Aluminium mast 85 cm | Fuselage 87 cm | Wings Carbon | Frontwing 1.700 cm2 | Back wing 370 cm2 | Price € 1.099,-
The Starboard Super Cruiser is one of Starboard’s best-selling wind foils in 2019. We also use it frequently for our lessons and rentals. Time to pick it up
What we greatly appreciate about the Starboard wind foils is the modular structure. This makes it easy to upgrade your wind foil or replace parts. Unfortunately, Starboard has chosen to deal with the Super Cruiser a little differently. The mast is standard, but the fuselage and wings are not interchangeable. We regret this, but after some detective work it becomes clear why.
Mega surface of 1,700 cm2
No, it’s not a type of error. The frontwing has a mega area of 1,700 cm2 and is very thick. The front wing can be mounted on the fuselage at 2 positions. The default setting is close to the mast and the light weather setting is about 5 cm more forward. The rear wing can also be trimmed. Because the back wing can be tilted slightly, you can influence the degree of lift. And we soon notice that this works. We’re going to take about 12-18 knots into the water. In 1st instance we had the backwing on maximum (forward) ‘lift’. At that time there was more than 18 knots of wind with a blade 5.7 m2. Smaller could have been smaller, but there were also quite a few dips in the wind.
Of course, the foil went up quickly, but continued to give too much lift. It wasn’t actually doable, we really had to hang far forward. H’mm back to the side and the back wing differently tune than just. Then the backwing put on stability (backwards). The wind was still the same. This is a world of difference! We even struggled to get the board in the air and keep it. The lift was now totally gone. We almost didn’t come out of the water, even with louder gusts. H’mmm back to the side. Now put the back wing in the middle. That turned out to be much better set up. Lots of lift and good to control. The set up was right now. We were relaxed on the board now.
Relaxed Foiling
Now that the setting was right, we were able to focus on the flight characteristics. I can’t believe how fast this foil is coming up. You really only just have to plan and with a little technique it goes up and the board stays up. It feels less stable than the freeride. The foil feels ‘looser’ and more playful than the freeride. Jibes are really super simple. Even if the wind drops, you can foiling. That’s a lot harder with freeride when the wind gets less. The Super Cruiser is less fast than the Freeride. It’s more easy going. With this foil, you can stand with the rear foot between the rear foot between the front and rear foot strap on the board. So just cruising. If you go too far back, it’s harder to control the lift. As the wind subsided (about 12 to 14 kn), the super cruiser came into its element more and more and it was also increasingly easier to foil with it. We were still able to foil with 5.7 m2 with about 10 to 11 kn. Really special. In the lower wind range up to about 10 to 16 knots, this foil is the best in its element.
Trimming, well that makes it more complex
Both the front and the back wing is adjustable. In practice, the front wing is always in the default setting and also the back wing in the middle position. Only with very little wind or heavier surfers do we use the ‘lift’ setting of the back wing. We understand why the trim options are on this wind foil, but we are also afraid that this will make things even more complex. As we have experienced ourselves, this can also lead to disappointments if you do not use the right trim. Our advice, always start with the default trim and go 1 for 1 things to adjust and start with the back wing!
Who’s this foil for?
The Freeride is a very all-round foil, stable, relatively fast and you can also use a lot of wind (up to about 24 kn) to foil. In addition, the freeride is particularly forgiving. The Starboard Super Cruiser feels less all round, doing very well in the lower wind range (and therefore much better than the Freeride). Being able to adjust the backwing is also necessary in our experience to maximise the deployment range of this foil. We think the Super Cruiser is especially suitable for wave and freeride oriented windsurfers. An ideal wind foil for cruising and in the lower wind range a lot better than the freeride. And with that we think the Super Cruiser is a big upgrade compared to the Freeride.