I've had the new foil board a few weeks and been out half a dozen times with sails ranging from 9m to 5.5m, using the Starboard Racefoil and the GT. I'm moving from a Starboard Foil 147, modified with backfoot wings so this brief review is really a comparison between the two boards. Note that installing backfoot wings improved the Foil 147's racing performance substantially.
Physically the Foil 177 is a beast of a board, being thicker and wider at the tail, although the foil 147 has a marginally bigger wide point (95cm vs 91cm). Both boards weigh about the same (note that is with the wings on the 147) - both made from Carbon Reflex.
On the Foil 177 the foot straps are further from the centreline of the board (and closer to the rails), particularly the front footstraps, but about the same distance apart. The chicken straps are further forward. The mast track is located further forward from the foil mast and overall the Foil 177 is shorter.
The Foil 147 was developed from the Ultrasonic 147 and as such works OK as a big slalom board, but I have doubts that the Foil 177 would work as a windsurfer - it just doesn't look right! I probably will never try it with a fin so that is not an issue.
On the water the board feels very stable with a LOT of real estate to put your feet on. The takeoff seems to be very easy with very little sign of "stickyness", probably helped by cutaways that are chamfered up. The footstrap position seems perfect for me - easy to get into and comfortable. The on-the-rail straps will feel very familiar to formula board riders. The chicken straps are also very well placed for downwind blasting, creating a stable body position to control lift but still harness good power from the sail.
Although the small sails work fine it was clear that the board is more designed for bigger sails where the outboard stance can extract good power. Rolling the board to windward going upwind is very easy and also keeping the board flat going downwind is good, although I found it difficult with the back foot in the outer straps - any loss of power due to oversheeting or lulls causes the board to fall to your heels which quickly rounds the board. It is much easier to use your toe and heel pressure to keep things flat when in the chicken strap.
I was initially worried that the wide nose would get blown around in the wind but this does not seem to happen. The nose feels close to the mast foot so any sudden change in nose lift is deadened by the short lever arm. I am particularly impressed by the touchdown performance of the board. The high nose rocker and prominent vee in the start of the nose rocker seems enough to enable an effective bounce back from a touchdown - no sticky splash here! The board has sharp boxy rails the full length and these work very well when touching down whilst railed over going upwind, helped no doubt by the parallel rails. The inevitable slow down when touching the water seems to be much reduced.
Gybing the board seems well mannered but tacking is slow no doubt due to the wide tail - I suppose I'll have to get a lot better at foil tacking!!
Overall I'm impressed by this board - clearly designed for racing but very good at just cruising around. Initially I was going to keep hold of the Foil 147 (which I really like) but there doesn't seem any sound reason for doing that!
I'll do some more posting on how this board goes with the soon-to-be-released Starboard RacePro foil - can't wait!
Good review!
You say the mast track has been moved forward. How far from the tail is the mast track (tail or front tuttle screw, whatever) ?
Select to expand quoteseanhogan said..
Millenium wing (1000) ,255 stab and 115 mast if my memory's correct
Think so, I have the 1000 wing and took for a test run the other day and was impressed with the lowend ability.
Yep, Sean is spot on with RacePro dimensions. Should be here in a few weeks time.
I did measure the distance from the front mast screw to the mast track on both boards - can't remember the exact measurements but the Foil 177 was about 3 -4cm further forward. I use to have the universal in the front half of the mast track on the Foil 147 and now it is about centre on the Foil 177 (position varies a bit with sail size/wind strength etc).
Good first impression ScottyDog
Yeah Bushfire! I rigged up my 7.8m NP RSS and went out in 7 - 11 knots. It got going super easy with just a slight bit of pumping. Was alot more power and found it easier to not use the rear strap to keep my weight forward. Because it was so light at times getting good upwind angles wasn't so easy. Eventually the wind dropped off and was a bit of a wallow home.
You have a nice review on the 177, but not sure I want beast of a board vs getting a 144 perhaps? Anyway not buying anything for the moment so will see what develops in the next few years!
