Downwind Wingfoil racing

[peterp]

Last night I did my first dwd race on the wing-foil. It was great fun but racing downwind using a wing is a bit of an oxymoron....

Racing is about completing the course in the shortest possible time and going dwd is all about riding the bumps, linking them and using the energy of the ocean as much as possible. Throw in a wing and you can sheet in and race through the bumps - basically changing the feeling from surfing to yachting.

On a foil with no wing it's an art to go fast - a wing kind of takes that away as the most fun is to try and flag out the wing and just stay with the bumps which means the guy in yachting mode will invariably go faster.....

Our Wednesday night Downwind Dash is open to all craft so we have Sups, Surfskis, Prone, Foil, Wing-foil and even  14ft SUP with a wing.

It's an institution in Cape Town and great fun https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=208254

[burchas]

...a wing kind of takes that away as the most fun is to try and flag out the wing and just stay with the bumps which means the guy in yachting mode will invariably go faster.....

Do you think that would still be the case if your course had a very fast moving ground swell?

Also, downwinging on a 14 footer is quite fun, way easier than using a paddle. Wing could be used to leverage turns very effectively. Trying to "yacht" it on s 14 footer was a very wet experience and not because of splashing