailing onto rocks) and the other a mix as the board was not strong enough to support the beating it got. (board structure failure due to the high forces involved). But are these causes the most prevalent then?

Or is it much more frequent the following happens:
Foil fin was assembled using not correct bolt/screw lengths or some were even forgotten to be inserted? Or screws/bolts were correct but not adequately tightened...? Which in all cases, guess we can place the root cause squarely on the rider him/her-self?

Personally I am all new to this domain, but was perplexed with all the many screws and bolts in the Infinity foil bag I got. And only a limited guidance included on how actually to put it together for my own specific purpose and situation (Levitator 150 board and 84cm Infinity foil). So made now a quickguide I have plastic laminated to put in my Infinity bag as reminder on what goes where. And I also simply removed all the many pieces that have no relevance to my current usage, and keep all those components at home in separate bag.

WTF is that? We hit alligator gar here, but that one stopped you pretty good!

Unfortunately a harbor porpoise they just pop up as you can see.

Heard a guy, Anthony S, hit Ashby Shoals in Berkeley and ripped off his front carbon wing.

The NSI stick-on loops are fine, but expensive. I use those stick-on square bases that you can get for zip ties. However, I peel off the sticky foam tape and put on the 3M gray sticky foam tape that NSI uses. You can get it at auto parts stores. They sell it for stick-on exterior trim on cars and trucks. The stuff is REALLY sticky. It is gray with a red peel backing.

I put one of those square bases on each side of the top of the foil mast, and run a length of kite line through them and up to a footstrap. I have never had one come off.

VCRWoody said..
Santa Cruz Foils

Watch for 1:20

Has potential

I'll bet your shop was Windance, and your stick-on leash loop is the NSI. I like those. When I was at the shop last fall they were out of those loops, so I went with the zip-tie bases and a couple feet of kite line.

Nice thing about the coated kite line (not the open braided stuff) is that you can tie and untie them many times without them getting frayed.

Gwarn said..
Unfortunately a harbor porpoise they just pop up as you can see.

I have managed to hit a Dolphin among many other things. The water is cloudy where I sail and dolphins are prolific. Now, when I see fins I make a big course change or gybe. The can't hear us coming!