Different Foils - Wing, Kite & Wind

 On Saturday, the 28th of Oktober, 2023 I chatted with Benoit Falardeau at Oka Parc about different types of foils. He informed that he had sold his first kit, but did purchase another more performance oriented kit.

More interestingly, he also informed me about the differences in foils --> between wingfoils, kitefoils and windfoils.

He stated that the mast on a wingfoil is the closest to the front wing and typically has the longest fuselage (for counter-balance). The kitefoil mast is a little further back on the fuselage and the windfoil even more to the back ...

Let's see if we can substantiate all that - hopefully WITH photos !!

I started this analysis with the Slingshot products because this company is well-known and seemed to have foils for all the water sports. However, in their descriptions and on their website, it was NOT too evident what foil went with which sport ...Sorry, Slingshot ☹️

So, I found another French company (believe Slingshot and AHS are both French as well !) called Alpine (ironically) ...

On their wingfoils the mast does NOT seem to be directly behind the front wing and what surprised me even more, the more expensive windfoil masts ARE attached forward, but are curved to the back ...

... and even more bizarre, the attachment to the board is NOT parallel to the fuselage. 
    What does this mean ?? 

Is the foil aeroplane not running parallel to the top of the water or is it the wing board??

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Let's look at this at this model instead !!

Most foils have mast length options, like this one... 70, 83 and 95cm

and I will not discuss different front wing and stabilizer sizes ...

... and the fuselage ?? did NOT post the length - asking ALPINE ...
they are saying the fuselage is 78 cm and is different for every model
(now asked them if it is longer for wingfoils than others) YES

the foil on a wingfoil seems to be attached forward on the "board" and the back foot of the rider is behind the foil mast ...

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Let's look at their kitefoils ...

Here the attachment of the mast does look like it is a little further back !!

it looks like the foil on a kiteboard is a little further back than on a wingboard and the rider's back foot is closer to the top of the foil mast ..

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and on their windfoils ??

YES, the mast is attached way back and as I suspected, almost in the middle of the fuselage!

In that picture, it looks like the foil is mounted in the tuttle box at the back of the board and the rider's back foot is very close to the top of the foil mast. 

HOWEVER, I have seen pictures where the foil is mounted further up and the back foot is behind the foil mast !! more like a wingfoil setup ??

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.. and IF the foil is acting like an aeroplane under water, why is the nose so short to the point that it almost does not exist ?? (becuz the captain is on board ?? lol)

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