The Ultimate FW Board Tuning Guide

In late 2007, the IFWC elected to lock the registration of Formula Boards for 2 years, meaning we’d all be riding the same boards in 2009 as we had been in 2008. Now, after a full season on the current boards, there exists an unprecedented opportunity to have your board ‘already’ dialled in for the new 2009 season. So, in order to help you to go faster, here at CarbonSugar we’ve asked some of the sports’ top professional FW sailors, to share their settings and opinions on the boards they are riding in both 2008 and 2009. Coupled with precise measurements and some inside information about the development of each board, here we present the most comprehensive current formula board tuning guide available anywhere on the internet; everything from mast-track, footstrap and boom positions, to recommended fins and cutout plate strategies. Enjoy!

There were 8 boards registered with ISAF for use on the FW circuit. These included, the F2 FX-Z/FX-VI, Mike’s Lab L8, Starboard F162/Apollo, Gaastra Vapor, Lorch Thunderbird Formula F1 and the Exocet Warp Formula 100. We haven’t had access to all of these boards as some of them weren’t available in the countries we tested in or weren’t properly represented on the FW Pro Circuit during 2008, so for the purpose of this tuning guide we’ve only reviewed the more mainstream and widely available of the boards which included, Starboard F162, Gaastra Vapor, F2 FX-Z/FX-VI, Exocet Warp Formula 100.

The riders interviewed for this tuning guide include:

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* right now, we haven’t been able to get access to any of the new F2 boards for measurement. If someone would like to supply these measurements, that would be great! Email them to Sean.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

We’ve supplied fin suggestions based on the fins the riders have previously tried with the boards. Its possibly that many different styles of fins will work with each board. We’re not suggesting you need have one of the suggested fins or you are wasting your time, merely that if you had already decided to buy a fin, here’s some helpful suggestions on model. We’ve tried to suggest a model from each brand but obviously not every fin was available to every rider. Consult your fin maker for more specifics before making a decision.

Mast-track settings and boom-height will change dramatically based on the fin you are using. We have given the settings as a ‘guide’ only. Start with our settings and then make adjustments to your own preferences and sailing styles.

Starboard F162 / FWOD

Starboard released two versions of their F162 board. The second version, released mid way through 2008, was an identical board given the graphics of FWOD (Formula Windsurfing One-Design, pictured left) as Starboard made a bid to create the new Olympic Windsurfing equipment for the 2012 Olympics. Although Starboard always maintained the shapes were identical, there was some speculation that the rocker lines were changed on the newer FWOD versions (weweren’t able to find this on the boards we measured however) to give them less flat towards the tail however, the main feature riders will notice is that the new F162’s or FWOD versions, sport a thicker grey paint and logo on the bottom of the board, either to stay with ISAF’s policies on Olympic equipment being difficult to modify by sanding or to help with early problems they had with the board with the veneer of the bottom of the boards weeping.

The F162 came under early criticism from the general public on the windsurfing forums that the board wasn’t performing well compared to its competitor’s boards, however, after a 12 months on the market it would appear now that it was just a case of sailors not realising how different this board was to its predecessors and not tuning the board correctly.

BOARD DESIGN / CHARACTERISTICS:

Compared to the F160/F161 Starboards, the new F162 is considerably wider in the tail and has a wider and thinner nose, with considerably less nose-rocker leading up to the front of the board. The concept behind the thinner and flatter nose, was to aid with the ‘sticking’ problems that the 160 and to some extent the 161 had downwind, whereby the big and bulky noses of these boards would catch each wave and slow the board down. This new nose has been quite successful in improving downwind speed on the F162 even with the wider tail, which although helps immensely with upwind ability, the wider the tail, the more wetted surface-area you are dragging downwind.

This board sails incredibly ‘flat’, meaning that the nose sticks to the water and the board feels very rigid and stiff under your feet.  Because of the flat nose-rocker, you need to be mindful of always trying to set up your gear to keep the nose clear of the water. Even with good rail pressure, without the nose lifting you can produce too much leeward rail engagement, which slows the board down. As a result, the best tuning settings are ones that free the nose and help to rail the board.

