Zeeko Spitfire Hydrofoil

[Jzh_perth]

Interesting reading the comments above - I'm about 15 sessions now on the spitfire incl a couple of longer downwinders around 24kms in distance. I'm only riding it in my natural stance on the Zeeko Air Race board and find it really nicely balanced between both heel and toeside. Carving back and forth to and from toeside is super easy and I can hear the front wing venting from time to time without consequence. I've had some epic crashes however, always at the bottom of a swell when I'm travelling at high speed and I consistently have a high speed nose dives and faceplants. I don't feel I put as much weight on my back foot as I would a surfboard for example, and perhaps I'm carrying over habits from regular foils which influences my riding but I need to change something as the crashes hurt !!

I've only had it whistle on one occasion at high speed - otherwise it's silent for me so not sure what noise others may experience.

I also jumped on the green and white yesterday for the first time and wow what a difference. By comparison the spitfire is so much looser in feeling, the G&W tracks along beautifully and offers much more stability in terms of pitch and yaw. I was surprised at how early the G&W flies too - feels like walking pace in comparison the the spitfire which needs more speed for me.

In my experience the G&W is by far the easiest foil I've ever ridden. Beautifully stable and offers great performance. If I had to choose only 1 I'd have the say the G&W is probably the pick - I've not found the spitfire quite has the same easy upwind performance I'm used to, but that could also be the kites I've been using it with (small BRM clouds that are very low AR). I can hold ground easily and get upwind but it's a bit hard work. But for waves, running triangles and specially downwinders, I'm absolutely loving the Spitfire.

( For a different opinion, My buddy bletti on this thread has ridden his spitfire with a high aspect foil kite and said it went upwind fine - not so different to his taaroa sword, so it could be just me. )

[airsurfer]

The spitfire goes upwind very well for me with wave kites it does take more effort than a large freeride or race wing for sure but still very powerful compared to even a race board. I tacked upwind 2 miles the other day into the wind ,(direct sideshore) so it does do it well. The nice part was how fast fun and comfortable it was going downwind on the way back.

The whistling for me happens when I push the foil upwind fast or carving at speed there are angles and speeds where it's relatively quiet. I'm not sure what that means. I'm assuming its coming from the wings and not the mast?

[dantonia]

Any information about the volume of the zeeko air wave 5 2 2017 anybody?

[Jzh_perth]

Airsurfer - from my experiences with carbon race foils its usually the trailing edges that make the noise. Sanding with 400 to 600 wet and dry usually cleans all sharp edges up and stops the noise. Seeing as this in an aluminium mast same as other zeeko foils which are quiet maybe it's the wings in this instance ?

[3InletsWindsports]

I'm coming off the black&white foil and to start with I thought this is not going to be so hard adapting. Plus I'm pretty much a novice Foiler so I thought I had not yet got to stage of unlearning stuff.
But.
The black&white is more stable in pitch and yaw. (It has the 4cm fin). My back foot has to be in back strap with Spitfire while the B&w it sits nicely in front.
I need more power and speed to be comfortable with the Spitfire, and can get away with having the kite lower.
If I use the kite the same as with the b&w then I get going and then slowly run out of steam.
The range I move my CoG to control the Spitfire is tighter. The vents just mean a touch down not a faceplant.
My attempts at turning from healside to toeside happen easily but faster than I can control kite at moment, but feel somehow more relaxed.
But so far I have been only getting out below the power I feel I need.
All in all this is a whole new level to the whole new level.

[Jzh_perth]

My attempts at turning from healside to toeside happen easily but faster than I can control kite at moment, but feel somehow more relaxed..

This is the fun part - the spitfire for me also can turn much faster than I'm used to, and I've now just bought a small 5m lei to keep up in our summer sea breezes of 18-25kts. Last 2 years I rode foil kites only, this season it's small fast leis - funny how things change.

I also noticed that "slowing down" feeling initially too 3inlets - it took a while to adapt for me on toeside. After a few sessions it was no longer a problem.

[aleks]

I rode Spitfire for a few sessions now and agree with most of reviewers. It needs more speed to get on the wing, and not as stable as White and Blue. However it is absolutely amazing in jumps. Small wings make landings more manageable, I can land with more power, almost like on twintip (but not quite yet ). Turns are tighter too, but not as stable as I hopped yet.

There is another problem that bugs me though. For me Spitfire often ventilates and looses lift, usually resulting in a crash . It happens on any speed, fast or slow, sometimes during transitions. I'll try shifting foil further back, will see if it helps. Did anyone experience the same problem?

[airsurfer]

Thanks for the advice on the whisteling guys im going to try sanding the sharp trailing edges and see how it goes.

Wow it's really interesting to hear everyone's differing experiences here. I'm guessing a lot of it has to do with what foils everone rode before the spitfire. The other Zeeko models must be extremely stable and forgiving.

This is my first Zeeko foil so in my experience the spitfire is very stable ventilates less than other foils I've tried and you have more chances of recovery and less consequences. When the front ventilates on me it seems very forgiving if you ventilate the rear it likely results in a crash but you feel and hear it well before it does that.

I feel like I've pushed the spitfire pretty hard now riding lit for a jump session (I need a lot more practice) and overpowered in waves to dial in the toeside and find it very predictable. What I mean is I always knew it before I was going to crash it didn't just happen riding along and not very often unless I'm trying something or not paying attention.

I'm also still playing around with foil position since I'm using the dwarfcraft 54 I started out with the back of the baseplate at 10.5 inches or about 27cm which is as far forward as it can go on the track then moved it back a couple of inches because I felt like I had a lot of lift on the front foot. Now that I am trying to practice tacks with it I'm moving the plate forward to 27cm from the tail because I think it will give me more lift/time without touching down. In the full forward position the spitfire gets up on foil almost immediately pretty much as early as my LP720 carbon foil and SS Hoverglide which are both very large wings so it has very good low end lift, as far as I can tell it just accelerates much faster and feels less draggy than the larger wings. What I notice vs let's say the Hoverglide is that the spitfire carries more speed through turns rather than stalling out. I haven't tried the super low end yet (below 7 knots) when I get a chance I'm going to give a try for hell of it with the Chrono v2 18.

So for me unless it's ultra light butter flat conditions I think my other foils will stay at home.

[aleks]

I tried sharpening trailing edge on my White & Blue wings - it didn't help with the whistling noise at all. It might be the mast that causes it. Let us know if it helps on Spitfire though.

[airsurfer]

I thought to get rid of the sound I need to square off the trailing edges not sharpen them ?