Gentle Swaylockers,
I am talking about shaping the tail on a modern keel-finned fish with a winged tail. But as far as I have seen, most winged or otherwise pulled in tail designs (a la “speedialer”) seem to be married to a quad fin setup. Is there any good reason why a set of keel fins couldn’t be successfully used on a fish with a modestly winged tail? I’d use a cutaway fin template and the tail is wide, less than or equal to 11" pin to pin with the wings.
I think that association resulted from the choice between carve and run or skate and go vert–you going with that combo for a combo reason?
Not really, I want that combo because of the way that each of those features work individually. The pulled in tail for the option of a tighter turning radius when not in trim, and the low-aspect keel fins for the important ways that they work.
I can see where someone might say that those two design features work against each other, but can they be reconciled?
Go for it and have fun! Right before fishes went out of fashion in the mid-70’s, we started putting wings on them to make them break a line and cut back better. Worked good then, why not try it now?
Mike