FINS:

No doubt, with the ‘flat’ characteristics this board has when it sails makes fin choice a lot more critical then previous Starboard boards. The F162 requires an extremely powerful fin to help rail the board and lift the nose to get the board to ‘free up’ and stop sticking to the water. Don’t mistake a powerful fin for simply just an ‘upright’ fin; these are two different things. What the board requires is a powerful fin and the best way to do this is to try fins with little to no ‘geometric twist’ and torsionally stiff. The best fins showing these characteristics are the Kashy XS/XXS, VMG Blades ‘K’ model and Hurricane FRB6 with ‘0’ twist. During testing this board we found the Deboichet R20 not powerful enough to keep the nose of the board lifting.

The fins we recommended for this board are currently:
{column1}
Light Winds:

– Kashy 72/70 XS
– Ifju LWXS 70*
– VMG Blades K76/70
– Hurricane FRB6 ‘680’ S- 72/70
{/column1}

{column2}
Strong Winds:

– Kashy 70cm XS
– Ifju LWXS 70
– VMG Blades K70
– Hurricane FRB6 ‘680’ S- 70

{/column2}

*We hadn’t tried a cutdown Ifju at the time of testing. But presumably they would be as good as the 70.

In lightwinds, the tail width of this board will allow cutdown fins up to 72/76cm however most of the riders using this board used 72/74cm fins. The board requires a lot of power both from your fin and also from your sail, so it is recommended in light/medium winds to always use the biggest sail possible. Pro rider Jesper Vesterstrøm suggested he used his 11.8m sail up to 18 knots which is higher than other riders on other boards.  The extra power from your sail will help generate the lift the board needs to rail and also help power the bigger cutdown fins you are using.

MAST-TRACK and STRAP POSITIONS:

This board sails very flat, so to counteract this characteristic you need to get all the power and leverage towards the back of the board. Start with the mast-track all the way in the back (with your plate covering the serial number even) and straps in the back holes (front and back straps). Your boom height will depend on your style, however it is recommended to use as higher boom height as possible to help lift the nose of the board. Using larger cutdown fins, may cause the nose to sit lower in the water due to the amount of vertical-lift they produce; having a high boom, straps and mast-track back will help to counteract the fin and the boards insitence to keep sailing flat.

In stronger winds, the mast-track can be moved forward to aid with control, however it is not recommended to go much further than the middle of the track, even in hurricane conditions.

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Overall, this is a very comfortable board to sail and the specified weights of the boards we measured were all within tolerances. It may require a little bit more tuning than other boards if you have been riding the previous Starboard FW boards as the F162 is a very different animal to its predecessors.

Gaastra Vapor Racing

Gaastra entered the Formula Board market quite late, with the Vapor Racing 2008 board their first ever FW board. Shaped by Tabou shaper Fabien Vollenweider and developed by Steve Allen (AUS-0) and Hubert Mokrzycki (POL-25), Gaastra were pretty quick to snag a good market share of the FW boards sold in 2008, even if it took them 10 months to acknowledge the board even existed on their website!

BOARD DESIGN / CHARACTERISTICS:

We’ve written a more in depth review of the Gaastra board which you can read here, however, the fins have changed immensely since that article was published and we recommend using the settings mentioned below rather than in the previous review.

The general characteristics of the Vapor board are that its got a nice amount of scoop-rocker, a very wide tail, similar (which we like!) cutouts to the F162 and a very well designed nose which has just the right amount of vee/concave and thin outline built in to it to make this board a real performer downwind, even in strong winds.

The board arguably feels similar under the feet to a Starboard F160, however, with the wider tail, the board feels much more ‘free’ even in light winds. It is a very ‘aggressive’ board, meaning that the nose rides high in the water and the board feels very twitchy and responsive under your feet. Although, there will be no problems with control, even in high winds, with this board, the general ride characteristics are that the board is extremely loose and ‘flighty’ with the nose being lifted easily and fin/rail pressure being generated easily. All the tuning settings for this board are to keep the nose tracking straight without bobbing up and down which is can do with the wrong mast-track position. This is one of the few boards that is not very fin specific, almost any fin will work and feel comfortable with the board, which is a great attribut to its design.

