Sailworks to sell F4 gear

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webguy
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Joined: 12/31/2000 - 22:01
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Sailworks to sell F4 gear

https://www.f4foils.com/2022/12/01/f4-new-windsurf-models-2023-107cm-hm-carbon-mast/

from the PacNW group

"Sailworks is adding F4 to their foil line up for 2023! If you saw Bruce sailing any this past fall you may have noticed that he was often on an F4 set up. F4 is one of the top brands for racing today and their gear is highly biased in that direction ....F4 asked for Bruce's thoughts - and he told them their stuff was very, very nice - but that it was "too race oriented" - they needed to add some area to the wings to make them a little more forgiving and to broaden their range and that they needed to make the masts longer for them to work well for the typical gorge sailors in gorge conditions...amazingly, they turned around and made him a longer mast and some larger wings almost immediately...How's that for a response? ( the wings still have fairly small areas and high aspect ratios....just not as high AR or small area as they were. )...but still pretty amazing that they turned his thoughts into production parts in the span of just a couple months. The new wings should be available soon, the fuselages and masts are available now. I am really looking forward to trying them out...so far I've just got to hold a mast and some fuselages and give them a good look over...
The mast is SUPER stiff...I laid it to span between a couple tables in the loft and put my weight on it to try and bend it....it may have well have been a big steel I beam...didn't budge a bit. Bruce says the additional stiffness makes for a very controlled and super smooth ride- big improvement over anything else he has tried. The mast is solid high modulus carbon...no foam or wood cores to lighten it up or reduce the overall stiffness. The tuttle head has a flat top which enables easy shimming for pitch and uses stainless steel barrel nuts for the board and fuselage connections.

The fuselage is also a beast- significantly beefier than the SAB fuselages...which will also make for a stiffer, smoother ride. There is a "t" pattern of five screws for the front wing with stainless steel helicoil fittings for wing and stab. Very nicely done."

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webguy
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Re: Sailworks to sell F4 gear

If you are tired of going slow

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Re: Sailworks to sell F4 gear
Quote:
…their stuff was very, very nice - but that it was "too race oriented" - they needed to add some area to the wings to make them a little more forgiving
Makes me feel a little better about my frustrations early on.
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webguy
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Re: Sailworks to sell F4 gear
FoilDodo wrote:
Quote: …their stuff was very, very nice - but that it was "too race oriented" - they needed to add some area to the wings to make them a little more forgiving
Makes me feel a little better about my frustrations early on.

It's like if the Wright Brothers were handed an F-104 Starfighter. Yeah, it went fast. It also crashed fast. None of us knew any better. Those small wings worked just fine for the kitefoilers that proceeded us. And, yeah, we all had to be fast back then or why make the switch?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#Safety_record

Germany lost 1/3 of their fleet to crashes and Canada almost half. Yet, both had a better crash record than Chris and me for those first years. Lol

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Langdon
FoilDodo