I just got a late 70s (I believe) Eastern Star Hobie, and it has a removable fin, the box type is where small squares where used to hold the fin in place. Im looking for a fin as well as the squares. Anyone know what I am talking about and where I could get one?
Don’t forget the little bolt, as they’ve gone to smaller diameter these days.
Standard Chinook, FinsUnlimited fare, availible everywhere.
Sounds like you have a Guidance System fin set up, a short lived removable fin system that appeared in the late 60’s, early 70’s. I’ve only seen one in my lifetime on a Hobie here in Hawaii. From what I could make out of it, there were no screws used, the fin was dove tailed at the base, and you kind of wedged it in there. There were plastic spacers to fill in the unused slots and to maybe hold the fin in too. I have’nt seen too many of those available, more rare than even WAVE set fins. Might want to keep an eye on ebay or vintage surfboard sites.
Roght, there was a short-lived fad for fins that could be removed/adjusted without tools more sophisticated than a hammer or in a pinch a block of wood. . Unfortunately, they could also be removed very nicely by running them into things. The plastic spacers were both to fair the unused parts of the opening in the fin box and to keep the fin from shifting and falling out.
There were two types, the more common Guidance Systems which had small wedge shaped projections and something rarer ( I only saw a few, so mebbe Hansens had 'em?? ) that perhaps WAVE had that used odd little projections that I recall were almost boxy in some way.
The fins are long since out of production. I wound up setting some in the boxes with poured resin, as people got very tired of the things falling out. As foamdust said, eBay or the old board collectors might have some, any I had are long gone.
some useful info on the Pods for Primates site - http://www.surfresearch.com.au/f.html
hope that’s of use
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