I have a client who wants a Lis Fish replica. However, being 2019, the client wants removable fin set. Reading through some of the Futures keel fin descriptions, I can’t find reference to a true keel fin (e.g. 50/50 foil, 0 degree cant). Can anyone recommend a keel fin set, Futures or otherwise? I’m just mentioning Futures because it has a nice base versus what I perceive as an FCS weakness. Open to suggestions.
Also, having never built a Lis Fish replica before, I know it has a flat bottom; no contours. My question is: Does it have vee in the tail?
If you can’t/don’t want to lay up a fin panel just buy some g10. With no cant you could have a good set of fins in under an hour. Even easier than making tabbed fins.
I like to use probox for fish style boards because they allow for a longer base and you can change the cant. I made 2 sets of keel fins using G10, one has a double foil and the second is slightly larger and single foiled. The photo shows the symmetrically foiled keel and a single sided keel Greg Griffin made for my brother years ago. I made the single sided foil set closer in size to Greg’s fin and I’ve been using that fin in a 5-8 fish.
The nice thing about the probox setup is that I can switch out the inserts and put a modern fin and have up to 8 degrees of cant. I also like to make the tab (long single tab) just a bit shorter than the slot to give me about a 1/4" movement fore and aft. I use 1/8" tow for these boards, and I like to have quad boxes just to be able to change things up.
Make the fin first, then place the box where it needs to be. G10 is very nice media to work with.
On a related note, I’ve been curious if Larry is still selling the fins on the old probox website. He has a couple keel fins on there. The short one is more interesting to me. They could easily be modified to fit a Gearbox, which I think could handle the stress of a big keel if properly installed.
Anyone know about the fins’ availability? It doesn’t’t look like the probox website has been updated in years.
Good Idea. I’ve been using Gearbox for a couple of years now, except when a client wants something else, and really like them. I think they’re better than the FCS Fusion boxes; but those are good, too. I even have some ProBox boxes around. Maybe that is an option.
sharkcountry, very nice. And thanks to everyone with the advice on making my one from G10 stock. Client specified they wanted commercial fins. We’ll see.
Hi gunkie. It’s about 20 years old give or take a year or two. A friend gave it to me when I got on my quest to build a decent fish 16 years ago. I can get a photo this weekend if it would help. Mike