FINS:

As we mentioned, this board works well with almost any from an old Deboichet R13 up to the latest Kashy/VMG etc super soft fins. With the very forgiving feeling this board has in high winds and the safety the nose of this board creates when sailing downwind in big swell, it will be possible to use much larger fins in higher winds with the Vapor board. We found the best fins suited to this board are the newer, much softer, swept-back fins such as Kashy, VMG Blades, Deboichet R20 and Hurricane FRB6 as these fins create a bit of vertical lift under the board which helps to keep the nose down a little and under control.

Different to the Starboard F162, you don’t need as much power from the fin to generate rail pressure with this board, so we recommend getting fins with maximum amount of twist in the tip which will help depower and settle the board down when the fin loads up in high winds and will also allow a much more comfortable and smooth ride downwind at deeper angles.

The fins we recommended for this board are currently:
{column1}
Light Winds:

– Kashy 74/70 XS
– Ifju LWXS
– VMG Blades K76/70 (Gaastra model)
– Hurricane FRB6 ‘682’ S- 72/70
– Deboichet R20
{/column1}

{column2}

Strong Winds:

– Kashy 70cm XS
– Ifju LWXS
– VMG Blades K73 or K70 (Gaastra model)
– Hurricane FRB6 ‘682’ S- 70
– Deboichet R20
{/column2}

MAST-TRACK and STRAP POSITIONS:

With a 12m sail, the mast-track should sit in the middle of the track. Any further back and you begin to stall the board as it does not require the track so far back to lift the nose, the shape of the board does this automatically. As it is quite an aggressive board, when the wind gets up you need to move the track forward to keep control of the nose. With the track 2-3cm further forward than centre, the board comes in to its own in strong winds, with a very comfortable and easy ride, despite how responsive the board feels under your feet. It might be possible to stay in the outside straps in strong winds much longer on this board compared with any other, due to its nose shape and wide tail. Straps should always be in the back holes on this board and boom height needs to be as high as comfortable.

We recommend running a higher boom and mast-track further forward to keep the nose at the optimum control level. If you were to move your mast-track further back than middle (to help lift the nose) and then run your boom lower to compensate, the board seems to ‘stall’ a little and be slower to get planing.

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Overall, Gaastra have done a very good job providing one of the few boards this season that is as fast as it is easy to sail and tune. Any fin, any sail and any sized rider will suit this board.

Exocet Warp Formula 100

It was said that Exocet’s Patrice Belbeoch developed the Warp Formula 100 entirely on his own without testing against another rider or another board brand. Whether that is true or not, Patrice certainly came up with a very different board for the 2008 season, turning away from trends or copying other designs and creating one of the most talked about boards in 2008. With its slick carbon look and black paint, the new Exocet, aka the “Black Machine” turned a few heads this year when Argentinian rider Gonzalo Costa-Hoevel ended his long-term deal with F2 to ride the new Exocet.

BOARD DESIGN / CHARACTERISTICS:

The first thing to notice about this board is the weight. At its ISAF registered weight, the Warp Formula is nearly 1kg lighter than than any other board on the market and we’ve found by weighing a number of different boards the gap could even be more than 1kg.

Much like the F162, the Exocet sails extremely flat, with the nose sticking to the water, however this characteristic is due much more to the underside of the board’s shape. There is very little rocker and concave in this board and very little nose-rocker towards the front. Exocet have widened the tail of this board immensely and the Exocet has become the widest tailed board behind the new F2’s, with an extra 1cm over the F162 and 2cm over the Vapor at the 30cm off mark.

The board has a similar sailing feeling to the F162 upwind in that the board sails incredibly ‘flat’ with the nose sticking to the water, however it feels a lot more stiff and rigid under your feet than the F162, probably due to the wider tail and flatter rockerline. With the super light weight, the board planes up considerably earlier than other boards with an 11m sail and has extremely good upwind angles in lightwind with its flat bottom shape. The nose appears to stick a little downwind in stronger breezes however this can be fine-tuned with the right fins and setup.

