Distance between mast and front wing

Axis has the advance fuse which moves the front wing closer to the mast. As a result you have to move the mast a bit forward to compensate. The advantage is supposedly better turning, maybe losing a bit of pitch stability. Some people say that the advance mast is better for pumping, some people say it isn’t. What are your thoughts on this? Not specific to axis, just in general theory. Also would be nice to know what kind of distances other brands use, is Axis the only brand to give you this option?

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Turns better and feels way more surfy. Much more fun on the wave.
Harder to pump imo but you kinda get used to it.

I went from a crazy short to adv crazy short fwiw.

I think of it as moving a fin forward on a surfboard, making it turn quicker and easier. Plus you’ve got a little less flex in the system as the lever from the foil to the baseplate is a lot shorter on the horizontal plane.
I’ve just moved to Axis, straight onto the advanced red and black fuses. To be honest, I haven’t noticed a difference in pumping the PNG wings from the few goes I’ve had on the old fuses, and the Spitfire pumped so easily compared to my last brand, I’m stroked and frothy :slight_smile:
There’s a podcast called The Generic Foiling Podcast which featured Adrian Roper recently, who explains the initial and recent R&D for choosing the mast to wing fuse length. Worth a listen.
Last point, I’ve heard there’s an Advanced Plus fuse coming out, which moves the mast another 20mm further forward.

Hey Meow,
I have used both versions prone and SUP.
If anything moving the mast forward on the fuse makes pumping a bit more responsive, as your back foot will become slightly behind the mast giving you more leverage.
The biggest noticeable difference to me is in the yaw axis of turning. The mast- the pivot point in turns, is moved forward, and both foils stay the same. So moving forward you reduce the surfboard single fin feeling of having the mast at the back of the box. You get a looser, more ‘twin fin’ surfboard feeling, tighter turn arcs.
From the top side, your back foot goes from in front of the mast, to over or behind the mast.
Also, it’s worth noting that there’s other ways to tighten your turning circle- smaller front and rear foils, shorter fuse etc.

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