Cody Ellem – I bought these after a lot of procrastination and research and I was really after a couple of things from them. Faster times of cause, but also cleaner catches and a more efficient drive. Really just an overall clearner stroke and I’m really happy with how they’ve performed. For me the results have been really interesting, I’ve kinda had to put most of what I knew about rigging and gearing aside because the foils have an almost opposite impact on everything. Conventionally gearing is longer leavers= slower stroke rate. Shorter leavers= higher stroke rates. The foils cause a mixture of the conventional and the complete opposite. When I first fitted them I shortened my blades because of the heavier feel they gave at first. This should have made my stroke rate go up however it dropped by a significant amount. As I’ve gotten stronger and more use to them I’ve now increased my blade length back to where they were without any negative effects on the performance.
First as the blade is engaged at the catch you can see how it’s loaded up and the depth is spot on straight away. This is the drop and pull I’ve mentioned before. No more drop, engage, squeeze and drive. And the RIM numbers indicate this. Then during the drive there’s no bounce as the amount of water loaded up against the spoon is consistent the entire drive rather than spilling our over the top and sides. And this continues even as I back off the pressure and prepare to extract the blade. At which point the water is driven straight back parallel to the direction of movement and the boat rather thean before when it would have divided into two, one part being driven into the direction of travel squeezing the boat and the other away.
And lastly due to the change from a 4-degree to a 1-degree pitch you can see how clean the blade exits the water as I tap down at the finish. I’ve always worked hard on having a really nice flick out of the water and these almost do it for me.
The RIM numbers show a clear increase in efficiency supporting the ‘feeling’ I’m getting in the boat. So far I’m really happy with them.
