Tuning Foils

I skipped out on beach time today - I was kinda tired and I also wanted to get some projects started/finished.

First up was tuning the AFS Pure Race 50.

The trailing edge of the front foil had a couple of chips and an edge that was less than perfect.

I used the wetsanding regime and got a Donaldson Trailing Edge on the front foil.

The trailing edge is nice a tuned up now.

With stronger winds coming later this week, I'll get to test this again.  I may make two runs at this - first will be No.36 but without footstraps (or maybe not as I don't want to necessarily have to reset the footstraps), and second - using No.34 to address the balancing issue (smaller foil - set more forward, needing my feet further forward to balance out the foil).

If the foil still sings (and mind you it wasn't that bad - especially compared to the F One Eagle 1090 I first tried - the foil screamed), I'll address the rear stabilizer.

Tuning Up Front Foils

It's no secret that I can't stand scratches on foils.  Well - having bought this HPS 980 used, it wasn't really finished to my preferences - but neither did I have the time to getting it dialed in.

On the Sunday run at Hickam, launching from the boat ramp I inadvertently assumed I was in deep water a little bit too early.  I ended up with a couple of really minor scratches (which in turn activated my OCD and then I looked very closely at the subpar finish).

With the weather turning south (at least less than ideal).  I went ahead and used the solid paint marker I had bought and used it to fill the scratches that I placed on the foil along with the other minor scratches from the previous owner.  These were all really minor and wouldn't affect performance in the range these foils are usually used in - but these represented things I needed to tune up (I've been an engineer for way too long).

This evening I wet sanded the foil through 400-600-1000-1500 grits.

This is way smoother now.

And I even placed a Donaldson trailing edge on.

Since I proved to myself I can pump this foil back out after riding a wave through the good parts, I want to go back to the ART999 and see the differences.

I'll actually go through and use the solid marker on both the HPS700 and the ART999 this evening and sand those in the next couple of days (as the surf is forecasted to drop).

Front Foil Fairing

The next few days are supposed to have crazy nuking winds plowing through.  I packed all the small stuff I have (Cabrinha Mantis 2.5, Reedin SW1 3.6) and I made a point to repair this Axis HPS 700.

I watched the Delta Foils YouTube channel and saw they filled imperfections in wetted surfaces with Bondo glaze.  Here I am giving it a go.

It needs to be spread pretty thin and fairly quickly - this mix is solvent based and it evaporates as soon as it is exposed to air.

It gets into the crevices fairly easy. 

This is the tube.

After about 30 minutes, I sanded with 320/400/600.  The bondo comes off easy.  I went ahead and wetsanded to whole front foil to make sure the surface has a uniform texture (smooth).

And since I was sanding, I figured I'd put a Donaldson Trailing Edge on the back edge of the foil.

This foil is ready to rip!!!

Tuning DW210 Rear Stabilizer

When I've used the Eagle 1090/XXS Fuselage/DW210 combo, the setup sings in two to three tones.  The harmonics are pretty impressive, and the people foiling around me say they can hear me from far away.  Kalani tried sanding last time I had this setup out - but it seemed like it actually made the third harmonic resident.

I've been plying YouTube and I found a couple of references to the Donaldson Trailing Edge (where the flat side has a rounded edge).

I got the edge tuned on the DW210 this evening.

I'll have to wait a few days or so before the wind comes back and I can take this out to test it.

Prior to this week, I had never heard of the Donaldson trailing edge.  This is pretty much the opposite of what Alex Aguerra was doing in his video from a couple of years back (he sanded down the edge from the low pressure/suction side at a 45 degree angle).

This is the side where the "curve" is imparted.

Always - it all done for a first pass.  I'll test this on the 890 to see what the difference is.

I did check the 1090 trailing edge and there were two anomalies that seemed like that they could cause some vibration.  I'll take this one item at a time.