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North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

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OzBungy
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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby OzBungy » Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:37 am

I am sure the North foil will be a lovely thing. I believe most of the claims, because there are already a heap of foils that do what North claims. Low speed to foil is not unusual and reasonably high top end is also available. Ultimately speed is more about rider technique and conditions than simple gear. Gear only matters if a) your gear is old and crap, or b) the person you're racing against is better than you.

What I can't understand is, they follow the route of premium quality components, then mount everything on a crappy aluminium mast. How does that make sense? Aluminium is heavy. Corrosion makes for a constant maintenance issue (at best you have to put on Tef Gel every couple of weeks. At worst your foil seizes up forever).

I guess 90cm is ok for a mast length. Mine is 95 and the shape of the wing brings it up to 100cm, which seems to be the universal standard. Apart from shallow water riding I cannot think of a time when I've wished for a shorter mast. There are so many benefits to a longer mast. I assume there is a factory churning out pre-made 90cm aluminium masts for not much money. It seems like a strange thing to economize on when you've got complex carbon wings and mast and wedge and stuff.

PS The "wedge" diagram is wrong. The text says the wedge lets you foil at lower speed. The diagram shows "with wedge" foiling at higher speed.
A special wedge was created to adjust the angle of the rear wing. This allows the foil to fly at lower speeds, which are less intimidating for first-time flyers.
Image
Last edited by OzBungy on Thu Nov 23, 2017 6:54 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby Bletti » Thu Nov 23, 2017 6:14 am

OzBungy wrote:
Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:37 am
I assume there is a factory churning out pre-made 90cm aluminium masts for not much money. It seems like a strange thing to economize on when you've got complex carbon wings and mast and wedge and stuff.
I assume the whole design is optimized to be as cheap as possible to produce. Complex carbon wings would be laid up with carbon fabric instead of pumped into a mass produced mold that no other foil maker does (and already has a known failure recall)... I'm going to assume that any carbon in the wings is mostly for marketing unless they release some tests showing the strength/weight compared with conventional carbon and g10 wings.

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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby wingnut » Thu Nov 23, 2017 7:40 am

OzBungy wrote:
Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:37 am
PS The "wedge" diagram is wrong. The text says the wedge lets you foil at lower speed. The diagram shows "with wedge" foiling at higher speed.
A special wedge was created to adjust the angle of the rear wing. This allows the foil to fly at lower speeds, which are less intimidating for first-time flyers.

That would be assuming that the wedge is in one direction whereas it may be the opposite.I think the wedge raises the tail AoA rather than lowering it thereby raising the down thrust. I believe that is how the fore and aft AoA's effect the liftoff speed. As the two wings oppose each other in lift direction more down thrust by the tail negates the up lift of the wing so more speed is required to have the net lift vector overpower the weight and tail downforce vector.

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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby 3InletsWindsports » Thu Nov 23, 2017 9:41 am

So what is this “Carbon compound “
Rubber is mixed with carbon to make it black, thus it’s a “Carbon compound “ so what is this that they use?
And does the Carbon in it do more than make it black?

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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby JMF » Thu Nov 23, 2017 12:36 pm

3InletsWindsports wrote:
Thu Nov 23, 2017 9:41 am
So what is this “Carbon compound “
Rubber is mixed with carbon to make it black, thus it’s a “Carbon compound “ so what is this that they use?
And does the Carbon in it do more than make it black?
Basically cut carbon tows either from spool or left over processes, mixed with some sort of resin and pumped into a mould.

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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby madworld » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:26 pm

The carbon wings materiel looks similar to the same as the new american made Futures Alpha Fins. A new 3M material of carbon pellets/ resin, and air infused.

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Re: North Kiteboarding Issue 11/2017 - Foil

Postby TomW » Fri Nov 24, 2017 9:29 pm

I predict it's going to be a major quality problem.


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