rails

Is there a specific formula for cutting in the rails of a board. Can you take a percentage of the width of the board and use that to determine the width of the tucked under rail?

Regardless how thick your board is, the surfaces that interact with the water should lie in an acceptible range. The mid-board foil line should be between .75" and 1" from the bottom, slightly thinner for extreme carvers. Determine this dimension by how you want the board to perform, not by how thick the board is.>>> Is there a specific formula for cutting in the rails of a board. Can you > take a percentage of the width of the board and use that to determine the > width of the tucked under rail?

practice a lot. try drawing cross sections of rail bands to see what you’ll end up with and adjust from there. i measure my bands out at center and midway between center and nose/tail. most rails go from a hard edge at the tail to soft 50/50 rails up front(at least most modern shortboards). on my first few boards i didn’t soften the rails enough towards the front. live and learn.