Question for y'all. Has anyone played with bottom handle placement for windfoil?
On my last board I installed it just in front of the tracks, which seems typical. It worked fine, but it's so far aft of the CG that the nose wants to drag. I can lift it with the sail by sheeting in to send the sail towards the ground, the sails center is above the boom, so the boom is the fulcrum and therefore the UJ gets lifted. Counterintuitive and with a small unwanted down force but it's been working for me. Carrying the board unrigged by the handle is doable but would be easier if it was closer to the cg.
On an experimental board I moved the handle forward about 7.5 inches to get it close to the CG. That balanced the weight better, but I seem to remember hating it when rigged in the wind. I think what was happening was the setup stopped weather-vaning and just wanted to push me over. That was a couple years ago, and I didn't ride the board much, so my memory's a bit fuzzy. The weather-vaning is really important in the white water, it lines the board up with the wave and keeps the drag lower, so I want to keep that feature.
I'm getting close to laminating a new board and wondering whether to split the difference or just keep it just in front of the boxes. What do you think?
