Moses Hydrofoil Vorace 2016
Reviews / Hydrofoil Boards
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At A Glance
Moses have been designing kitesurf hydrofoil boards since 2008, making them one of the first foil manufacturers. As a result they certainly know their stuff! Made in Italy, every foil is created with extreme care to give the best performance possible.
The Vorace is Moses’ fastest foil, used by all of their national & international athletes. You might therefore think that only elite riders can use it, but you would be wrong. An optional extra with the Vorace is a set of freeride wings designed to give a much more user-friendly ride.
The first time you see one of these race machines you’ll be impressed with how slick the all black finish is, it will definitely turn plenty of heads when you arrive at the beach. The only issue with that is the pressure you will feel when you get in the water - maybe find a quiet day for your first go…!
The fuselage has a clever and strong way of mounting onto the board. The bolts & sliding rails allow you to minutely adjust the position of the foil, ideal if you prefer extra front or back foot pressure. This is a really strong system so you can be confident the foil will stay firmly attached.
On The Water
The Vorace is by far the smallest foil board I’ve used, and at first I was a little bit sceptical thinking that either I or the foil would just sink! Yet I soon realised that a small board was an advantage rather than a hindrance. I felt that the lightweight & slim design gave me lots of control over the foil when tacking, and on my first try with it I got several foiling tacks where I maintained at least 10 knots of board speed right the way through, the smaller shape allowing my feet to make fine adjustments mid-tack. I should note here that like normal I still fell off a lot, so it certainly isn't a magic board!
On my next session I went out in very light winds, 4-6 knots. Even with little float in the board I got going by pumping the foil. Once up to speed on the foil it was a pleasure to ride, the competition wing feels super smooth as it glides under the water. It is genuinely incredible how fast you can go in light winds using a high performance foil like this, on that day my top speed on the GPS was 21 knots! Tell that to a sailor and they won’t believe you.
The difference between the two wings: the competition wing is designed to accelerate super fast and has very quick overall speed. It will also point a fair bit higher into the wind than the freeride wing. The issue with the competition wing is that you need to go pretty fast to be on the foil or it will drop you, not a problem if you are a pro but not easy for beginners. That’s where the freeride wing comes in. It will get going at far lower speeds, much like the Silente that we tested in the last issue. In fact the Vorace fuselage mounts the wings about 20mm further apart (56.5cm vs 54.5cm - 3.5%) so is possibly even more stable than the Silente.
For
I enjoyed riding this foil so much that I used it for my Isle Of Wight circumnavigation. It rides incredibly fast whilst maintaining a very controllable feel. It’s built to last and importantly it looks the part too!
Against
The only real issue I can find with the Vorace is that the board can easily scratch. Just carrying the board into the water my harness put several annoying faint marks in the deck. A minor niggle of course, but when a board looks this pimp you want to keep it that way!
Overall
The Vorace is proven on the race scene, so you know it is super fast! What is great though is that a relative beginner can buy this foil, learn on the freeride wing and upgrade to the competition wing when they are ready.
This review was in Issue 57 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit Moses HydrofoilRelated
By Jack Galloway
Jack is a fanatically keen kiter from the South West of England, he loves riding just about anything with a kite from foil boards to surfboards and everything in between. He's competed in the Red Bull Ragnarok snowkite race on numerous occasions as well as some world class kite racing events. He's our Web Editor for the magazine, as well as one of our testers where his vast knowledge of the sport and different kites and boards comes in handy!
