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Tuning

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tahoedirk
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Tuning

Postby tahoedirk » Wed Feb 07, 2018 9:29 pm

Hi there

I am not crazy particular about most hydrofoil stuff, it all seems to work, mostly just design. I sand to about 320 and lose interest usually. I have been fixated on the rear stab angle forever, but there must be more!!!!

I have done some flawless paint and fill jobs with 2 part poly car primer, it feels great on a perfectly tuned foil! I'll probably do it again someday but not totally my thing

Lately I have had the front wing AOA revelation, yes revelation, to get me in the ballpark of my footstrap locations which only adjust 4 inches. I am looking forward to trying to tune some foils! in warm water

You can make shims anywhere carefully with tape and cans and plastic , I have some fiberglass 1 and 2 degree shims

I understand shimming is not necessarily a regular thing but it is essential to tuning your ride. I do it a lot . I assume some other people do this right? Commercial foils aren't set up perfect out of the box for everyone are they? I also understand some wings are not shimmable.

If you want to be drastic you can sand camber into your lower surfaces , tips on the stab, root on the main wing! I don't recommend this but it's noticeable.


1 AOA rear wing relative to front wing

2 AOA front wing relative to baseplate/box

3 Sanding smooth

4 filling and painting

5 ....?

6 ....?

After sanding you can wipe epoxy on and then wipe thoroughly clean and it with impregnate the fibers nicely.

Please share if you have any thoughts or routines on tuning your ride


Tips , experiences, failures , successes ?? how do you tune?

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Re: Tuning

Postby Mossy 757 » Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:10 pm

If you have a 2 piece like Banga/Enata/Mike'sLab/Delta/Spotz Tuna you can also shim the junction where the bottom of the strut interfaces with the fuselage to pitch the whole lower section up or down accordingly.

https://youtu.be/mVdSx5eNdUA
Last edited by Mossy 757 on Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Blackrat
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Re: Tuning

Postby Blackrat » Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:19 pm

This is one thing that I don't get on fixed front and rear wing foils.... some people prefer rear foot pressure others front. With it being fixed there ain't much you can do, and the worst part is that you don't know what the foil will feel like if it had more or less incidence

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Re: Tuning

Postby Mossy 757 » Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:21 pm

Blackrat wrote:
Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:19 pm
This is one thing that I don't get on fixed front and rear wing foils.... some people prefer rear foot pressure others front. With it being fixed there ain't much you can do, and the worst part is that you don't know what the foil will feel like if it had more or less incidence
I'm not aware of many one piece lower sections that aren't designed for racing, though, where the assumption is that the builder has done the requisite R&D to get those ratios right for most people. Do you know of a freeride foil that has a 1 piece lower section?

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Re: Tuning

Postby Peter_Frank » Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:41 pm

Me neither, havent really seen any foil where you can not change the relative AOA ?

Blackrat, which ones are you thinking about where it should be fixed ???

8) PF

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Re: Tuning

Postby Blackrat » Fri Feb 09, 2018 12:45 pm

Well like enata and ML have fixed stabs and KFA and spotz have adjustable

What I'm saying is for example you get an enata and you feel you want more front foot pressure , then what ? Stand further back on the board lol

Or is the foil so perfectly balanced that it requires no user input ?

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Re: Tuning

Postby Peter_Frank » Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:27 pm

But they are not fixed, any of them, are they ?

I believe you can shim the stab on all foils, as none of them are made in one piece.

8) PF

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Re: Tuning

Postby Blackrat » Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:51 pm

My bad

I was thinking how is it possible to have it fixed

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Re: Tuning

Postby Mossy 757 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:54 pm

Peter_Frank wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:27 pm
But they are not fixed, any of them, are they ?

I believe you can shim the stab on all foils, as none of them are made in one piece.

8) PF
Enata/Banga, Mike'sLab, Delta, KFA, probably a few others all have race models with fixed front wing/stab/fuselage. With some of them you can shim the strut to fuselage connection as demonstrated in the video I posted, but otherwise you're "stuck" with what the manufacturer tuned into the setup during the R&D process.

Mike's Lab:
Image

Enata:
Image

KFA:
Image

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Re: Tuning

Postby Peter_Frank » Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:04 pm

Get it, then you are right Blackrat, sorry, can only say "my bad", and not yours :wink:

A few of these max race foils are not adjustable it seems - this makes sense in a way if the "golden" angle is found, which it most likely is now after so many years of racing.

Luckily it does not seem to be fixed for freeride and wave foils, so here you can adjust to your own liking :D
Good, as so many of us use them differently and on a lot more different boards also.

Eventhough, I dont adjust on mine anymore, only to compensate earlier if I got a board where the straps where not correctly placed - but then the board does not fit the foil anyways...

Strapless it is only an issue if way off from the start - but this might be the case with some, definitely.
Could also be the foils default is not to your liking, and then you need to tweak it.

Rider weight could maybe play a role here too ? But I doubt it - I think it wont matter, will be taken out of the equations luckily.

8) PF


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