I’m currently working on a fish with a twin retro keel fin setup. Ive done quite a bit of searching through the archives as well as the net and seem to be having difficulty finding a good picture of a properly foiled wooden keel fin. I have included a picture of the one I started on. Take in mind it is a work in progress and is not a final product. But before I go any further, I was looking to get some feedback as far as a proper way to foil this style fin. Its seems that what few pictures I have seen, there is not a lot of foiling compared to a smaller high performance fin. I really didn’t know what I was doing so I used what knowledge I had and left a smaller steep entry in the front of the fin, followed by a relaxed decline going towards the rear of the fin. Can anyone point me to a good information source regarding this style of fin? Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated.
Hey mate, to my untrained eye, that fin looks sweet. I just finished a set on my fish (first board) and they looks similar to yours. I think the trick is to have a fairly rounded but thickish entry point (as you seem ti have). I was told that they should resemble a plane’s wing when looked at side on. Mine work fine, although i am crap at surfing the fish, and yours will too. I put rovings (rope) around the edges after glassing one side.this left a nice clear bead around the fins to protect them from damage over reef and general banging.
You can see some Gepharts on the True Ames website, too. Yours look pretty good to me. I thought mine were getting good too until I bought a set of Gepharts and compared. Something to shoot for! Mike
I’m in the process of foiling my first set of ply fins too, I left a 1" or so waste tab on the base to prevent that and help with clamping them to my work bench
Thanks to everyone for the replys. Of course I do respect and appreciate any and all advice on sways. Helps me improve and change things that I was not previously aware of. I’ve had several people tell me keels can be foiled on one side only or both sides…depending if you want the true retro feel. Either way I wanted to make sure I was on the right track since I’ve only foiled smaller fins. I’ll post some pics of the final results. Thanks!
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a search for larry gephart might turn up results. he’s the keel foiling king. hope it helps.
I’ve only done a few wooden fins in my life, so I’m no expert.
But the only thing I would question is the thick point of the foil…it appears to be too far back to me. Is that where you wanted it? I always put my thick point one third back. In the pic it looks closer to center than that…
