fin placement on pintail longboard

General Discussion
1

All of my longboards have had square tails, but I’m about to start shaping a 10’ pintail. I’ve chosen an 11" Nuuhiwa Lightweight fin (thanks, Gregg!). I figured that the fin box would leave me some room for adjustment, but the base of the fin takes up the entire length of a 10" box. So, basically, whatever position I choose for the box is the fin position. I’ve always kept the fin in the back of the box on my squaretails. Should I keep with the same box placement or move it forward for a pintail?

Many thanks,

Seay

2

Depends on the outcome of the outline and rocker curve of your finished shape.

Most WPoints forward over 8" need leading edge of fins forward, as much as 15" up.

Conversely, boards with WPoints back and wider tails can use the leading edge of the fin closer to a traditional foot.

Rocker affects it similarly, as more tail rocker can use the fin forwards, but flatter usually needs you to lever the board around from the tail.

3

call up fiber glass hawaii http://www.fiberglasshawaii.com and order a 15" fin box. I put one in my first board. Sure I ended putting the fin in the center of where the 10" would have gone but gave me more freedom. I’ll use the extra freedom when testing with other fins.

4

It doesn’t matter how long your fin box is. It can only go so far back on the board. This is all deturmend by how thick the tail of your board is. If the fin that you have plans of using has the screw in the front you can cut down about 1 inch from the tail and replace the pin. This will alow you to move the fin back in the box. Other wise you might as well glass on your fin. If you glass it on at least you can get it farther back on the tail where I think it should be anyway. Almost all of my pin tails have the tip of the fin over the tail of the board. I even like that on my sq tails.