Once you’ve got your foil, your board, there’s the question of sailing? What to choose? Cambers ? Without cambers? Large or small surface?
It will depend on your ambitions: race/power or lightness/ease.
Sail with or without cambers
Cambers provide power and stability in the high rpm range. However, this also means heavier sails. The extra weight therefore requires more wind and speed before taking off on the foils. A sail without cambers will be much lighter and more flexible. It offers more dynamism to take off and fly easily. On the other hand, it will deliver less apparent wind in the low rpm range, which will make it less fast in this area. For high speeds, a sail without cambers will have to be quite stiff with a taut leech to be effective. With or without cambers, the choice will in any case be for a sail that is more slender than compact. Indeed, a large and flexible head could create movement which would be reflected in instability on the foil (pendulum effect).
Making the right choice of sail surface
It’s all about weight. The smaller the canopy, the lighter it will be and therefore the sooner you will take off and fly. Conversely, the larger the sail, the more weight it will add, so more wind will be needed to fly. However, once in flight, a larger surface area will bring more apparent wind and therefore speed. The larger the sail area we put on a small, low-volume float, the more wind is needed to lift it off the water.
Read our complete guide to getting started with windfoil.