I was flicking through an old surfer magazine the other day (I think it was the big fat 45years addition from last year) when I noticed a pic of Joel Tuder tying down some boards to a roof of a car. One of the boards in the pic seemed to
have an “offset stringer”, where the stringer is set along one side of the fin box as opposed to the stringer being cut so
the fin box sits in the middle. This seemed like a pretty cool method to me as you would get all the surface area of the side of the box being connected to the side of the stringer making a stronger bond.
The downside would be the board would look a little weird not having the stringer down the centre.
Has anyone else seen or used this method before?
Is their a downside to using this method other than looks?
Howzit!?! Precisely. Morey-Pope “Blue Machine”. The box was offset on one side of the stringer, for right hand pointbreaks. An easy way to achieve assymetry for specialized conditions. Aloha…RH
I remember reading a thread a while back from one of the old timers on here that before they used to install finboxes on the stringers, they would install it on the side. They were afraid that cutting the stringer would make the boards weak. I don’t know who said it but I’m pretty sure I read it here before. Kinda crazy eh?!
Daklaw’s right - there was a thread on this. Yater and Owl labels both did offset fins at some time. Being made in Santa Barbara, you’d think they would both have the fin set on one side or the other for right points. Not the case… which is why I think it was more likely done to preserve stringer integrity.
That said, there is no doubt that the offset fin creates an asymmetry (relative to the fin) with one side or the other having a distinctly narrower or wider outline.
In these photos the left shot is the Yater, the right shot is the Owl. The Owl has the narrower right sided (bottom down) tail outline relative to the fin perhaps allowing it better control on big right walls. The Owl also has a “hydroplane” step-bottom feature.