I finally got the 926 out in good conditions after getting it. The previous two times were very short in marginal conditions and I had only tried a jibe once with a small sail. The other time was with an 8.0 foil glide, too tapped from getting flying to really practice jibes in very light wind.
I've been riding the FoilX 145 with the Infinity 76 for a while now, and got through a couple of jibes but I really wanted something with a little more lower end range and more glide. The 926 has both from what I can tell. I also grabbed a really short mast and the 103W, as I end up in either very shallow or very deep places with swell if I want to windsurf with any frequency. There are also a lot of light wind sea breeze days that are perfectly foible but aren't really good for finned windsurfing without huge gear.
This day my setup was: 926 with 103W aluminum. Jack plate set such that the front of the foil mast was pretty much in line with the front of the deep Tuttle fitting. 6.3 Freek.
Having reviewed some of the video, this may need to be pushed forward just a little bit, or maybe move the front straps a hole back. I may decide to do that but haven't yet. My rear foot seems to be migrating a bit aft of the footstrap hole center compared to how they were when riding the 76.
Overall, I was very happy with this setup that day. I felt really comfortable one handed, harnessed rides in the harness, and at least initiating and coming through the jibes dry (in some cases), and with some speed in others. The 103W mast feels like I have so much margin for height compared to the 85cm I have used on the 76, and noticeably more than the 95cm IQFoil because I think I feel more feedback when the Phantasm gets too close to the surface than the 900 wing. The 76 gave back the most feedback, but also seemed to rise more in the swells. The 926 seems to cut through them more while still getting some energy from them. This will need exploration as my wave wind foiling riding is.minimal. So my perspective may be off on this.
This video shows the day from the start through a few jibe attempts. Note these are really some of my first attempts ever on this foil. They went much better than with the other foils I've ridden. I still, however, see lots of mistakes with my entry and other corrections I need.
This video helped me not to get stuck with the board straight downwind by adding a bit of sail steering to the carve.
Great looking glides in some light winds by the look of it. The ptm926 is an awesome foil.
Common mistake I saw (I used to coach wind foiling) is closing of the rig towards you like a windsurfing gybe! it's a muscle memory that's hard to undo
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1. instead keep the hands and fairly straight out in front of you as you carve, don't bend the arms to much as that draws the rig in and creates an unbalance... obviously as the carve increases the back arm will sheet the sail in but don't over sheet.
2. keep the mast more upright
3. let the rig pull you through the turn and it will create a nice even and smooth reaction from the foil that allows you time to prepare for the foot switch.
4th time getting it flying and I got some good reaches for about 1-2miles. I am feeling like it is a little back foot heavy, so I think that I am going to mount it one setting forward without moving the jack plate itself, which is probably a 2-3cm. Had the mast foot back 1cm and felt a little bit of burn in the back leg even when it was behind the footstrap rear center area, and didn't feel like I had the upwind power that I should have.
The 103W really makes cruising long distances over chop and small swell super easy. And I do think that this wing gets flying a little earlier than the 76 now that I've had it out in similar to what was typical conditions on the 76 to me. It will take more rail pressure as well, and can carve hard, but I want a little more front foot power. Will update when I try it out.
I decided to go ahead and re-tefgel everything with the jack plate and shift it one position forward.
This is where I had it. The tuttle bolts are in the center. The outer bolts are one position forward of where I have used it, but I hadn't used it there it was just where I thought I needed it.
Notice that it did hang a little outside the back of the board.
I moved it one position back and moved the outer fasteners back to where they had been. This will move the foil a bit more forward.
The jack plate is now no longer sticking out the back. The foil mast will now be a few cm in front of the tuttle head. I was pretty liberal with the tefgel.
In the quest for the perfect balance I would take the foot-straps off and determine where your feet end up on the board. This will allow to move your feet in small increments to achieve the balance. Then you will see how far and where you need to move your jack plate. Then you can put the straps back on the board. I ended up moving the jack plate as far forward as it goes on my tuttle JP board.
I just measured. Looks like the closest spacing is 115mm then the next available is 140mm on center. So the holes are 2.5cm apart on center.
Took it out today. Mast base centered, 2.5cm in front of before. It felt better, less back footed, but I still wanted more. So I'll push it forward another 2.5 next time.
I had my foil mast all the way forward on a powerplate, far from the deep tuttle, and with a big front wing I managed to bend it ! So I would suggest to be careful with that setting.
First time out in over a month due to storms almost every day when I had time to go out.
Decided to try the further forward position. It was really gusty but I got on foil a few times. I liked the feel. Going off of memory it felt a lot more balanced and turny. Didn't get to attempt to jibe unfortunately due to wicked wind shadows in this wind direction but I think it'll go a lot better.
The foil appeared to have more feel in the front foot when approaching the stall but I may be deluding myself due to being off the water so long.
Was able to get out again today. Similar conditions but I changed the launch site so that I wasn't dealing with offshore wind.
That position felt GREAT. I put the rear straps on in the center (front in center too), and had steady flights in front and rear, island hopping, of a little over a mile. It was much easier to stay foiling longer in the jibes, almost came out of two on foil while running a strap jibe with the 6.3.
It seemed to pump quicker up on foil too. Shlog in both straps and wait for a gust and just pump up and fly away.
I'll probably shift the tuttle head to the rear most position to give it a little bit more adjustment around the sweet spot, maybe push it all the way forward just to see.