Technique & Technical Help

Steven in Jax · 2009-12-14 15:08:23

I'm brand new to the forum, but didn't see this topic in the archive so far...

I plan on visiting Calema for lessons after the holidays, but in the meantime, need to keep sailing here in the Jacksonville (FL) area in sometimes light conditions and current (St. Johns river, mostly). I have a Mistral Devil II that I bought used but it didn't come with a typical slalom or freeride fin. I'm planning on using my biggest fin when the wind is light. It is a Curtis Weed fin that measures 76cm at the leading edge and is at least 24cm wide at the base. My biggest sail is an 8.4m Ezzy PowerRace Rev4. Is this weed fin going to have a negative effect on me getting this thing planing in lighter air? In other words, how much negative effect does a weed fin have on planing in light and heavy air? At what wind strength would predict that this large fin start to have a negative effect?

Thanks,
Steven in Jax

tinho · 2009-12-16 18:27:52

In Principle, a weed fin will have a harder time planing than its correspondent area and lenght upright fin.
But for some people that push like crazy on their feet, the weed fin actually helps as it gives a bit more lateral resistance to that push.
There are other factors though. A weed fin, in order to be balanced with the rig, will force the mast foot to be placed further back on the board. On some boards, that have a large amount of rocker, or are quite short, this will affect negatively their ability to plane as the new mast track position may have seriously affected the proper lenghtwise trim of the board. In other words, a "banana rocker" board will suffer from a mast foot position further back from its ideal place.
The biggest negative effect you will experience will be in the lighter winds. In Stronger winds, just about anything works!!

Dan · 2009-12-23 18:26:06

I'll add to Tinho's answer with some additional comments.

Your board is a Formula Windsurfing class board. It will work with the fin that you describe but will loose almost everything that a FW adds in terms of early planing due to the design of the fin. Simply put, as great as a Curtis Weed fin can be, it will never meet the early planing potential of your FW board compared to a traditional, upright racing fin. Nor will it jibe better -though it can feel more smooth as it transitions from one tack to the other.

My feeling about higher wind sailing is that FW boards can be very challenging to sail in windier conditions unless everything is balanced. A weed fin can mute the imalances between rig and board and can make sailing easier, but it will never allow the fun, light feeling that properly tuned FW gear can offer. In this view you are missing out on how awesome FW gear can be: the same huge sail can get you ripping upwind and downwind across a range of 10 knots faster than almost anyone else on other gear. But it only works when your fin is properly matched to the board and, with the weed fin, you will likely be forced to rig down earlier as the fin can add a lot of drag to the board and make the rig feel very heavy.

Steven in Jax · 2009-12-24 07:22:05

Tinho and Dan,

Thanks for the comments. Since I wrote that question, I learned some better sailing technique, so I hope that will help me adjust to this formula. I have experienced much of what you said would happen with the weed fin--it's not all bad, but I do seem to round up super easy. I'm going to try a 57cm upright fin today with my 7.0m sail and breeze around 20 mph.

Steven

Crash · 2010-02-02 10:41:18

I found a 40cm Wolfgang Lessacher weed fin on my Starboard 160 Formula board is very forgiving although you cannot get upwind as high, downwind its outstanding. The range of sails these fins will take is also amazing I’ve used the 40cm Lessacher weed fin from a 12.5 M (to big ) down to a 7 meter. I also use a 36 cm weed fin on my JP 1V Slalom Pro again massive wind range not super fast but fantastic control I use 8.5m down to a 5.4.
See http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topi … C_ID=34665 for more comments. For top speed and pointing high the standard fins are the way to go but for someone not racing a good weed fin is great. http://www.cameraid.com/Lessacher/weed.html
No I’m not on commission!

Crash

Technique & Technical Help

Announcement

#1 2009-12-14 15:08:23

Weed fin question

#2 2009-12-16 18:27:52

Re: Weed fin question

#3 2009-12-23 18:26:06

Re: Weed fin question

#4 2009-12-24 07:22:05

Re: Weed fin question

#5 2010-02-02 10:41:18

Re: Weed fin question

Board footer