I have almost completed a stitch and glue stand up board. It was designed to lean more toward the paddling end of things, with a fairly short, steep front rocker that incorporates a very light cutwater, and a long, slow rear rocker. I am continplating putting the fin about 30 inches from the back of the board. This is quite similar to the under the hull rudders on surfskis and O.C.s. I feel this may also give a little bit more primary stability. I may need this, because I am not a surfer, I am a paddler of kayaks, surfskis and an O.C.1. By the way the board is 11’5’ x 28" by 4" of lauan doorskins. I estimate it will weigh about 28 pounds.
I’m in the process of building a hollow wooden stand up paddle surfboard with similar dimensions. I’m putting in a standard 10" fin box with the edge of the box located 7.5 inches forward of the tail of the board. This seems to be the standard placement for boards this size, and the production boards I’ve ridden with this set up paddled and surfed well. What are you hoping to achieve with the forward fin placement? You could always hedge your bets a little and put in a pair of fin boxes, one on the tail, and another with the forward placement. If you plan on surfing it at all, the 30 inch placement will not facilitate nice bottom turns. I think the dimensions of your board will provide very good stability, and the unusual fin placement won’t be necessary.
Whoa, 30" is way too far forward, I would think. Stability will be good without a fin with the board you describe (PICS PLEASE!!!), and great with the fin in the back. Plus it should track a lot better with the fin in the back. And if you want to surf it, I’m guessing 30" forward would tend to buck you. Hard. Even 10-15" is pretty far for the leading edge of the fin. Sounds like a cool project. Oh, and pics please! Build pics?
–BCo
Gentlemen, Thank you for your replies. That is what I was looking for. I live on the left coast of Fla and most of the stand up paddlers I have met are using old wind surfers. I was planning on just glassing a fin on as this is a prototype and I am not certain how well it will work. I am a woodstrip canoe and kayak builder and was planning my web site and felt one more page would be a good thing. I am having a hard time getting viewable pictures posted. The Kb level is hard for me to meet, as most of my pictures are coming in at 1.5 Mb, and I have kinda been working on cropping them and sucking out Kb’s, but they are getting too fuzzy. I was thinking along the lines of other paddlecraft I am familiar with for the fin placement. I want to be able to offer an inexpensive beginners model, and if it goes over well, maybe plans and kits. Even though I have not gotten this one in the water, I can think of ways to to take some of the volume out of the fore and aft, to give it a little more quickness for more exprinced folk.
Thanks again, I will move the fin back.