Wings Shapes and Angles

Have you ever noticed that we can find almost no info about different shapes of Wings? We find a lot of info about the construction of Wings. We talk about “booms” and “hand loops”. But nobody talks about Aspect ratio, Chordline or Dihedral angles for Wingfoil Wings.

The information for consumers is also somewhat meager at the manufacturers websites. We often see tables in which wing sizes are assigned to wind speeds. But the body weight is disregarded and if we have the body weight anyway, then the foil setup is disregarded.

For example:

I myself weigh +/- 75kg – have a 1850cm2 foil and a 4.5m2 wing. What is the optimal wind speed for me? According to my experience about 12 -18 knots (4-5 Bft.). So we need to find an equation that we can solve for the different variables.

My daughter is 12 years old and weighs a lot less than me. For her my material would be way too much. She can easily fly with a 1200cm foil and a 2.5m wing in the same conditions as me.

Lets do some math:

I weigh 85kg, but only have a 4m wing and a 1550cm foil: how strong does it have to blow for me to “fly” well. Of course it’s hard to calculate and most people have to find out for themselves by just going out. But if I take my example into consideration then I would estimate 22 – 26 knots (6Bft.).

or

I weigh 65kg, have a 4m wing, it blows 28 knots (7Bft). Which foil do I use? My 1200 or my 1440? I would go with the 1200.

I think the industry still has some catching up to do in terms of advising consumers properly. The volume of the board itself plays a subordinate role in this case. Because once you fly, it no longer plays a role.

Important for beginners and all those who can not or do not want a water start:

Body weight + 20 = Liter volume that will carry you. We will be talking about this in another video.