I have lost my center fin on my all wave and have problems finding the correct fin for this very special fin slot, see picture. It is a futures fin used, but mounted with two grub screws. Anybody having experience with this?

Should probably be able to fit an fcs fin in.

FCS does not fit in.

Those look like the same boxes that come in the Fanatic windsurf boards. I have converted a number of US box fins to use in those boxes. I first cut the base to the length of the box The depth and thickness have fit perfectly on the fins that I have converted. Then I use a drill to create some divots on the sides of the bases where the side screws anchor the fin. To line up the divots, I insert the fins once I have cut the bases to length, and then tighten the side screws enough to scribe marks where they hit the sides of the bases. Pull the fins back out, and use the drill to slightly deepen and expand where the marks are. I have converted three US box fins so far, and all have worked perfectly.

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Zanderthegreat said..
FCS does not fit in.

Are the tabs not wide enough or too wide? The whole point of those boxes is than any fin should work.

Apparently it is a Futures box, but specific to North (Duotone) / Fanatic / ...Here are the explanations of "Dan" from Duotone: (source: kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=940732&sid=4e9ed4cab369956edff369cde40aa434#p940732 )

There is a lot that goes into choosing a box. Cost definitely factors in, but there are production and performance benefits to balance as well. The cost of using branded boxes is significantly higher than other options and would lead to a significant price increase to the customer. You can bring the retail price back down by skimping in other places such as the layup or production method, but for each of those you're looking at other sacrifices to performance/durability (for example we could switch from a G10 fin to a cheaper, more flexible plastic fin to approx. balance the cost difference, but we feel that the performance benefit from stiffer, livelier fins more than outweighs any downside from different boxes). On top of that, for North in particular, there is a small lip on Futures branded boxes that is incompatible with the production method we use. We experimented with ways to work around this, but again you're talking about added costs to sand down a lip and clean inside the boxes.

For these (and probably other) reasons we have for years used a 'knock-off' Futures box. The problem we encountered with Futures boxes is that the single screw in front secures the fin really well but does nothing to control side-to-side wobble, so the fin/box tolerance needed to be very tight. When building our boards there is a lot of work done by hand, including the final layers of glass and epoxy. During this process it's pretty common to have small amounts of epoxy drip into the boxes even if they are taped off/covered. This results in hand sanding to the inside of the boxes, too little of which results in fins that don't fit, and too much of which results in wobbly fins and/or warranty issues if the boxes are sanded through allowing water into the board.
Last year we developed our own finbox which we call the North Multibox. It has two side-bite screws like FCS, but the angles/width of the box means they are only compatible with Futures fins (as far as I'm aware the angled base vs angled box and differing widths means that you cannot make a box that works for both systems) We have found most Futures fins and our own fins fit perfectly in these boxes and they work well with our production methods. Last year was the first year of using those Multiboxes and I don't think I saw any warranty issues and I never heard any complaints about the fins/boxes so I think we did a pretty good job with it.

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exiled said..

Zanderthegreat said..
FCS does not fit in.

Are the tabs not wide enough or too wide? The whole point of those boxes is than any fin should work.

Yes, the tabs does not fit with the grub screws.
Futures fins fits, but normally they are fixed with one grub screw. And do not have the two divots in side of the fins for fixing.. In the boxes that is in this board I have two grub screws from the sides of fin boxes.
Maybe I just have to drill the divots in the Futures fins my self. But I think it is weird that in a brand like Fanatic/Futures it is so hard to get fins that fits.
I am located in Klitmoeller in Denmark and non of the shops could help.
Thanks for your support.
Br
Zander

I had my wires crossed. I was thinking of the boxes that starboard used to use before they switched to fcs2. Sounds like Colas has the right info. Any center fin from a Futures three fin set should work then.

In my view, Fanatic decision to use weird boxes to save a tiny bit of money and including G10 fins is wrong: fins are quite personal - if only for their size -, and people will use their own fins anyway, so why bother including more than basic fins?

Plus the first thing to do on a board is to put Quobba fins anyways :-)

My Allwave is a backup board, and I actually made it a twin-fin and I really like it. Less sluggish in the mush. Rick was the inspiration with this post.

www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=22466.0