I’m guessing some of the race guys probably have some tricks up their sleeves.
Foils have their screws along the bottom of the fuse. The fuse is often at a high angle of attack when getting going, so any reduction could be good, no? I know the Hydrocraft guys talked about the reduction in drag they experienced when going from screw laden prototypes to more final gear with less screws (their mast connection looks epic btw).
Now that I think of it, I believe I have some moldable plastic somewhere (heat up in boiling water and then shape). I bet I could use that to push onto a screw, then shave down to flush. Simple to put a small notch in the back for a pointy tool to remove.
Could be a huge waste of time chasing that last .5% of drag reduction, but who knows until you try it, right?
I tried it with wax. I couldn’t tell the difference. I even peeled off the wax in the water in between rides for a very direct A/B test. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t make a difference, just that I personally tried to notice it and couldn’t.
And to be more clear, this A/B test was on AXIS ART-PRO 1051 foil (quite low drag for its time) fairing the 4 screws up front, two screws securing the mast, and two screws securing the tail.
To calibrate my ability to detect drag - I can immediately and easily notice the difference of 2mm of mast thickness, 10cm2 of tail size, and .25deg of tail shim. So the screw fairing must be less of an effect than all those.
Check these out https://flushfasteners.com/. I ordered a set but have been too nervous to use them as I worry about their strength, but somebody needs to try them!
