I am looking for a beginner wing foil package. I am 178cm 86 kg, some windsurfing experience . I would like to keep the wing-foiling set on my sailboat
Lots of options. Lots of questions.
What are conditions like where you are intending to learn? How often do you get 15-20 knot winds to learn in? Is it smooth waters or choppy and influenced by currents?
How motivated are you? How skilled are you at picking up new watersports? Do you have any injuries?
If you're learning in difficult conditions ensure you get a board that's big enough. If you're going to park it on your yacht, an inflatable might be a good option (depending on how much room you have available onboard)? There's a rule of thumb that suggests a board 10-30 litres more than your weight is a good starting point. I'd suggest that's relevant if you are learning in smooth waters and youre motivated and skillful. If not, don't be scared to add 30 litres to that 10-30 litres. That means for you, you might look at a board 120-140 litres depending on the above factors. The thing to be aware of, is if you get a board that's 20 litres too big, it's not going to dramatically affect your learning curve, especially early on. If you get a board that's 10 litres smaller than your optimum, you might end up spending a lot of time in the water, rather than up on top. That can really be frustrating.
As for wings, I go on wingspan not area. I'm slightly shorter than you (174cm) and have dodgy shoulders and find a 4.5m Duotone Unit is as big as I can carry without toughing the wingtips when trying to pump up onto foil. For you, a 5m or 5.5m might be good. Careful going too big as these sorts of wings can be more cumbersome than beneficial. Maybe try a wing before you buy?
Foils are another difficult one to advise on. Generally speaking you probably want a medium aspect foil with a thick leading edge to provide plenty of lift when learning. Something maybe around 1500-1700 cm2?? If you get keen on wave activities and speed, then this will likely become limiting - but that's down the track.
To give you the best start, I'd suggest get a lesson with an instructor first and get them to assist with advice which might be more specific to what you want (inc above on wing advice). Most lessons will begin with wing skills - which you should do well with as windsurfers tend to pick up wing skills pretty fast. The foiling take a little longer.....
Hope that helps. Glad to see you get on board.
martyJ4, that's a great summation. I'd like to reinforce the idea of taking a lesson...maybe even before buying gear. Getting a few pointers from the get go may help avoid/navigate early pitfalls. Moreover the gear used for the lesson should be "tuned" to a beginning rider like you (your height/weight). Consider buying something similar.
Also I would add - tell us where u are. it's a friendly community I have demo and loan boards etc there are instructors here etc but you won't really get offers with no location