segler said..
So it's all a trade off. Front foot or back foot?
If you set up your gear for front-foot pressure all the time (like Grant espouses), you can more easily make jibes. i get that. Back foot comes forward to just behind the leeward footstrap, and then the switch is easy. Problem is that this setup is prone to breaches when foiling along, and it burns out my front leg. I hate foiling this way because it feels right on the edge of disaster all of the time. I'm constantly having to push down. Not that much fun.
If, on the other hand, you set up your gear with more back foot pressure until up to speed, then balanced between both feet AT SPEED (I prefer this), it is more difficult to make the jibe because keeping the pitch balanced is more technical while you do the dance. Yes, I agree about this from experience. However, I can foil along in gusty conditions with hugely varying speed without breaching. More relaxing and no leg burn. If I come down off the foil and do a regular planing jibe on the water, no biggie. I stayed dry, and my jibe was, maybe, 5 seconds slower to the new tack up on the foil.
Bruce Peterson prefers the latter setup, and he makes all his jibes, even one-handed. If he can make them, then so can I (well, maybe not ). This setup forces you to carry good speed into, and through, the jibe, which is a good idea anyway. He is always saying that if you want to freeride foil fast, you have to set up your gear this way. Otherwise, you are constantly fighting the pitch.
So, pick your poison. Front foot? Or back foot?
PS April is usually the beginning of summer here in eastern Washington state. However, we have been getting snow. Sheesh.
I really don't like the idea of having the foil set up with back foot pressure, which only balances out to equal foot pressure when you're foiling at speed.. The early Starboard and F4 / NP foils were typically set up in this manner.
It's the equivalent of setting your harness lines really far back on the boom, so that you're balanced at speed, because the centre of effort has wandered further back on your old freeride sail. So not an ideal situation.
As sails have developed, one of the goals has been to stabilise the draft so it doesn't mean the sail gets back handed.
So in my experience with the plus series of Starboard fuselages, they have gone some way towards reducing the extra lift at speed problem, by moving the front wing forward and reducing the tw angle.
The front pressure is now front front to neutral biased.
But more importantly, the foot pressure bias doesn't change that much with changes in speed.
My thoughts are that, if you have to add excess shims to get the necessary front foot pressure, the foil will always change its balance at different speeds, as the tw will add variable lift depending on speed .
Presumably this will add unnecessary balance complications through the gybe ...the foil will change its pressure requirements to keep it flying..as it slows or speeds up through the arc or down a wave.
