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New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

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haare
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby haare » Sat May 06, 2017 6:53 pm

Thanks for the comments. I totally agree that you need more mast lenght with waves. I was just suprised how much the longer mast changes the behaviour of the foil. It is not that I am scared of breathing the front wing. It's just much more agile and unstable. Well, practise practise practise!

haare
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Local Beach: Lahti, Finland
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Style: Hydrofoil
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F one diablo 6.4 and 8
Flysurfer sonic 2 11, 13, 18
Elf Joker 15
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby haare » Tue May 09, 2017 3:01 pm

Well I have now tried the longer mast 3 times. It is a LOT better in all conditions.
Makes handling gusts so much easier. You can go almost directly upwind with it when the gust comes.
Of course you have more room for chop.
After few times I only notice instability when I go directly downwind board flat in low speed.

If I would buy mast again I might go for 71cm ja 91cm. Like moses has.

haare
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Posts: 90
Joined: Tue May 03, 2016 2:57 pm
Local Beach: Lahti, Finland
Favorite Beaches: Egypt - Marsa Alam
Style: Hydrofoil
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F one diablo 6.4 and 8
Flysurfer sonic 2 11, 13, 18
Elf Joker 15
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby haare » Sun May 28, 2017 6:07 pm

Update
Around 30 sessions now total with this foil:
- When you go decent speed I get small whissle sound. I don't actually yet mind that because then I now to slow down a little.
- mast gets dents very easy to its trailing edge.
- Wings are robust in front. However tips are super thin. So small sand hits have scratched now them enough for me to epoxy treat them and repaint. stabilizator started to delaminate in the tips.

- I am super happy with the foil. It is very easy to use. I can turn now both ways and hardly fall anymore in optimal conditions. I have started to use little smaller kites. They make the turns easier.

haare
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Posts: 90
Joined: Tue May 03, 2016 2:57 pm
Local Beach: Lahti, Finland
Favorite Beaches: Egypt - Marsa Alam
Style: Hydrofoil
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F one diablo 6.4 and 8
Flysurfer sonic 2 11, 13, 18
Elf Joker 15
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby haare » Sun Jun 18, 2017 8:05 am

Update
100+ hours now with this foil.
- It has aged quite well
- Board is pretty much in original condition.
- Front wing is also in good shape. I very much like long fuselage nose. It takes most of the hits when I leave the board to shallow water and take the kite down.
- Back wing tips have started to delaminate. This is mostly my fault. I haven't crashed it. However every time I come back from lake, my board stays in shallow water 5-10 minutes and rubs to rocks. This is necessary because it is very difficult to take kites down here where I live. We have deep shorelines and land is full of trees. Wind is also very gusty near shore because of small island near by.
- I fixed backwing. Whistle got a lot worse. I need to get good sandpaper (fine enough) so I can try to fix it.

I must admit that Peter in this forum is mostly right about kite size. My favourite kite now is 9m sonic, which I can use from 6m/s and up. 11m is enough from 4,5m/s-6m/s. I think 15m would be ideal for less than that. I use sonic 2 18m because it is my only sonic 2 and has lighter cloth.

This board is very easy to progress. I can now stay all the time over water. I don't need to think mast height. I can focuse on kite in turns so that I can get constant pull. I don't do gives or tacks yet. I have tried few times jumping and the spring effect you get with long mast is amazing. I can jump maybe 50% more in low wind conditions that I could jump with light wind twintip. Yesterday it was mostly 6-8 knots and I could do high backrolls and jumps to 3-4 meters which would not have been possible with TT

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NYKiter
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby NYKiter » Sun Jun 18, 2017 8:03 pm

Whats the wing profile NACA number?

haare
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Posts: 90
Joined: Tue May 03, 2016 2:57 pm
Local Beach: Lahti, Finland
Favorite Beaches: Egypt - Marsa Alam
Style: Hydrofoil
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F one diablo 6.4 and 8
Flysurfer sonic 2 11, 13, 18
Elf Joker 15
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby haare » Mon Jun 19, 2017 1:49 pm

NACA number?
No idea.

Tried today the smaller freestyle wing for the first time. It was very fun to ride. It turns a lot tighter and with less effort. It cannot go as high upwind though. Overall I much prefered it to the light wind one. It tolerates higher speed much better.

I sanded the backwing and now my foil is completely silent :naughty:

peterkitesyndikat
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Re: New manufacturer for European customers: RLboards variofoil first impressions

Postby peterkitesyndikat » Sat Sep 09, 2017 11:16 am

At least our RL Variofoil has been tested by gleiten.tv.
I'm very happy about the result.Shows, that our work was succesfull.
https://gleiten.tv/index.php/video/acti ... /page/475/
You can choose it also in English.
At this time we are working for an upgrade of the backwing, which stailizes way more.
Take care
Peter


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