With foiling blowing up, I see some formula guys dumping their gear pretty cheap.

I'm considering picking up a late model formula board with nice big XS fin.

Here's my question: would that board/fin plane earlier for me with 10.0 formula sail than an 85cm slalom board?

All I care about is early planing - no upwind downwind. Right now when it's super light and patchy I'll stick in an old 70cm deb R14 in the 85cm board. I know it's "wrong" but it does help to plane going upwind and I lose less ground drifting around in the lulls.

I'm guessing that trying the big formula board with soft fin with 10.0 should get me planing a bit sooner?

I'm speculating that the XS modern fin will be more powerful than the stiff debr14? That was the deb with the thinner foil so it's not a totally crazy fin to put in the 85cm slalom board.

I'm expert sailor on a budget. Not interested in jp SLW or similar. Don't care about jibing. Only lowering planing threshhold.

I also use the formula for light wind enjoyment with 10 and 11 sails. Recently I have upgraded to a nice Debochet fin that has more flex and it has livened up the ride, it's a lot more fun, you can push laterally on the fin and feel the board railing up. Compared to a big slalom board you will find it's more comfortable to hold up a big sail, if the wind picks up the board will naturally go upwind, too hard to keep it square, the scary part will be to get back downwind....

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fibersnap said...
With foiling blowing up, I see some formula guys dumping their gear pretty cheap.

I'm considering picking up a late model formula board with nice big XS fin.

Here's my question: would that board/fin plane earlier for me with 10.0 formula sail than an 85cm slalom board?

All I care about is early planing - no upwind downwind. Right now when it's super light and patchy I'll stick in an old 70cm deb R14 in the 85cm board. I know it's "wrong" but it does help to plane going upwind and I lose less ground drifting around in the lulls.

I'm guessing that trying the big formula board with soft fin with 10.0 should get me planing a bit sooner?

I'm speculating that the XS modern fin will be more powerful than the stiff debr14? That was the deb with the thinner foil so it's not a totally crazy fin to put in the 85cm slalom board.

I'm expert sailor on a budget. Not interested in jp SLW or similar. Don't care about jibing. Only lowering planing threshhold.

You might want to also consider the SLW boards. Fanatic, JP, StarBoard and others. One of the guys down here just got a SB Ultrasonic, 147l 93.5 wide. Looks sick next to our usual gear. Can't wait to try it.
The SLW boards go up down & across the wind where Formula boards don't go across that well, I don't know why so if someone can explain? I've thought about formula boards too but not really investigated and a few mates have said 'don't!"
I am very keen on the SLW boards tho.

FWIW, I'm not interested in SLW and don't have the money - it seems that some formula racers may be dumping latest gear at bargain prices so that's why I was interested.

To make question more specific - does a high end xs fin like kashy promote early planing on reach or it only matters for upwind downwind vmg.

Again, don't care about speed ONLY whether or not I'm planing or not at very low wind speed.

When the wind is light, I'm only going to planing 20% or so of time anyway. So don't care about being overfinned. This is not racing, just trying to get in the straps and planing when the wind is barely teasing and it's not even white capping yet.

Where I sail there are weeds which makes foiling less attractive. Plus don't have the money for foil yet.

how about a Raceboard? up wind, down, reaching; all great fun any ANY wind. Rig up a big cammed sail and you will zoooom along! Just a thought!

You will plane up the quickest/earliest with a wide Formula board, and 10 meter sail. Not all Formula boards plane up the same, as some are flatter in rocker (Euro companies), some are higher in rocker (Mike's Labs and newer than '12 Starboards), while some are wider in the tail, like Starboard's light wide Formula with wider tails.
If you seek top end reaching speeds, you can go smaller on the fin, down to 60 for a 160 lbs sailor, and come within 1-2 mph in reaching speed of the fastest light wind slalom designs.
What goes upwind and downwind the highest angles also planes up the soonest, as angle means planing at LOW speeds, while reaching is an endeavor for higher boat speeds.

Thanks LeeD - that makes sense. I would be going slow, but should plane the earliest on the formula with xs 70 cm fin.

As far as raceboard, I don't think I'd like it because I'm hooked on the feeling of the wide tailed boards and leveraging big fin to plane. I'm curious how the windfoil will feel - it seems like the stance and weight distribution is totally different.

I sail with 7 ex Formula sailors who foil now, but still use the Formula board. The foils are mostly F-4's or Mike Zaicheck's, the MZ's being more tunable optioned.
The guys my size used to use 3 meters bigger than me on slalom.
Now, they use the same size sails to get planing, but they can go upwind like Formula while I'm only reaching.
At 160 lbs., we all use 5.8 sized sails in winds of around 17-24 mph. If course, we can plane with a 4.7, or hold onto a 7.5, but we usually sail for 2 hours without a break, so being overpowered just tires us out.

Have only seen kiters on foil in person - have yet to try or even see windfoil. Seems very impressive and exciting!

I'm just irritated that I have just gotten the hang of high end slalom and now will have to be a kook again with foiling... plus having to buy gear...

It appear's high end kiteboard foiling, with a foil type kite, is the ultimate for course racing and early planing, and of course, pure downwind ability.

I have a formula and sometimes use it with a Deb fin that was cut down to 50cm and reboxed. The beauty of this set is that I can still get reasonable angles but I can also reach and if the wind picks up I don't panic. FWIW I use a 9.6m sail coz it fits on a 490 mast. I've used a 7.8m on it too and it was fine - don't believe the racers that say you can't do it.

One of the top Formula sailors here, at 155lbs., used a 7.9 Neil Pryde sail on a wide '14 Starboard Formula board to win 4 bullets in the local Cal Cup races in very light winds, definetely under 15-20 mph. Smaller sails can work, for sure, on Formula.