How important are smooth foils

   Yeah but you can loose more from having bad sailing than through having a bad boat. But as soon as you have that sorted you canb gain boat lengths from all your boat being perfect. 

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KnightMare Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 08 Feb 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1682	Post Options Post Reply Quote KnightMare Report Post Quote Reply Topic: How important are smooth foils Posted: 10 Mar 05 at 11:25am
	Yeah but you can loose more from having bad sailing than through having a bad boat. But as soon as you have that sorted you canb gain boat lengths from all your boat being perfect.


Adam84 Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Groupie Joined: 02 Dec 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 48	Post Options Post Reply Quote Adam84 Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 10 Mar 05 at 11:17am
	I agree with that. You need to get everything up to the best standard possible weather it may be your boat or sailing skills, however don’t make the mistake of thinking “I don’t need to do that its only a small thing” because all the little things add up to a big thing, bringing you foils up to a good standard may gain you a few boat lengths and in a close race could make all the difference.

KnightMare Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 08 Feb 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1682	Post Options Post Reply Quote KnightMare Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 10 Mar 05 at 11:08am
	Yeah foils are very important, but then again so many things are. take for example you rudder if you move it by 5degrees this has the same effect as outting you leg in the wwater to slow you down, why it is so important to use as little rudder as posible. get everything else up to perfect level and then do the foils, it will only make a diference if the rest of the boat and sailing is up the that standard.


Adam84 Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Groupie Joined: 02 Dec 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 48	Post Options Post Reply Quote Adam84 Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 10 Mar 05 at 9:56am
	The thing you have to remember with the foils and the hull is the more perfect the finish the more effective the foils will be. A boat builder once tried explaining this to me by saying a chip or bit of damage will have a similar effect to weed in that it will disturb the flow of the water over the foils which will create more drag and slow you down (obviously not to the same extent as weed but every little counts), so anything you can do to improve this will be beneficial.

James Bell Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Posting king Joined: 17 Mar 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 115	Post Options Post Reply Quote James Bell Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 10 Mar 05 at 8:26am
	The thing to remember about foils is that even though they're relatively small compared to the sails, they're operating in water which is 800 times the density of air. So a well finished foil is undoubtably an effective way to better boat speed. Having said that, maybe I should pay some attention to my own foils. The guy who I bought my 4000 off was also a windsurfer and spray painted the daggerboard luminous orange! Very good for when you capsize and also for those screaming reaches when the daggerboard is partially out of the water. The practical answer to damaged foils is to have a training set that can be dinged etc, and a special pristine/as new set for those more important races.
	IOS Sailing Community - www.iossc.org.uk

Blobby Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 07 May 04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 779	Post Options Post Reply Quote Blobby Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 10 Mar 05 at 12:32am
	Read Mr Bethwaite's book - he wrote about 5 pages on the merits of mirror polished foils for reducing drag and increasing the maximum lift force available before ventilation and stalling...

redback Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 16 Mar 04 Location: Tunbridge Wells Online Status: Offline Posts: 1502	Post Options Post Reply Quote redback Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 05 at 10:19pm
	I've just spent a lot of time doing up the foils on my Laser4000. What prompted me was the extreme care the International14 guys expend on their foils. Being tippy - especially with the board up - we tend to come ashore with half board and whip it out as soon as it touches but this does mean a bit of abrasion on the bottom leading edge. Similarly the rudder gets released but has to hit the bottom to tip it up - again resulting in a slightly flattened leading edge at the bottom. How do the 14s get ashore and keep their foils so good, or do they refinish them each week? How important is it to have smooth foils? Does anybody have any experience which will help quantify this?