I’m riding the Gofoil RS 1000 on the short 26.5" mast and its been teriffic, snappy, agressive turning. Its like a mini foil. Really love it. Well worth the extra work if there’s any kind of bump.
Threw the 1150 on the other day in some gutless stuff and it was a nightmare. The extra span (2 in of either side) had me breaching and washing out constantly. Really needed that extra few inches of mast to keep the tips clear. It was really annoying coaching myself the whole time “Slow and steady buddy, take it nice and easy, not too snappy…”
Makes me feel like wing span and mast length have a close relationship. I probably should be on something longer (to accomodate the 1150 on small days and optimize the 1000 on bigger days) but i just love that compact, direct feeling with the small wing, even in the bigger, choppy stuff.
From one Heavy to another…
Have you tried taking the lift out with the tail? Can’t live with rapid unexpected breaching(RUB) to much. Hard heeled over turns are always going to be challenging depending on how your foil vents. Don’t ride the Go’s in particular so can’t make suggestions there, but I do ride gut-less knee to thigh surf with 24" masts (Axis 1150 and the Armie1850).
Regarding your smaller is better point… yep… Smaller is always better as long as you’re getting the time on foil.
I’m a huge fan of “surf” wings over wider wingspans typically found on “high aspect” wings. My favorite wing was the lift 150surfv2 for a long time. Sold my ha170 and didn’t look back. The ha120 never did it for me. Finally they came out with the ha90 which has a comparable wing span to the “surf” series. Made all the difference in the world.
I think I remember hearing @KDW say somewhere a long time ago that your mast should equal your wingspan. Or be close to it at least.
I ride the lift 28" mast. I’ve tried the 24" and it was to short for me personally. Same reasons you listed. When you’re nursing bottom turns due to your mast being to short that’s not fun. I’ve also spent quite a bit of time on a 82cm mast. I was OK with the longer mast. More room for error. It does seem to be ever so slightly delayed in response time. I’d err on going longer than shorter if I had to pick one though.
Why are you worried about breaching the RS tips, because nothing happens if you do.
By nursing your turn/banking you might create too much lift and breach instead.
I’m a lightweight so take with a grain a salt or two.
I think moving from the 1000 to the 1150 I’m leaning into a turn with what would be a survivable breach on 1000 and that ends up being a big nasty breach(past the step) on the 1150. Honestly I don’t like to go fall stuff that much, it’s just the only thing that stays in one piece for me.
The lift 150 is really close in size to the go foil 1000. With regards to the mast length and wingspan I think it also has a lot to do with Your ride style. If you want to bank harder go long if you want to be more responsive go shorter.
I think it’s just the span on that bigger wing. I have a pretty aggressively chopped tail so things are already pretty dialed back there. It’s not like in drops it’s those quick little pivot turns on the top that would maybe suck all air on a small wing and recover but just aren’t as recoverable on the big wing. My muscle memory wants to do a turn that’s just not possible on the big wing.
The 29.5 mast always felt like a sweet spot to me on the gofoil gear. You were having to safety surf on the 1150 with that short mast. Takes alot of the fun out of it!
In addition to shorter wingspans, and better wingtip ventilation, I think wings with more anhedral tend to work better with shorter masts since you can lean over more before it ventilates.