FINS:

Much like the Vapor board, the Exocet’s strengths are that it appears to suit a variety of fins. Everything from older R13 fins up to the latest Kashy/VMG etc super soft fins. The extra width in the tail allows the rider to use a big fin in stronger breezes however the fin must be working to help lift the nose of the board otherwise it could be counter-productive. Different fins give this board a different riding style. Using more traditional fins such as the R13, the board feels incredibly stiff under your feet and generates a lot of lift and speed upwind. As the R13 is a fin that generates a lot of ‘railing’ very easily downwind, we found this fin to give almost the best performance downwind in a variety of windstrengths as it helped rail the board which could clear the ‘sucking’ nose of swells and also reduce the wetted surface area of the board downwind; decreasing drag.

Despite what fin you decide to use, the fin needs to have considerably less rake than other board models. A fin that is less upright will help to lift the nose of the board and may also generate a little more geometric twist in the fin which can help with speed downwind and giving the board a more comfortable ride downwind.

The fins we recommended for this board are currently:
{column1}
Light Winds:

– Kashy 72/70 XS (rake 4.5 deg)
– VMG Blades K73/70 (rake 5 deg)
– Deboichet R13 S– 70 (rake +4)
– Deboichet R20 70 (rake +4)
{/column1}

{column2}

Strong Winds:

– Kashy 72/70 XS (rake 4.5 deg)
– VMG Blades K70 or K68 (rake 5 deg)
– Deboichet R13 S– 70 (rake +4)
– Deboichet R20 70 (rake +4)
{/column2}

MAST-TRACK and STRAP POSITIONS:

The mast-track on this board needs to be run as far back as possible at all times; even in strong winds. The same goes for the footstraps. The reason being, upwind you need to release the nose of the board and having your setup all in the back with maximum pressure on your fin will help to generate the rail pressure needed to lift the nose of the board. Downwind, this board is susceptible to the nose catching waves and slowing down. To counteract this you must get your weight centralised over the back of the board and aggresively rail the board with your feet. Hitting the swell at an angle, whilst the board is extremely railed, will help reduce drag and improve your speed downwind. Fin choice will help with this and one of the main reasons we’ve included the R13 fin with this board is that it is arguably the best fin to generate the rail pressure needed to rail this board downwind and ‘fly the fin’.

On another note, there has been mixed responses as to whether this smaller, lighter board can handle a 12m. The Exocet feels lower on volume than other boards on the market (even though on paper, it is even bigger than some of the other baords) because the overall thickness of the board is less at the the tail and the flatter rockline makes the board appear to sit lower in the water. Although, Gonzalo has been using 12m successfully in light winds in the early part of this season, some heavier riders might find this board a little harder to get planing with the bigger rigs because the board will stall when the nose is pushed down during pumping.

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Overall, Exocet have done a great job with this board and provided an interesting competitor to the F162, Vapor and F2 boards. This board, might have more advantages for lighter riders as it ‘may’ have more potential for early planing used with an 11m sail in lighter winds. It is a very easy board to sail/trim upwind however might require a bit more tuning downwind to get the best speed out of the board.

F2 FX-Z

F2 did something unusual in response to the IFWC’s two-year board design lock; they registered two boards, with the FX-VI being produced early on for the 2008 season and the FX-Z only being made available to the ‘general’ consumer much later in the 2008 season. Although the boards share some common characteristics, they are two different boards, with F2 shaper Patrik Diethelm working with Gonzalo Costa-Hoevel on the boards before Gonzalo switched to the Exocet team halfway through 2008. The boards appear to have followed two completely different development paths, each following on from the 2006 and the 2007 F2 boards, which were very different in concept.

For the purpose of describing the general characteristics, we will describe both the FX-Z and FX-VI at once.

BOARD DESIGN / CHARACTERISTICS:

Compared to the other boards on the market, the major design feature of the F2’s is their incredibly wide tails, with the Z being slightly wider than the VI and both being almost 5cm wider than any other board at the one foot off mark. Both boards sport a very rounded outline in their tail and a lower overall scoop-rocker than previous F2 boards which allows them to have good early planing ability despite the drag of the extra tail width.

