clement-morandiere.medium.com/starboard-engineering-the-future-of-windsurf-foiling-an-inside-look-at-starboards-2024-innovations-5336287fec97
Grest article on the 2024 starboard foils and the development process (video is worth a watch). Foils looking very similar to the Phantom wings now.
interesting to see the fin on the tail like zfins foils.
It's behind a paywall
Edit: Reader view in Firefox steps around that.
fwiw, While not quite as elegant as this one, my Tillo foil had an integrated vertical fin on the top in 2018. Since it will be prone to getting scraped on the bottom and losing anodization, I wonder if it will be subject to more corrosion in saltwater environments? I would think the slender wing tips on the race wings, too, will require a lot of TLC in more hostile locations. The price one pays for being on the bleeding edge, I guess?
Thanks for sharing. Love the fact that they're keeping the existing mast-fuselage connection for backwards compatibility.
The article itself is more like a PR statement filled with too much corporate buzzwords and overly hyped performance. Would be easier to read if they'd tone it down a bit. Let's see how it performs on the water. No doubt it will be faster than previous versions, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to other premium offerings (Phantom Infinite, F4, Patrik, Z).
820 seems to be their largest wing now?
The article itself is more like a PR statement filled with too much corporate buzzwords and overly hyped performance. Would be easier to read if they'd tone it down a bit.
Typical Starboard.
They are World Champions 2023 though. It took me a while to find out what in.
Thanks for sharing. Love the fact that they're keeping the existing mast-fuselage connection for backwards compatibility.
The article itself is more like a PR statement filled with too much corporate buzzwords and overly hyped performance. Would be easier to read if they'd tone it down a bit. Let's see how it performs on the water. No doubt it will be faster than previous versions, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to other premium offerings (Phantom Infinite, F4, Patrik, Z).
820 seems to be their largest wing now?
Yeah looks like the Evo MKII was an 880. Maybe they got enough performance out of the 820 for course racing that they didn't need to go larger? From what I remember the 880 is close to 1m span and higher aspect than the 900s. But I would really like someone that knows better to let us know, especially since they also got rid of the 1000 millenium.
Figured my story wasn't worth its own thread but I'll bite.
My first foil back in 2019 was the Alu GTR, afterwards I went the IQ foil route. I placed (paid) an order for the mk2 C600 end of last year, after 8 months of waiting was offered the C400 instead at a considerable discount, declined and canceled my order. Later found out most mk2 C600s never left the factory due to SB production focusing on their C400 mast mainly for the X15 wingfoil class since its interchangeable.
Looking at their social media presence this should've been obvious. Decided then and there I had to switch. Respect for keeping the mast fuse connection but the fuse evolution is all over the place - Classic, Evo, Evo mk2, Jumbo etc.
I took a leap of faith and switched ecosystems for the new Select Goliath. Fuselage, vertical fin and shims all made out of carbon at a considerably lower price, got 30 session clocked on it this summer and couldn't be happier. I'll write a review once I test the speed wings currently on their way to me.
clement-morandiere.medium.com/starboard-engineering-the-future-of-windsurf-foiling-an-inside-look-at-starboards-2024-innovations-5336287fec97
Grest article on the 2024 starboard foils and the development process (video is worth a watch). Foils looking very similar to the Phantom wings now.
interesting to see the fin on the tail like zfins foils.
It's great they brought in Martin Fischer to design foils. Certainly a step in the right direction. But the path ahead is long... if they want to make a competitive foil. They've already made SLR wings which where very similar to previous Phantom/F4 wings and they were terrible compared to them. I suspect the issue is build quality. Wings are very soft and they flex A LOT.
Thanks for sharing. Love the fact that they're keeping the existing mast-fuselage connection for backwards compatibility.
The article itself is more like a PR statement filled with too much corporate buzzwords and overly hyped performance. Would be easier to read if they'd tone it down a bit. Let's see how it performs on the water. No doubt it will be faster than previous versions, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to other premium offerings (Phantom Infinite, F4, Patrik, Z).
820 seems to be their largest wing now?
Yeah looks like the Evo MKII was an 880. Maybe they got enough performance out of the 820 for course racing that they didn't need to go larger? From what I remember the 880 is close to 1m span and higher aspect than the 900s. But I would really like someone that knows better to let us know, especially since they also got rid of the 1000 millenium.
The article did not do a good job of explaining the new product line. This is the Evo MKII (curved front wing). I believe the one you are refering to is the old one. And the new mkII comes also in 880. There's also a special series developed by Martin Fischer - 820 is a part of it. But I wonder how it will perfrom due to it's extremely high aspect ratio. 820 has a span of 107 cm.
No paywall, just login into "medium" to read the article and see the video. I'll post photos
My bad. When I registered, it then prompted me to the pay options. Now it shows me as logged in even though I haven't paid anything. Thanks for posting the pics.
Like Dishpet, the fuse "abundance of choice" is a challenge but appreciate that my current mast isn't obsolete even though not at the bleeding edge. The new vmg wings look fast but hope they have the same bottom end as the classic 1000 - I depend on that wing for super light sessions (basically most of 5 months a year).
On my side, I got so tired of the over promising and underperformance that I've sold my starboard foil quiver c400 mast iq, Evo foils and Evo II fuselages.
The lack of sufficient engineering tolerances was another annoyance, mainly with front wings not fitting fuselages correctly.
I've gone with the phantom spark, the free race version of the infinite, my expectation is that it will perform far better than the starboard Evo based my pals who were smoking me on older phantom kit. Time will tell.
My max was 28 knots on the starboard and on decent days averaging 22-24.
Thanks for sharing. Love the fact that they're keeping the existing mast-fuselage connection for backwards compatibility.
The article itself is more like a PR statement filled with too much corporate buzzwords and overly hyped performance. Would be easier to read if they'd tone it down a bit. Let's see how it performs on the water. No doubt it will be faster than previous versions, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to other premium offerings (Phantom Infinite, F4, Patrik, Z).
820 seems to be their largest wing now?
At least this test seems to suggest performance is (nearly?) on par and more accessible to mere mortals.
windfoilfan.glissattitude.com/devices/foil/starboard-slr-team-set-evolution-mkii-c800-2023?page=2
Looks like Starboard have 2 options for 2024
The SLRmk2
starboardfoils.com/pages/2024-slr-2
and the new SLX with iterative design.
Long and interesting video on the design process.
2024 - SLX-1 - Starboard Foils
starboardfoils.com/pages/2024-slx-1
11:00min
a foil designed to prevent cavitation at 40 knots will be slower below 35kts than foil designed for cavitation onset at 35kts and the whole speed range from zero.
Keep an eye out for a speed only foil next!