w/ v1 boards and HS1850 even with the foil all the way forward, it worked but didn't feel quite balanced to me. v2 boards have the tracks a few cm more forward.

Have seen Kobo going very well on fantastic/Armstrong, he made a shim for mast plate out of poly bread board. I just put my boat licence under the rear of mast base.
The v1 sky sup wasn't a great match for Armstrong worked better with Axis.

Wasn't for me all the way forward. Mast shim prob needed really.

eppo said..
Wasn't for me all the way forward. Mast shim prob needed really.

I thought that my foil setup was the cause as I didn't know any better, but now having moved to another board from the 5'4 fanatic, my armstrong foil on starboard takeoff board is perfectly balanced. I needed a lot of back foot pressure on the fanatic and would often touch down at speed when on a wave. On the starboard got a 1k ride today, easy as!

As i will be riding the fanatic while i'm away, i'll try the shimming of the mast base.

So you're saying you've basically done a credit card size shim on the rear goggo?

You want the mast 90 degrees to the board deck, or the mastplate parallel to the deck.If the board has tail rocker like the fanatic it won't be.The effect is the mast is raked back as you say , and when you start moving forward to try and get up on foil ,the foil will be pointing down and not producing the maximum lift it can and making it hard to lift off. Once up on foil it doesn't really matter except the board rides nose high and doesn't pump as well.There is one advantage to the tail rocker board ,they're better at steeper late takeoffs without boosting you off.

The 2022 Fanatic doesn't seem to have such tail rocker.

Frankieboy said..
Thanks for the explanation Kobo.
I thought every single board had tail rocker !

The majority of boards are flat through the tail , but some of the fanatic and js boards have tail rocker.And as leepasty says not all the fanatic boards have tail rocker , seems the later wing boards are now flat.

northwing said..
Hi
I have the same issue with my 2021 Fanatic 5'8 sky V1 with Naish HA 2140 Foil. The mast track is too much back. I can't lift the board easily and have too much backfeet pressure. I'm thinking i have 2 options:
1) new Naish 110l board
2) new Foil (Axis BSC)

Is there someone with the same problems?
can someone help me?

Can you shim the stabiliser so that it creates more down force therefore allowing the front wing more lift?

DukeSilver said..


Can you shim the stabiliser so that it creates more down force therefore allowing the front wing more lift?

I tried doing this with armstrong and then the performance was degraded at higher speeds.

what did you make your mast shim from kobo?

northwing said..

CH3MTR4IL5 said..

DukeSilver said..


Can you shim the stabiliser so that it creates more down force therefore allowing the front wing more lift?

I tried doing this with armstrong and then the performance was degraded at higher speeds.

what did you make your mast shim from kobo?

Duke Silber, hilly and CH3MTR4IL5. Thank you for your answers!
I'm not a shim Expert :-)

I made the shim from a 10mm thick nylon chopping board . I used a power hand planer to get it down to the wedge thickness. You need to setup your foil so the top of the mast plate is level using a spirit level. Then place your board on the mast plate and attach the front screws only. Then put a spirit level on the deck of your board.
Drop the nose of your board until it's level.Measure the gap created between the rear of the mastplate and the board. This is the thickness difference your wedge needs to be in order to make the mast plate parallel with the deck of the board.In my case it was 7mm .I Planed my wedge from 10mm at one end to 3mm at the other giving a difference of 7mm. You will also need to get some longer screws and cut them down to suit so you can attach the foil with board with the wedge underneath. The chopping board is $10 and makes a few wedges and the ss screws about $6 from bunnings.try and send some pics

kobo said..

kobo said..

Hi Kobo, brilliant explanation and pictures! Absolut terrific!

I think I will start with a longer (80 cm) fuselage from Naish, which has a longer front (wing is more forward).

Has someone experience with the long Naish fuse?

Thanks kobo, i have a chopping board i made some plugs from to hold the bolts in the track, i'll butcher it further!

northwing, nobody should be a shim expert imho, stuff should work out of the box.

Hi Kobo
I think foot pressure matters on the board start AND on the foil. If you mast track is way too much back you can't use your foot straps and one leg is becoming tired.

I agree with CH3MTR4IL5: "stuff should work out of the box." and looking now for a used NAISH S26 hover board for my Fanatic Sky 2021, some suits better to my NAISH foil. Thanks to everyone in the forum.

kobo said..

northwing said..
Hi Kobo
I think foot pressure matters on the board start AND on the foil. If you mast track is way too much back you can't use your foot straps and one leg is becoming tired.

I agree with CH3MTR4IL5: "stuff should work out of the box." and looking now for a used NAISH S26 hover board for my Fanatic Sky 2021, some suits better to my NAISH foil. Thanks to everyone in the forum.

Yes front foot pressure absolutely matters ! and is affected by mast track position,fuse length,tail size,tail shims,front foil size ,foil profile, board length ..........by not mast wedging.If you change nothing but putting a mast wedge on you setup, once you are up on foil, there is no difference to front foot pressure, the only difference is the angle that the board travels at.

Raising the front foot relative to the back foot definately changes the balance. I percieve that as increase in front foot pressure. I've done a lot of experimentation with mast angle when I was windsurf foil racing. Definately matters. If going fast enough balance also changes by the wind hitting the hull, this change is larger with a bigger hull / higher nose.

WhiteofHeart said..

kobo said..

northwing said..
Hi Kobo
I think foot pressure matters on the board start AND on the foil. If you mast track is way too much back you can't use your foot straps and one leg is becoming tired.

I agree with CH3MTR4IL5: "stuff should work out of the box." and looking now for a used NAISH S26 hover board for my Fanatic Sky 2021, some suits better to my NAISH foil. Thanks to everyone in the forum.

Yes front foot pressure absolutely matters ! and is affected by mast track position,fuse length,tail size,tail shims,front foil size ,foil profile, board length ..........by not mast wedging.If you change nothing but putting a mast wedge on you setup, once you are up on foil, there is no difference to front foot pressure, the only difference is the angle that the board travels at.

Raising the front foot relative to the back foot definately changes the balance. I percieve that as increase in front foot pressure. I've done a lot of experimentation with mast angle when I was windsurf foil racing. Definately matters. If going fast enough balance also changes by the wind hitting the hull, this change is larger with a bigger hull / higher nose.

I think I perceive it a bit differently. With a slightly nose down orientation to me it puts me on my front foot more - similar to the way a canting wedge on the rear foot of the snowboard binding will put you on your front foot... just a thought.