Evening Session - 3/24/2021

When I got home, there was still a good amount of daylight left.  I figured I had enough time to sand down the epoxy sealant coat I applied to the two chopped foils yesterday, and then test at least one of them.  I got both sanded to 320 dry, then loaded up the truck.  The winds turned southerly so it was onshore mush.  I was hesitant because the tide was low at 0.3', but based on the surf session I had a couple of days back, I figured where the waves were breaking, there was enough depth.  The good news was there were waves - belly high in the middle break (bigger outside - but I didn't have much time).

I bolted on the chopped HS1850 and a stock 300 rear stabilizer.

I caught three waves.  The first was ok - had some back foot pressure (thinking that I didn't get the mast positioning exactly right), but I did pump back out for a double dip.  The second wave I rode for quite some distance going left (my backside) - and the foil pressure was pretty much spot on (equal between both feet).  I got in a couple of turns and realized I was in pretty shallow water.  The third wave was really good - super long right and the foil again was performing awesome.  On the last two waves, the foil was not releasing water well (shudders transmitted to the board from hitting an excitation frequency).  I got through that harmonic, but now I'm thinking about how best to get rid of that (I think it is a result of the wet sanding up front and the relatively rough sanding behind from today's work).  Probably going to spray a coat of acrylic, then apply carnauba wax.  If the waves hold, I'll try and test this wing again tomorrow to see if the changes worked to shed the issue. 

When I got home from foiling, I inspected the front foil for signs of water seepage - there was none.  And then I weighed it again - same weight as before at 46.9 ounces - SUCCESS!!!  I found my large graph paper and traced the outline, then counted squares (0.5 inch squares).  After doing some math, I calculated the surface area to be 237.5 square inches (I subtracted the fuselage connection from the 253.5 shown below) and got an area of 1532 square cm.  The wingspan is 94 cm, and the chord depth is 22.5.  That yields an aspect ratio of 4.17 (I thought it would have been higher than this...)

Fun session, fun math and good knowing the dimensions - so with the dimensions I can now call this the HS1532CS (High Speed 1532 Chop Shop)

Finished Sanding the Chopped Front Foils

La and I ran some errands in the afternoon - and when I got back I ran the front foils through the 80-120-180-220-320 sanding grits.  After that, I then wet sanded through 320-400-500-1000-1500.

I sanded out the spots where the foil name was - so when I figure out what to call these two, I can write the designator in these spots.  I think the leading name candidates are CHS1475PF (Prone Foil) and CHS1600W (Wing)

They came out really nice!  I weighed them both for future reference - CHS1475PF is 36.7 ounces, the CHS1600W is 47.4 ounces.

Now the debate is whether to wax them, or just leave them be.

Wing Foiling Session - 3/21/2021

The forecast was for nuking winds, and after today it is supposed to drop to almost nothing (good for surfing and prone foiling - bad for winging).  I figured I need to get on it while it was here so I went to Hickam.  Marlon came along (to pick up groceries and hang out with his friend) and we were at the beach around 11:30.  The winds were really strong -

I originally pumped up the 5.2 and bolted on the chopped down 1850.

Since I was on the stock 1850 yesterday, I wanted to see the difference in the chopped foil. 

I had to come in because the wind was too strong for the 5.2.  On the wind chart you can see the gusts were 30+mph.  I rinsed the 5.2 and pumped up the 4.5, and was back out on the water.

At some points even the 4.5 was too much wing.  I headed out to Firsts and it was breaking properly today.  I caught a few - didn't feel overpowered on the drops.  Also the chopped foil felt a little more nimble.  And it was noticeably faster.  

The strong winds made it a little harder to get my inbound tacks completed - a lot of down pressure on the wing trying to get it across (for some reason that wasn't the case on the outbound tacks - I think I need to consciously raise the wing higher going into the turns).  Here is a picture of me mid-jibe.

    

Marlon took all the pictures today.  Eventually though he hopped a ride into town with one of his friends and that was the end of the pictures.  Before he left, I came in one more time to change out the front foil from the chopped 1850 to the stock 1250.

  

The wind continued to pick up - from the graph it looks like it hit 40mph on some gusts.  It looked like it - smoke on the water!!!  The 1250 was easier to handle in these winds.  With less wingspan and a shorter chord, there was less lift so to get the same ride, more energy went to getting the foil to lift.  That meant I had one fewer thing to manage (keeping a foil behaving).  So here is a picture of the three foils I'll be using for winging - the stock 1850, the chopped 1850 (I have to come up with a name for this so I don't have to type that out all the time), and the stock 1250.  I really like how the chopped 1850 fits in between the two stock foils.

Chop Shop Fest - 1850 to 1600, 1550 to 1475

After Marlon and I got home, and after we ate lunch, I headed out to the garage to cut down the two foils I had prepared the other night.  I started with the 1550 (since this is the third one I've chopped).  I got lucky as heck - no foam exposed on the cut line, or even on the refoiled sections (that has never happened on any of the previous chops).

I nailed this one!

Next I headed into uncharted territory - chopping the HS1850.  I got lucky twice in a row - no foam core exposed during the cut, or even in the refoiling.

This wing looks so much better than the original.  Truth be known, the inspiration for this was the specifications on the new upcoming HS1550v2.  It is only 2 mm shorter in wingspan than the HS1850.  That means the chord was the target change.  Like I had posted before, I figured the new surface area is right around 1600 cm2.

These both came out really nice!  I still need to sand the higher grits, wet sand, re-label and then clear coat these before I can use them.

I still see a place for the HS1850 (especially for winging lighter days), but I can't wait to try out this Chopped HS1600 and the Chopped HS1475!