While maintaining Omen's tapered mast connection was an obvious choice due to the unrivaled combination of stiffness, strength, and low profile; with the Agent, we opted to go back to square one on our fuselage to reduce total system drag to the absolute minimum. Often overlooked, the drag from the fuselage is of critical importance to increasing glide across a foil’s speed range, especially as foils themselves are becoming smaller and lower drag. Operating at level flight, the drag from the fuselage may be minimal, however this only occurs at “cruising speed". At low speed the foil needs to run at a high angle of attack, and similarly at high speed the foil will actually operate at negative angles of attack. In both of these scenarios the fuselage is moving through the water at an oblique angle rather than flying straight. Alongside a foil section design optimized only for peak L/D, this is the reason most foils have a noticeable "low drag pocket" but will slow down rapidly at high speed or below cruise. Extending glide across a wider range of speeds is at the heart of Omen’s foil philosophy and will be noticeable right from your first flight. Practically, this means you can enjoy carving your favorite foil in both smaller and larger waves, as well as utilize the extra forgiveness of the low speed glide to stay on foil when you lose wave energy and are searching for another bump. CNCing the fuselage from 6Al4V Titanium allows us to decrease its width through the full length, the height past the mast connection, as well as eliminate the parasitic drag of a seam and extra set of hardware from the already streamlined Operator system. While slightly larger diameter and not as infinitely durable as titanium, the aluminum options reduces weight (and cost) for those so inclined. Just like the Operator foils, the stiffness of the metal fuselage allows our taper to lock into the mast, allowing the use of M6 hardware since the bolts' only function is to clamp the connection together rather than being subjected to bending load. The use of M6 hardware is another important ingredient in allowing us to radically reduce the cross section of the fuselage. As a secondary benefit, changing front wings is now faster and the system packs down more compact for airline travel.Details: Hardware kit purchased separately
