My name is Tyler, I am 20 years old (soon to be able to drink a beer legally…) and live on Maui. you may have noticed by my SN that i am not a ‘traditional’ board rider. Although my craft is different i share the same love for the ocean (and the islands) and building/creating as you all. Anyway i have recently built a shaping and glassing room and have started shaping and building boards. excuse me, WAVESKIS, goatboats, or buttboards. believe me i have heard them all…
So for starters i have a very basic and general question and i am looking for the same type of answers… lets put it this way i am interested in information but i would rather just try it. i am a bit unsure about fin placements on my ‘boards’. i have done searches here and have not been successful in finding a straightforward(ish) answer, so please excuse me (and point me in the right direction) if this has been discussed a million times over…
i am placing fins vertical (no cant), 1/8" off of center (toe in), and as close to the rails as i can, but do not know the relationship between placement and outline. i can tell you what happens every millimeter fore or aft in a 8" box (at this point i am using longboard boxes for my tri setups), but I dont specifically know the pros or cons of overall placement along the outline.
i know some will say, “i dont know anything about those things”, but i do so i can relate your much appreciated information… i wil try to get some pics if that would be helpful, but for now all i have is a video of the first board that i shaped, that im pretty damned sure i put the sides (and whole cluster for that matter) way too far forward. please have a look:
to compensate for the misplaced sides i have been using true ames 3.5" asymetrical fins to get drive, and a 4" TA’s center with way too much rake for stiffness.
Hello Tyler, Infinity in Dana Point makes wave ski’s, but they are a somewhat longer and narrower design than yours. You can check the design out on their site www.infinitysurfboard.com/waveskidesign.htm . I met a whole crew of garage wave ski builders about a year ago in the Swami’s parking lot. These were old guys (60+) and they showed me several of their boards which varied alot in length and width. As I recall, they used single fins; some were steerable, some looked like star fins, some just plain D fins. Most were under the seat, but others were at the tail. On the Infinity ski’s, they can be ridden with or without a fin, and there’s a lot of info on bottom design and side fins relating to ski’s on their site.
Hi Wave ski, I’ve taken the measurments from Saun’s Board:
The fins are put in with 3 FSC plugs per fin, I don’t have the fins so the mesurments are for the PLUGS ONLY
The edge of the 1st plug (trailing edge) is 21 1/2" from the tail.
The edge of the last plug on the side fins (trailing edge) is 29 3/4" form the tail (this leads me to believe that the leading edge of the centre fin would be that sam distance as the trailing edge of the side fins)
the last plug of the side fins is only 1/4" from the rail and they are toed in at 1/2" with 6 degrees cant.
I took some pics but fliker is beeing really slow so they will have to wait till tomorrow.
So for starters i have a very basic and general question and i am looking for the same type of answers… lets put it this way i am interested in information but i would rather just try it. i am a bit unsure about fin placements on my ‘boards’. i have done searches here and have not been successful in finding a straightforward(ish) answer, so please excuse me (and point me in the right direction) if this has been discussed a million times over…
fin placements need to be sussed out by you.
Once you get them right, then for similar craft/boards…
if one has a narrower tail, adjust fin cluster more forward.
narrower tail has more hold, fins go further up to compensate.
conversly, with a wider tail, fin cluster should go further
I did a repair on a MacSki. Not your standard Costco plastic canoe. The Macski has “flat” bottom with channels and one fin about 2/3 up from the rear. Interesting to talk to a life long surfer in his 60’s looking for a craft that will get him into waves.
Made me re-think some of my bad vibes towards non-surfboard craft…
