Nice videos, just watch all the videos of your formula board work and its amazing job!! hopefully i can re enforce my formula board the same way to start windfoiling, thanks!!!
Hey Grant, Oh My, this modded Retro Rocks for windfoiling! This is my current favorite sail. The billow from not having cams actually helps with light wind " about 12 mph" pumping onto flight. 7 battens with a clean release makes high wind "about 28 mph" foiling easy. Huge usable windrange. Easy flying jibes / Easy uphaul / Easy waterstarts. My NX's or a Flyer is more pitch stable but this sail is stable enough and with all of the other bonuses is overall a great sail. The key to this tune is not only draft profile further forward but also thinner batten tips "but not too thin they break" to allow a good shape without too much wind so medium wind in flight without too much sail pressure the draft profile has a good power to it. For light wind min downhaul like very little and med light outhaul. For high wind just a bit more than med downhaul and max outhaul. Just feather the backhand for easy cumfy flight. I am going to mod a 2000 9.5m Retro soon with the same mindset with removing sail material off of the back so the new size will be about a 8.5m. As smaller Retros are more high aspect ratio than larger ones. If the 9.5m Retro works as I hope I will be on the look out for a 4.5m Retro but just do batten tunning. I totally recomend you doing this if you have a Retro or a sail close to one. Hope this helps. 🙂
Oh also I tryed a Z-Axes 430 cm Powerex mast that is leaning to hard tipped of constant curve CC and I did not like how the sail handled. The Z-Wave 430 cm Powerex mast is soft tipped CC and works great, fast too. I just tryed my Lip Stick 400cm Sailworks mast that is a bit on the soft tipped side with 56 cm of extention and this helps even more for pumping onto flight "better billow" and more stable in flight too "more responsive". The 400cm mast is a bit slower becasue it releases more power. So I think I will use the 400 cm for gusty days and the 430 cm mast for steady wind days. :)
I'm hoping to use a softer tip CC 430 RDM which sounds like it'll work well. I've actually has success rigged my 7.2NX on a long extension with the same mast. But of course it's very heavy.
Darius uses RDM masts with his 5.4m, 6.2m, 7.1m and sometimes his 8.2m NX. The softer / maybe wet noodle affect from a RDM mast with a race sail for Windsurfing are not the same for Windfoiling. Totally go for it! Just keep in mind if your RDM mast is too hard tipped or not the right curve for your NX there could be some baggieness in the Luff curve. This is not good if you have baggieness up high in the luff curve. In flight this baggieness creates billow with enough wind and make for almost an unusable sail. I have personally found Backbone and Sumo RDM masts are too hard tiped for most NX's. You are better off with a Carbon twill or Flightstick. A No Limitz Skinny or other mast not too hard tipped might work great also. Best of Luck!
It's a Fiberspar which is just slightly soft tipped. Biggest issue is the SDM cams don't create enough pressure against the mast to really shape it right. But 430 is the longest I can fit in my roof box. I may get a set of RDM cams to see if that helps.
Great videos Jonathan. You gave me some great ideas. Thanks.
You got it Brad!
Happy Modding. 🙂
Nice videos, just watch all the videos of your formula board work and its amazing job!! hopefully i can re enforce my formula board the same way to start windfoiling, thanks!!!
Any update on how it handles on the water?
Hey Grant,
Oh My, this modded Retro Rocks for windfoiling! This is my current favorite sail.
The billow from not having cams actually helps with light wind " about 12 mph" pumping onto flight. 7 battens with a clean release makes high wind "about 28 mph" foiling easy. Huge usable windrange. Easy flying jibes / Easy uphaul / Easy waterstarts. My NX's or a Flyer is more pitch stable but this sail is stable enough and with all of the other bonuses is overall a great sail.
The key to this tune is not only draft profile further forward but also thinner batten tips "but not too thin they break" to allow a good shape without too much wind so medium wind in flight without too much sail pressure the draft profile has a good power to it. For light wind min downhaul like very little and med light outhaul. For high wind just a bit more than med downhaul and max outhaul. Just feather the backhand for easy cumfy flight.
I am going to mod a 2000 9.5m Retro soon with the same mindset with removing sail material off of the back so the new size will be about a 8.5m. As smaller Retros are more high aspect ratio than larger ones. If the 9.5m Retro works as I hope I will be on the look out for a 4.5m Retro but just do batten tunning.
I totally recomend you doing this if you have a Retro or a sail close to one. Hope this helps. 🙂
Oh also I tryed a Z-Axes 430 cm Powerex mast that is leaning to hard tipped of constant curve CC and I did not like how the sail handled. The Z-Wave 430 cm Powerex mast is soft tipped CC and works great, fast too.
I just tryed my Lip Stick 400cm Sailworks mast that is a bit on the soft tipped side with 56 cm of extention and this helps even more for pumping onto flight "better billow" and more stable in flight too "more responsive". The 400cm mast is a bit slower becasue it releases more power. So I think I will use the 400 cm for gusty days and the 430 cm mast for steady wind days. :)
I'm hoping to use a softer tip CC 430 RDM which sounds like it'll work well. I've actually has success rigged my 7.2NX on a long extension with the same mast. But of course it's very heavy.
Darius uses RDM masts with his 5.4m, 6.2m, 7.1m and sometimes his 8.2m NX. The softer / maybe wet noodle affect from a RDM mast with a race sail for Windsurfing are not the same for Windfoiling. Totally go for it!
Just keep in mind if your RDM mast is too hard tipped or not the right curve for your NX there could be some baggieness in the Luff curve. This is not good if you have baggieness up high in the luff curve. In flight this baggieness creates billow with enough wind and make for almost an unusable sail.
I have personally found Backbone and Sumo RDM masts are too hard tiped for most NX's. You are better off with a Carbon twill or Flightstick. A No Limitz Skinny or other mast not too hard tipped might work great also.
Best of Luck!
It's a Fiberspar which is just slightly soft tipped. Biggest issue is the SDM cams don't create enough pressure against the mast to really shape it right. But 430 is the longest I can fit in my roof box. I may get a set of RDM cams to see if that helps.