I built this board recently based upon the dimensions of my 6’3” Campbell Bumblebee upsized to 6’7”. Its got a standard low entry fish type rocker , is 22.75” wide, 2.75” thick (I am 195lbs 6’ so wanted thick) with an 11.5” wide tail, slight V out the tail. I wanted a fish type board with the maneuverability of a quad and I liked the squared off tail like the Bee. Made my own ply fins, rear fins 6.5” from tail 4 degrees of cant 1/8” toe, front fins 12.25” from tail, 5 degrees of cant and ¼” toe. I have surfed it 3 times here in WA waist to head high and its pretty disappointing, paddles great but just seems real sluggish. I am getting ready to chop the fins and try standard keels on it as it’s a dog in this configuration. Any ideas on what would make this thing surf well? Maybe I should toss my homemade fins and try something else? here are a few photos before i sanded it
I can't tell from the picture, but was wondering; Any concave in the bottom? What's the rail like? Tucked ? 60/40? Hard in the tail? What blank did you use? What are your rocker dims? The fins look alright as far as foil etc. My personal opinion is that you may have too much distance between the front edge of the rear fin and the trailing edge of the front fin. What is the base measurement on your fins? According to your dims for fin placement; you've got almost six inches distance between the fins( 5.75 inches). I'm also not a fan of towing or canting the front and rear fins differantly. I know others do it, but I flattly don't see the logic in it. You may need to set your fins in a Mckee set-up. It works for Kelly.
Knock those fins off (Nice fins though) and put some Future box’s or FCS plugs in there. If not all four at least the back fins. Then you can really start to play with fin selection…especially the back fins. Smaller back fins could make a huge difference. I have 4", 3.75", 3.40" double foiled back fins and some 3.25" side foil back fins. Depending on conditions I use different fins. With a set of glass on’s your stuck with those fins. The key (I think) with a quad board is having the ability to change fins to match the condition. A sluggish board sounds like to much fin for the day. The shape looks fine to me.
I think your cant is off. The front fins usually have more cant than the rears and, I think you would be better off with more cant over all.
I built a similar board for my brother (although not nearly as clean, nice job!) and it goes best at 8* and 8*.
Your fin placements look good to me… I think you should keep your homemade fins, add Probox bases, and drop some Proboxes in there on your original dots.
My first board (shortboard quad) was a DOG and I shelfed it until I read about cant. So, I pulled it back out and increased the cant. Night and Day difference.
The board got faster AND looser.
all my quads have double foiled rear fins. THe idea is that the rear are your centers just moved out to the rail, so I would do what billy said, take those rears off and play wiht options.
I think all 4 of your fins are too far forward. If it were my board I’d chop an inch off the tail and reglass it. You can always put a tailblock back on if you want the length back so no big deal (much easier than new fins all around).
PS I’d reverse the diamond tail to a shallow swallow too, but that’s just me…
This is all good advice. I looked at the fins for a little more accurate idea of what I have. The front fins are traced off an FCS M7 which has a 4.5" base and is 4.75" tall. The rear is based off the FCS S3 and is 4 1/8" base and 4 5/8" tall. A closer look at the distances is the rear fins are 6.5" and the front fins 12.5" from tip of tail. There is 1.5" between front of rear fins and rear of front fins. I am tempted to just remove all fins and put in some boxes so I can play around with the angles as many have suggested. Any thoughts on distances, toe and cant for the front and rear fins. Also, this is my 3rd board, and I have only glassed on fins (2 keel fish before this). Whats the cheapest and easiest fin system to use. I can get them all at Fiberglass Supply which I can drive to pretty easy as they are based here in WA.
For experimentation with regard to cant; Pro-Box. For ease of installation; FCS plugs. Fiberglass Supply recently dropped their price on plugs by about three bucks. Which means they are now charging what everone else has been charging for years.
Probox are super easy to install
Did you sand the hotcoat before you surfed it? Looks like it is still unsanded from the photos. Nice mountains… Mike
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Did you sand the hotcoat before you surfed it? Looks like it is still unsanded from the photos. [/quote]
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...here are a few photos before i sanded it
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