I held off writing this until I had some water time. I bought a cheap Chinese foil (under $400) off Amazon for something new and different to experiment with. It was cheaper than I could have bought a single front wing for my existing foil system. Here's the link:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZLZXGJL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I knew at this price this would not be a top-notch piece of equipment, but I was willing to take a risk. The fit and finish are lacking. I did the following modifications:
- Filed the fuselage socket slightly to get the mast to fit into it. It would not fit as delivered.
- Drilled out four of the baseplate holes to accept standard 8 mm bolts. Countersunk those holes.
- Slightly increased the countersink bevel on both front & rear wings so the hardware would sit more flush.
- The bolts that attach the fuselage to the mast and base plate to mast are too long (holes are not threaded deep enough) so I cut the bolts down by ~1/4".
- The fit of the fuselage into the front wing is loose. I put 5 layers of aluminum tape to tighten it up and one end is still a little sloppy. I may shim it more to reduce stress at the bolt locations.
- One of the wing tips came damaged so I ground it down slightly on each side to get rid of the cracked tip. There was a void in the tip, which I filled with JB Weld 2-part epoxy made for carbon.
The assembly is a full 5 lbs. lighter than my previous Slingshot I84 with same 71 cm mast length. Instead of two 8 mm bolts per connection it uses three 6 mm bolts to attach mast to baseplate and mast to fuselage. The wings have a nice looking shape, higher aspect than I84. I would estimate the front wing is about 1600 cm2.
I switched to Armstrong foils in January and have been winging and wake foiling on the HS1850 and 1250, and I love them. I have about 15-20 wingfoil sessions and about as many wakefoil since switching to Armstrong. I put this Chinese foil on the wakeboard today to try out behind the boat. It rode really nicely, to no surprise. The tail stab is bigger than my 232 Armie and the whole setup handled really nicely. I surfed the 2nd wake behind my 13' Boston Whaler (i.e. tiny waves) and it was very fun and handled well. I did 4 or 5 wake transfers (2nd to 2nd) and it pumped and glided smoothly. Overall I'd say it was a decent value after I put some time in fixing deficient construction. The lightweight alone was a plus compared to the heavy Slingshot stuff. I won't be giving up my Armstrong gear but this is worth keeping on the boat and using regularly.
I will try to remember to take some pics.