Hi Ben,
yeah, I’ve thought about a bigger center fin (get out of my head, would you?). My idea was
to cluster the rear fins together, in parallel to act as a lower-drag option to a raked center fin.
I also placed the fins in from the rail quite a bit, they are only about 3 inches apart. The board
feels very stable, and more thruster-like than quad-like. All 3 rear fins are symmetrically foiled.
Front fins are larger than typical thrusters- Future fins FG quad fronts.
I want to do more tests!!!
Hey Kirk,
it’s Sunday morning and it has been raining since yesterday evening. Run-off will now be an
issue due to the volume. Figure this front brought little or no waves to our region (Hawaii and
central Cal got waves) so it’s back to the shop for more R&D until the surf is clean and good.
This flat spell down here has been BRUTAL!!!
Hey Fernando,
the waves have been really, REALLY bad over the last months (w/exception of S swell spots, and
I live in a N swell region and don’t use the freeway system too much) so testing has been minimal.
Our zone is coming into real surf season now, so I expect some results to share- hopefully even
a photo in action. So far the board felt very positive, that is, it stays under your feet. I thought
it would be cluttered with all the fins, but there is NO drag, in fact the board is quite fast, but
unlike most fast boards, this one is loose. If I ever get into hollower stuff (I didn’t take it with me
on any surf trips this summer) with the board I will post the results.
I should note the rear fins have virtually no rake, thus very little drag- an efficient fin. The price
for this is an unstable fin (like h.p. sailplanes) and will suddenly stall at high angles-of-attack and
lower speeds.
But,
I was intending to exploit this- when pushing hard through big bottom turns the fins would work well,
then in a low-speed-dynamic (like a lip hit) the rear fins would feel like they were not there. I went with
a cluster because one long vert fin would have a large “heeling moment” (rotation force dipping the rail),
and if one fin in the cluster was stalled, it would still work.
Griff is definitely onto something…
I’ll try to get less distorted pics soon.
George
