LE MAGAZINEHow to choose your foil fuselage?
How to choose your foil fuselage?
When you buy a foil, you need to take into account every single component. In fact, they all have their own importance and will determine the parameters of your session. In fact, we could almost say that there are as many foils as there are different sizes, conditions and practices. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced sailor, or whether you want to practice Wing FoilSurf Foil, Wake Foil, Wind Foil, Kite Foil or even SUP Foilevery component of foil needs to be adapted to you.
The choice of fuselage on a foil will be a key element in optimizing your sessions, turning more, going faster or being more stable on the water.
What is a fuselage?
Today, we’re talking about the fuselage and our tips for choosing the right one for you. The fuselage is the part that joins your front fin to your stabilizer to your mast, itself connected to the board.
Depending on the brand, the fuselage can be connected directly to the mast, or as a spare part, for a fully modular, removable and interchangeable foil. It can be made of aluminum or carbon for the foil Carbon version. This allows you to upgrade your foil according to your needs and desires, without having to completely change your foil. This, too, will be an undeniable advantage for your budget.
To understand how a hydrofoil works, we invite you to read this article. You’ll find all the information you need to understand the phenomena of speed and lift, the importance of the profile and size of each part of the foil… And much more.
The materials used to make a fuselage.
Today, we’re talking about the fuselage and our tips for choosing the right one for you. The fuselage is the part that joins your front fin to your stabilizer to your mast, itself connected to the board.
Depending on the brand, the fuselage can be connected directly to the mast, or as a spare part, for a fully modular, removable and interchangeable foil. It can be made of aluminum or carbon for the foil Carbon version. This allows you to upgrade your foil according to your needs and desires, without having to completely change your foil. This, too, will be an undeniable advantage for your budget.
To understand how a hydrofoil works, we invite you to read this article. You’ll find all the information you need to understand the phenomena of speed and lift, the importance of the profile and size of each part of the foil… And much more.
Fuselage thicknesses
We design our fuselages from German-grade T6061 T6 aluminum. This noble component is a benchmark in the aerospace world, guaranteeing strength and resistance to the marine environment. Our aim is to achieve the highest quality and reliability, so we surround ourselves with experts in hydrodynamics, who are always keen to use the best materials. For us, this aluminum fuselage represents the best quality-durability-price ratio.
Fitting our front wing onto the fuselage ensures maximum raider stiffness and avoids many adjustment problems. As the mast is very close to the front winglet, the leverage arm around the fuselage is low, enabling us to reduce the thickness of the fuselage and thus improve hydrodynamic glide.
If the mast socket is far from the front fin, the fuselage will be thicker to ensure maximum rigidity when the fuselage is twisted.
Fuselage length
The length of the fuselage will determine the foil ‘s longitudinal stability and manoeuvrability. Depending on your needs, you’ll need to adapt the fuselage length.
We currently offer 4 fuselage sizes: 56 cm, 62 cm, 68 cm, 78 cm in aluminum.
Depending on your level, you need to choose the right fuselage size.
1- the beginner will take a longer fuselage to stabilize his foil in the longitudinal axis and facilitate flight control. The longer the fuselage behind the mast, the more stable the foil will be. However, the foil will be less maneuverable in this configuration. It will also be more difficult to pump, as pumping requires the foil Haut bat to oscillate. (Everything the beginner doesn’t need)
2- Starting at the intermediate level, you can reduce the fuselage length. This will make the foil faster, more manoeuvrable and more unstable. It’s a good idea to take this option in waves to increase the foil’s manoeuvrability. On the other hand, if you’re looking to go very fast, opt for a long fuselage.
Depending on your activity.
The length of the fuselage differs according to the discipline practiced. A short or even very short fuselage will be much appreciated in wake foil because the boat’s wave is very short, so you need to turn quickly. Likewise, in surfsailing, a short fuselage makes it easier to turn the foil and facilitate pumping.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to go fast, push your speed limits or simply cruising easily, a longer fuselage will work much better.
It’s not the only thing.
If you want to increase the manoeuvrability of a foil, the fuselage is one element, but don’t forget the other elements: the span of the front wings and the span of the rear wings. A high aspect ratio wing will not turn as well as a narrower front wing. A large stabilizer will be less maneuverable than a smaller one.
So to exploit all the advantages of a short fuselage to increase manoeuvrability, you may or may not need a smaller wing or stabilizer.
- Reducing the front winglet, horizontal stabilizer and fuselage greatly increases foil’s manoeuvrability.
- If we keep the same front fin, and reduce the stabilizer and fuselage, the handling will be a little less, but we’ll be more stable.
- In the last configuration, you keep the same winglets and only change the fuselage. In this case, you’ll increase handling compared to a configuration with a longer fuselage, but less than the first two examples.
If you’d like to find out more about how to increase the manoeuvrability of your foil, click on the link.
In short, the choice of fuselage depends on your needs and what you want to do. If you want to increase manoeuvrability and have a more playful foil, then change your fuselage.
If you want to maintain the longitudinal stability of the foil but increase manoeuvrability, then you need to change the front or rear wing, not the fuselage.
The options are infinitely configurable. Decide first what you’re looking for, and you’ll be able to customize your foil just the way you like it.
Le Magazine
