Starboard Quick Lock 2 and spacers review

The most important improvement is that the front part of the fuselage has become a lot thicker and that the front wings clearly fit tighter over it. In addition, there is a ‘brigde’ on the fuselage that fits exactly into a slot in the front wing. Both adjustments actually make the construction feel much stiffer. We now experience the ‘flex’ more or less comparable to a fuselage that consists of 1 part.

In addition to the thicker part, the fuselage has also become 2 centimeters longer on both sides. In addition to extra strength, this now also offers the possibility to move the front and or back wing 2 centimeters .m spacers. In the fuselage there are extra screw holes to secure the wings in different places.

The disadvantage of the upgrade to Quick Lock II is that the old front wings no longer fit on the Quick Lock II system. The rear part of the fuselage has not changed, so the old tail pieces (and therefore also the back wing) fortunately still fit.

Quick Lock II better response and feel on the water

On the water, our impression that we already had on the shore is immediately confirmed. The feeling during wingfoiling is much more direct and the response is much better. With the coming on the foil, pumping and carving you feel that the construction is really very stiff and not only reacts very immediately, but also gives back a lot of feeling. You feel exactly what is happening. This enhances the sensation of wingfoiling in our experience. In terms of stiffness and feel, the wingfoils are similar to the SABfoils, which is very good news.

Quick Lock II spacers, the magic rings!

Wind foiling has long known that longer fuselages have a huge impact on lift and stability. Of course, longer fuselages are at the expense of manoeuvrability, but it is cool that you can adjust the wingfoil to your sailing style and wind conditions. We are curious what the impact is of 1 or 2 Quick Lock II spacers at the Starboard wingfoils.

Front spacer more lift

We are the first to place the front spacer on the wingfoil and go back on the water. Because the front wing is now 2 cm further forward, the wingfoil generates more lift. So you get up faster. At the same time, the distance between the front wing and back wing is also increased by 2 centimeters. So in addition to more lift, the wingfoil also feels more stable (both height stability and straight stability).

The upwind performance and down wind performance also get a lot better with the front spacer. Again exactly what we already know from wind foiling.

Overall, the wingfoil gets more ‘easy going’ properties. Great if you are still learning it or want to cruise with little wind or want to wing up and down wind. The manoeuvrability of the wingfoil does decrease somewhat.

Rear spacer more stability

Then we also place the rear spacer on the Quick Lock II fuselage and go back on the water (we leave the front spacer). The lift remains the same, but the stability of the wingfoil increases considerably. It is even easier to wingfoil stably.

Especially with the wind being very gusty when we were testing, it gave us more comfort (less need to correct). Especially in combination with the front spacer, this is a set up that will appeal to many novice or slightly advanced wingfoilers.

If you only use the rear spacer, you will notice just name and improved stability.

The E-type series of Starboard is a series of high aspect front wings intended for the more advanced wingfoiler. More speed, better response and better pumping characteristics than the more all-round oriented S-Type. In 2021 there were only 2 sizes available, a 1700 cm2 and a 1300 cm2. There was quite a gap between them. That hole is now filled with the E-type 1500 cm2 front wing . And what a nice front wing this is. Nice and fast, yet enough lift to be able to absorb wind dips and small enough for very good manoeuvrability.

Certainly in combination with the spacers, we find the willingness to deploy so great that with little wind we would prefer to choose the 1500 cm2 over the 1700 cm2 that still feels a bit more cumbersome. But we like to choose the smallest possible front wing as quickly as possible for maximum speed and manoeuvrability.