I sometimes wing in wind swells over sandbanks and near river so varying currents and waist high chop. I, and others get sudden lifts and drops so move to smaller front wings which are more comfortable but if there's a lull are harder to build speed and restart. Would shimming stab help keep larger front foil (I don't feel overfoiled on a swells, the problem is sailing through the turbulent chop?

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patronus said..
I sometimes wing in wind swells over sandbanks and near river so varying currents and waist high chop. I, and others get sudden lifts and drops so move to smaller front wings which are more comfortable but if there's a lull are harder to build speed and restart. Would shimming stab help keep larger front foil (I don't feel overfoiled on a swells, the problem is sailing through the turbulent chop?

I wouldn't change the stab angle as that adjusts foot pressures changes with speed. If the stab is setup correctly the only problem with a larger foil on a wave would be that it is too slow to keep up. You can test the stab angle on flat water by looking to see what happens to the front/rear foot pressure balance as you push it to 18 knots or faster.

My favourite foil in conditions like that is the Sabfoil Razor w780. It's really small (631 cm2) so it doesn't get knocked around by turbulent water. But it has an incredibly low stall speed and takes off like a 1300 cm+ conventional foil for me at 80kg.

I wing in choppy water very similar to what you describe all the time.

The best solution is what you have identified already which is a smaller foil with less lift that will cut through the chop without picking up all the lift and making just foiling in a straight line a nightmare.
That said a bigger tail stab can reduce pitchiness of a front foil - which may help manage the bumps. Our group of wingers tend to not use high aspect foils as those are the worst for picking up lift, medium aspect is your friend in these types of conditions.

You could try playing around with a small mast plate shim, say no more than 2.5mm at the fat end, you will get way more lift one way and way more glide the other way - but could work in certain conditions and then you can take it out easily when the conditions change