I have a compsand rounded pin tail with 6 channels made by a very good shaper…a truly awesome board but…it whistles. You can hear it when you surf. I have tried 4 different fin sets in it and they all whistle. its a quad or thruster set up…5 plugs. I have heard that it can be the leading edge of a dodgy fin but if it whistles with 4 very different fin set ups in it…then its not the fins. Any ideas and how do you locate the issue?
I’ve got a board that hums, I think it’s actually the cord for the leggy which goes in a loop through the board and round the tail through a resin filled hole (if any of that makes sense). Though it could be one of the dodgy repairs around the tail too. I don’t think its the fins because it didn’t always do it.
pretty sure its your fins. make sure your trailing edges are sharp and theres nothing that would disturb the flow around them.
Hey Bohdi -
Some obstruction to the waterflow is setting a vibration going when the board is going fast. Its acoustic, like the reed in a clarinet.
Seeing as I shaped, glassed and sanded it, I know its not a dodgy resin bead on the board.
I have a couple of ideas though - and these are both maybes. One was my original suggestion way back when the H3 set whistled for you - The bases of the fins will be designed to seat well against the bottom...except with channels - the facet of a channel could be creating a gap on the foil side of the side fins -
It could be that the water rushing over this gap and being interfered with by the tabs sets up a vibration in the same way as a dodgy trailing edge on the fin. I say this because it's been known to happen when a removable fin is not pushed all the way in.
Secondly, and one which may have only become likely with the recent advent of 3-4-5-option boards...The exposed tab slots not in use could be doing something funny too.
So do me a little experiment - tape over the spare plug holes, surf it and see. If thats not it try the tape over the gap I've marked on the pic.
JD
Whistle...hummm? I think you guys should teach them the words so they can sing?
Instrumental piece, no vocals.
Seem to recall an old thread that said the same thing; hummmm is the leading edge, whistle is the fin base. I had a whistler and as soon as I sanded the fillet (or is it filit, or filet, I forgget) down to a minimum, it went away.
Kinda missed it but the tinnitus makes up for it…
Bodhi,
Hey joining in being the lass clown with Resinhead (hope it is not his dick!!)…any waydo not touch it dude, you got something unique here.
No dropins ever as the ‘dropinee’ hears the whistle and backs off thinking they have been “warned ya comin thru”
Faaark if you can get it to hum and then (as the rhead says)… sing, you got a star in the making…and god forbid…get it to FART…Youtube, Vegas Show contracts, shit it’s endless.
I reckon a bit of disipline and a few dedicated weeks of intensive training and then give me a call and I will manage her for you for a paultry 25%…deal??
Rocky…promoter and manager for the educated surfboard…roll up…roll up
Accordance, concordance, humor, dry sarcasm, mock … proper disrespect.
Who knows for sure?
Richard?
Used to have a few whistleing fins on my windsurf boards . I figured they were just happy !! Was cool ! I knew they were there doing their job !! Whenever they stopped whistleing I knew I had broken them off !!
i agree with the lobster. its like having a friend whistling at your awesome barrel
Fin placement is the only thing that I can guess right now.
I can remember the first time I heard and felt a board whistling: I had done a re-glass of a side fin on a 6’2" thruster (this was maybe 1995), and when I got it up to speed on a good sizeable wave the whistling actually slowed the board down.
Since then, I have had several additional experiences with whistling boards. Some of 'em I had built myself, and the culprit was a faulty placement of the fins on my part (cant angle and toe-in, etc., etc.).
Another time it was definitely some defective fins I was using.
But since you have pretty much ruled out the fins themselves as the cause, I think maybe the fin placement.
I have not had any experience with a multi-channeled board and fin placement, so that may add a whole new dimension to the affair. And of that I would not know.
Cheers
Ok so…if a fin is “off” what does that mean? My understanding is that fins should toe in towards a the nose? or some other central point up front? Would that mean that the plugs may be slightly off creating a turbulent water flow underneath? Further explanation would be appreciated…
Yes, the side fins in a multi-fin surfboard should toe in towards the nose. Nevertheless, if that “toe-in” is not in a very precise aerodynamic allignment, there will be turbulence at high speed. That’s what I believe is meant by a fin being “off”. In other words, too little toe-in or too much toe-in, and the fin is “off”.
And yes, in FCS plug systems, the position of the plugs is determines where the fin will be. So if the plug is slightly off, the fin will be slightly off accordingly.
As we can see, fin placement is an art in and of itself. I have much to learn in this area still.
Have you tried taping the base edges of the side fins on the outside as someone suggested with the foto? I am very interested in seeing if that alleviates your problem. Because, as I mentioned, I have zero experience with fin tinkering on multi-channeled boards. It’s worth exploring, in my opinion. If you do, please report back and let us know how it went.
Cheers.