More foil placement testing for No.34 today. Strong (but gusty) trades again today - and they shifted a notch to the East. Still not an easy run out and back, but better than yesterday.
With the wind strength, I pumped up the SW2 4.2
I brought out the ART 999/400P and the Spitfire 840/350P to get them dialed in.
I setup the ART 999 first.
With all the new fancy foils out, this foil has fallen out of the limelight - but realistically it is still every bit as relevant today as it was a couple of years back. It is fast, glides really well, turns (after you learn to shift your weight with it) and even surfs.
I thought I clean the GoPro lens before I went out... obviously I didn't
I actually thought the wind would have been stronger. I was able to get up and go with the SW2 4.2 - which was probably more the point of the testing runs. When everything lines up - No.34 pops up quickly. With the narrower/longer board profile, there is a hesitancy for the board to "plane" initially - and in fact this and No.30 tend to "twist" or round up to the wind. And then countering that tendency, the board starts to roll a little - all preventing a fast pop up. But every now and then the board sits still and it takes off with very little run. I'm going to have to keep working on developing the technique to get up and go.
On the first run, you can see from the track the wind was still shifting. You can also see the spots where the wind dead zones were (blue clumps)
I think if I got a Skinny rear stabilizer, I could get this top speed up a couple more mph.
I went in for a bit to change out the lower assembly to the Spitfire. The Ultrashort fuselage I have fits easier on to the Axis adapter than the Advance + Crazyshort fuselage. I have to wrestle the Crazyshort off the mast - and I may actually stop using it for a bit just to save the wear on the track boxes. I'll use the Classic Project Cedrus masts when I use the Axis foils on the shorter fuselages.
I placed the Spitfire 840 further up in the boxes and set it at the balance point. It did get up in this position, but it seemed to be a lazy get up. Halfway through the session I moved the mast forward a half inch to see if it would make a difference.
It did - the takeoff was a little less lazy (progressive). I'm starting to think that with a lower aspect ratio, the positioning of the foil is a little less critical. I have also noticed that with the lower AR foils, there is a sticking point in the takeoff where I almost have to force the nose down, then everything behaves normally. I don't mind experimenting in the inner harbor at Hickam - but that is the last thing I want to be doing when riding waves.
I tried to do more toe-heel tacks today - psychologically tacks are easier on trades on the South Shore because that where I do them the most. I did get a few in, but I'm still 50-50 at best on that tack. The heel-toe tacks I was 90% today (good to be back at them).
This speed chart is all wrong - I might have gotten that speed on a crash - but not on any particular run. I think I did get a 20.5 mph reading in there somewhere.
Now that I've got some time winging back under my belt, I'll likely hit Kailua tomorrow. The waves have been really big there, but with the more Northerly wind direction the runs have been less out and back and more across (need to paddle to get out into the wind line). Tomorrow is supposed to be even more East.
W:10/FD:10/F:4/S:5
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