Looking at both the boards, they appear very square as the tail is almost the width of the nose, but on the water is where they show their abilities. Both boards have a very ‘aggressive’ sailing style which is a little bit more technical to sail comfortably than other boards on the market. The F2 boards are easily railed with their flat vee section in the tail and very sharp rails in the middle however this can also make the boards feel very ‘flighty’ in stronger winds and chop and more mast-track forward pressure is needed to keep the nose down.

It is probably a fair comment that these are both ‘lightwind’ specialist boards. With the added tail width, it’s possible to run fins bigger than ever before (Pro Rider Dennis Littel used an 83cm cutdown Kashy fin in light winds with the FX-Z in 2008) as the added leverage from the board’s tail width allows greater control. The majority of riders will be using much larger cutdown fins in 2009 as large (+76cm) cutdowns are still relatively new on the market. To some extent, the F2 boards have helped drive the need for bigger cutdown fins in other boards on the market.

In stronger winds these boards can become a little more difficult to sail as they require a taller and heavier rider who can use their height to leverage over the board to keep control and stop the board from flying the nose; especially downwind. Of course, the wider the tail the more leverage you get against the fin but also more drag you get whilst sailing. It is a tough comprimise with these F2 boards as they definitely have the best lightwind abilities of any board on the market this year but at the expense of being more difficult in stronger winds and a little more technical to keep the speed up downwind as the tail seems to suck a little on the downwind legs.

F2 recommends the VI as the choice for lighter sailors and the Z for heavier/taller sailors. This is a good recommendation as generally speaking, most of the taller, heavier riders on the tour used the Z versus the smaller guys using the VI when they had both to choose from.

BOOSTER PIPES / CUTOUT PLATES:

As usual, the F2’s sport the booster pipes and adjustable cutout plates to help with the tuning difficulties downwind. The concept behind the booster pipes and cutout plates have always generated a lot of discussion in the FW world and many theories are out there as to their effectiveness. Originally, when the pipes were brought in to their FW and slalom range in 2006, F2 stated that the pipes were to eliminate the vacuum created in the large tail cutouts while travelling at speed. From testing the boards in the past seasons that have used the pipes, its been more apparent that the pipes play a better role in reducing the vacuum at low speeds especially when trying to pump on to the plane. The same can be said for the current boards, as the tail width does have the propencity to ‘suck’ to the water whilst trying to initiate planing.

The cutout plates, give the rider four options (with plastic ringed spacers allowing the adjustments) by either using no plates, or putting 1-3 rings in between them to make the cutout depth smaller. All of our test riders found the board performed best with 2 rings in on both boards; in either strong or light winds, upwind or downwind.

FINS:

No doubt, with the insane tail width of these boards, it’s possible to use bigger fins than ever before. We had tested a smaller amount of fins out with these boards so there may be many more options available, but for tuning purposes, fins that work with the VI will work in the Z. Softer tipped and fins with a little bit more ‘geometric twist’ are a must with these boards to help release the board a little bit from the water and help it to rail. The fins need to be fast to generate the best lift but also to be powerful to help rail the board downwind. The best fins showing these characteristics are the Kashy XS/XXS, VMG Blades ‘K’ and ‘B’ models, the R20 and Ifju LW models.

The fins we recommended for this board are currently:
{column1}
Light Winds:

– Kashy 78-80/70 XS
– Ifju LWXS 70*
– VMG Blades K78/70, B78/70
– Deboichet R20
{/column1}

{column2}
Strong Winds:

– Kashy 70cm XS
– Ifju LWXS 70
– VMG Blades K70
– Deboichet R20

{/column2}

F2 FX-Z

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F2 FX-VI

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We hope you are able to use this guide to better tune your boards in 2009. CarbonSugar would like to stress that it is actually a ‘guide’ and not a definitive tuning methodology. Everyone is different and we only sampled a small number of fins, so please our recommendations as a basis to begin tuning and try your own settings to see if they are faster.

Feel free to post your comments/suggestions and personal experiences about the boards in the comments so the discussion can be built on.