Hi I run older KA race sails on my Tribal boards. So far this summer I have experimented quite a bit with strap locations and mast track and found all of these boards share a similar sweet spot. At least for me and the way I want to sail.
My setup is targeting rear strap 3rd hole from the rear in the railside cluster. The front is also railside and approx second from the front. See the pic. This setup for me is well balanced front rear with less curling toes to hold on and good back foot pressure. It also stabilisers the board to a near auto pilot level and improves upwind performance with smaller fins.
The mast track location is super important for board trim and performance. Even slightly too far forward pushes the nose down increasing board slap on chop and pumping up drag My sweet spot is shown in the picture.
This spot gives me ideal trim control and ability to easily flight the nose over chop. These board absolutely destroy chop if set up right and give a lot of confidence to push it harder.
The other benefit of the right mast base location is ability to run smaller fins without much spin out.
I have experimented with big and small sails large and very small fins and I keep coming back to the same spots.
Your sails will likely behave differently to mine but the idea of getting the trim right and not overly pushing the nose down will probably be the same. Happy sailing.
Hi, I am very interested in the Tribal board range too. Very interesting, your report reminds me of the behaviour of my previous '14 m? boards. Those too, asked for mast foot placement not too forward as that resulted in the nose stitching down and continuous slow down - accellerate again in short chop. Setting the mast foot back resulted in great chop clearing with superb control, IF a good fin was fit.
I have been very happy with these boards the performance is very good and they gybe in any kind of chop/swell/boat wakes very well.
Also they are reasonably priced for a full carbon layup compared to other brands that have gone well above $4k per board.
Definitely a step up from other gear I have used. The good thing about have a really defined tune point is that its just how you set it up for all sails/conditions pretty much all the time.
Takes the guess work out when conditions are changing or sailing a different spot.
Mast foot at around 130cm I see. All my Exocet free ride/race have 130 +/- 1cm. Latest AV board 130.5cm.
Interesting i wonder how similar the rocker lines are. I compared my Tribals to a Tabou Manta and it was very different check the pic
Select to expand quoteAlAal76 said..
Interesting i wonder how similar the rocker lines are. I compared my Tribals to a Tabou Manta and it was very different check the pic
My 3 freerace boards are very different in rocker line, tail shape/volume and footstrap positions. I think its just coincidence that the mast foot positions are all around 130cm.
If I were to use a sail with the CoE further back than my current sails, I might end up with the mast foot further forward so the CoE is still in the same place in relation to fin/straps.
Select to expand quoteAlAal76 said..
Interesting i wonder how similar the rocker lines are. I compared my Tribals to a Tabou Manta and it was very different check the pic
Typically the rocker lines on Lockwood designed boards are more stretched out compared to other designs.
Select to expand quotePhilUK said.
I think its just coincidence that the mast foot positions are all around 130cm.
I don't think it's a coincidence and 130 cm seems to be the default for many many years now across many different boards and shapes. There will be exceptions, but as you mentioned in your post, despite the different shapes in your boards they still have the same mast foot position so this doesn't come as a surprise to me.