Great write up! I too have the foil 147 and have thought about upgrading.
what size Fuse are you running?
Select to expand quoteIndecentExposur said..
Great write up! I too have the foil 147 and have thought about upgrading.
what size Fuse are you running?
I've got the "long" one (115cm) and the "short" one (75cm) as part of the Starboard kit (2 x fuse, 1 x mast, 2 x front wing, 2 x stab), so able to setup Race, GT, Slalom and Ultra combos.
I've found that the Foil 147 works just fine with all combo's - with a bit of footstrap and mast base positioning.
@Bushfire: Would be interesting if you would post your settings (mastfoot, footstraps) when using the different fuselage.
Select to expand quotebushfire said..IndecentExposur said..
Great write up! I too have the foil 147 and have thought about upgrading.
what size Fuse are you running?
I've got the "long" one (115cm) and the "short" one (75cm) as part of the Starboard kit (2 x fuse, 1 x mast, 2 x front wing, 2 x stab), so able to setup Race, GT, Slalom and Ultra combos.
I've found that the Foil 147 works just fine with all combo's - with a bit of footstrap and mast base positioning.
This is an excellent write up! Thank you! I have the SB Foil 147 and have been thinking of the 177. One quick question: How does the Foil 177 work with the shorter fuse? I noted that everything is jammed further forward on the 177, so I'm a little concerned that the smaller fuse won't lift as well as the longer one. Did you try the small fuse on the 177?IE
Well as an update, I just pulled the trigger on an Foil 177! I also have a bigger Foil Mast coming as well. My goal is to foil in the lightest wind possible. I have the 1100 front wing I want to slap on the long Fuse and see where I end up. Now, as for this cold, iced over water here in Colorado US, I need to wait or travel.
Hey Indecent, since you are in Colorado, do you know about wintertime sailing on Lake Mojave? It is on the Colorado River 80 miles downstream of Hoover Dam. Sailors from Utah, SoCal, Arizona, Nevada, and now WA state (me) flock there for strong shortboard north winds during the winter. It is kinda like going to Baja without leaving the USA. I was there last month and got 7 days in a row of shortboard foiling, for some great practice. Typical sail sizes range from 4.2 to 7.0.
If you google "cabinsite" there you can see more information about the location.
Was out sailing on cat on Sunday off Auckland east coast and saw one of these from distance. As we were coming back upwind got close enough to see it was the 177. Wind about 10 to 12 knots and bit of wind swell and looked good 
Hi JeffPop,
The rear wings on the Foil 147 were made out of carbon fibre with a "corflute" inner. I used the curve of the board from the existing rear straps to the rail as the shape for the wings. The wings have a support, L-shaped bracket that rests on the board just above the rails, the length of the wings.
I think I used 4 layers of carbon cloth top & bottom with extra re-inforcements around the connection holes and footstrap holes. It was all vacuum bagged. Divinycell is probably a better inner than corflute but the whole construction seems to have lasted the distance.
I sold the 147 to my foiling mate Matt about 6 months ago.
Got this used baby for little money last week and was able to test it at the same day it came to me
The trim fits much better to sb race foil than the jp 150, front straps are 4cm more forward. It starts planing much much earlier and landing at the scoop is less stress. Really happy with it.
So Starboard and JP do not mix 
Obviously the SB177 was designed to suit their race foil but the JP150 is a weird board, i'm not sure who was behind most of the design but they didn't have a great idea of what a race foil requires from a board; it was for a short time their PWA board after all. Remember it came out the same time as the SB177 and as soon as I saw it I thought...yep...they stuffed that up. Case in point, as soon as Antoine joined JP they very quickly released the 175 which is very similar in overall philosophy to the SB177, i'm sure he rode the 150 and said...yep...bin that.
It is interesting. Amado Vrieswijk was pretty happy on a previous gen JP155. He also did fine on 150 next season. Last season everyone was on larger displacement boards. I have a JP 155 first gen and it is very well balanced with SB race foil IMHO (which does not mean much).
