First three fish[es]; advice on the fourth?

General Discussion
1

 

Hello hello,

Many thanks to all of you for the wisdom you unknowingly passed on to me while I pored over this site.  I hope I did you all justice in my first three boards.  Made myself a retro twin fish with glass-ons first, and stuck with that design for boards for a brother and a girlfriend, to try and get better at one design before moving on to another I guess.  I’ve beaten up my board (the blue 'un) so bad – probably due to design and glassing flaws, I admit – that it’s time to make a new one.

  1. 5’10" x 20 1/2" x 2 3/4" (didn’t know enough to remember what the nose and tail widths are)

First retro fish

Can’t tell you how happy I’ve been with this thing.  Only had beat-up, used thrusters before this; first ride on a slopey mushburger on this was heaven.  But I didn’t shave down the stringer enough, and let it cure all of three days before taking it out, and probably glassed a little badly, so after about six months repair, it’s about time to retire.  Finished it in middle of May, surfed it between Wrightsville and Hatteras and Kitty Hawk, NC non-stop since then.

  1. 6’4" x 21" x 2 1/2"

Second retro fish

retro fish top

retro fish bottom

I was pretty happy with how this one turned out.  Tried out a roving leash loop instead of a leash plug, and got the tint more how i wanted.  Not real happy with the rounded nose.  You can probably tell I haven’t done much post-gloss coat polishing or even fine sanding.  Wasn’t really sure how to go about it, and don’t really have the equipment.

  1. 6’3" x 21" x 2 1/2"

Pretty much same as the second one, not as happy with it so if you wanna see it I’ve got more pictures of all of em here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42342623@N04/sets/

So, that first one’s been real good to me in sloppy NC surf.  I wanna get myself into a quad fish to get a little more speed out of it, and to fix the mistakes I made and learned through on these.  Here’s my plan, please shout at me if any of these things scream wrong to you:

5'8" x 16 1/8" x 20 1/4" x 16 7/8" x 2 1/4"

Probox quads, Canard Rainbow fins

Gonna try out cutting wings for the first time, behind the fins

Could I drop this down to 5’6"?  What would I lose?  I’m not looking for a high-performance fish, my happiest turn is a wide, gliding arc.  Does it sound alright?  Absolutely any advice, comments, or insults will be appreciated.

Just keep in mind that I’m about as low-tech as you can get.  My shaping room is a back deck, and my glassing room is a neighbor’s toolshed.  But I’ll bet your shaping room doesn’t look out onto a beautiful North Carolina foothills pine/oak forest.  If it does, we should get together for a beer.

Nathan

 

2

I would narrow up the tail, maybe around 16 1/4", and pull the nose more compared to your other boards.  I’ve found that personally I like my rails lower and really thinned out on my quad fish, with a flat or slightly concave deck, so you might want to bump up the thickness to preserve enough volume if you go that route.  You didnt mention rocker measurements, but remember the shorter you go the less rocker you will need (generally speaking)

Here is an outline I’ve worked on this summer and really really like.  Ive shaped a few of these over the summer and just finsihed this one on Monday.  Its similar in dimensions to the board you are looking to shape, just a bit thicker and more pulled in the nose.

5'8" fish I shaped Monday

 

Foil

 

Do you know your basic fin placement yet?  If your need some starting measurements let me know. 

 

Jon

 

3

LOVE that fish, brother… That’s my kind of board right there… beautifuly beaked nose, graceful lines in the template… very sexy.

I would go with narrower in the nose and tail, and keep them the same width. At 5’8, I’d go 16" for both, and no more than 20 wide. If you go down to 5’6, even narrower, but this better be a pretty small rider.

4

Good advice to go a little narrower on the tail, given a center width less than 21''. Your other boards have a nice curve aft, you want to keep that.

5

Thanks, man!  NJ, really appreciate the kind words!  I like the sound of 5’8" x 16" x 20" x 16".

Alright, will tuck in the tail, check.  Thanks for the help Mike and Jon.

Jon, any advice or help with fin placement would be great.  I’ve found a good bit of info searching the forums, but can’t hurt to have another perspective on it.

Gracias hermanos del surf,

Nathan

6

The only thing I might add is this: You mentioned the quads to get more speed.  In my experience quads on fishes did not equate to more speed.  Quads gave me more maneuverability(keep in mind I'm a 50 year old soul seventies type).  The trade off was a slight loss in drive and speed. The quads made my boards a bit more user friendly in mushy or junky conditions. In my experience keels are faster and drivier.  I prefer them in clean lined-up surf. Quads are probably better in snappy, sectiony beach break stuff.  It's all subjective of course.  Your boards look like a ton of fun.  Mike