Foiling news Issue #3 - Starboard Carbon foils

Tested the Starboard Carbon modular foil setup, experimenting with swapping out front and rear wings. 

Moving on to New Year’s Eve and it’s the turn of the Starboard Slalom setup - in fact I now have the team set. With the wind averaging 25 knots and using a 6.5 Severne Gator, if I used the GT wings (800 front 330 rear) with a 95 mast, life on the water would be a little uncomfortable. So, I changed down the front wing to the 550 to give a bit more control turning it into the Slalom configuration.

The great thing about this setup for me is you can use the same sail as you would normally use non-foiling to be well powered up and get great all-round performance out of your foil – it’s fast relatively stable – not as stable as the Moses I tried in issue 2, but still good. It also gave me the confidence to try gybing. It feels stiff and easy to control and goes upwind really well.

For the first time I felt the confidence to bear away and feel in control and so happy to carry on round the gybe. To be clear this wasn’t a complete foiling around gybe but more of a semi airborne affair – still counts as the best I’ve done though, and I think with more practice I’ll get the hang of it. The exciting thing is that as you bear away, you pick up speed - this then gives more apparent wind so if you aren’t careful you find the sail pinned back parallel to the board and so impossible to gybe. The trick is then to open it out early so you don’t find yourself in this position. I’m trying to go strap to strap with my feet.

As if that wasn’t enough the wind then picked up. What to do? I didn’t have a smaller sail so I changed down the rear wing to the 255 , creating the Ultra setup. How did it go? - Back in control! Similar feel to the slalom setup but in the stronger wind.

The construction and assembly of the foil is good and well thought out – they even give you a few spare bolts The complete foils come in a great bag too.

 

GT or Ultra foil £1899

Team Set £2699

Small front wing (255) £331

Small rear wing (550) £145