I need a good weed fin for the shallow, weedy water that i sail. I just have no idea where to start. I normally sail with 6.5>4.7 sails on my 80L slalom board and i want to start getting into gps speed sailing. I don't really know where to start though.
What makes a good fin?
What sort of fin should i be looking at? (i definitely need a weed fin though)
Why are some called freeride, other slalom, other speed? What do the names mean?

Any help would be really good.
Cheers.

We're getting very specific with weed fins now. A lot depends on depth of water and type of weed. If you're in very shallow water and dense weed, the 55deg delta is the way to go. If you have to cope with chop, then avoid the delta, as most of the area is close to the surface and it has a long overhang in front of the box, it's inclined to spin out very easily in the rougher stuff. If you have light weed growing from the bottom, (like Lake George) you can get away with only 30deg of rake, once you're up and planing, but you'll pick up weed when starting from the shallows. I tend to favour, a fin with 30deg rake at the base with a curved leading edge so it's a bit over 45deg at the tip, (like slowy's tribal fins he did 46kts here a month or so ago with one). That handles light weed from the bottom nicely. If you have weed just floating on the top in deep water, then a straight leading edge at 45deg with a curved trailing edge works well, (like the black project fins).

BUT It's very important for any weedy that it has no flex!!!
Put it over your knee and if you can bend it more than a few mm don't buy it!
If it's free or very cheap, you can either add a layer of carbon to stiffen it, or cut the flexi tip off and shorten it.

I'm not really up with commercial products, but I guess freeride fins are designed for manoeuvrability and those flicky spinny things they do, some are very short to enable them to ride the board backwards from the nose with the fin out of the water. I'd stay well away from them!
Slalom fins are probably meant for handling big sails and cover all points of sail, so they'll be larger, and thicker than a speed fin that's designed for maximum speed downwind, sacrificing upwind ability.

If you're going to join the GTC, there's more to think about than just speed, for 3 of the 6 divisions you also need good cross wind ability.

If you're only sailing in shallow heavily weeded water with very small chop a delta may be the way to go.
Is anybody else there using them? If so see what they think.

Ideally you're going to need more than 1 fin to cover that sail range adequately. I use a 30cm 45deg with my 6.6 and a 24cm with my 5.0 on a 90l board.

So what fins are you using at the moment?
What needs improving with their performance?

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decrepit said..
We're getting very specific with weed fins now. A lot depends on depth of water and type of weed. If you're in very shallow water and dense weed, the 55deg delta is the way to go. If you have to cope with chop, then avoid the delta, as most of the area is close to the surface and it has a long overhang in front of the box, it's inclined to spin out very easily in the rougher stuff. If you have light weed growing from the bottom, (like Lake George) you can get away with only 30deg of rake, once you're up and planing, but you'll pick up weed when starting from the shallows. I tend to favour, a fin with 30deg rake at the base with a curved leading edge so it's a bit over 45deg at the tip, (like slowy's tribal fins he did 46kts here a month or so ago with one). That handles light weed from the bottom nicely. If you have weed just floating on the top in deep water, then a straight leading edge at 45deg with a curved trailing edge works well, (like the black project fins).

BUT It's very important for any weedy that it has no flex!!!
Put it over your knee and if you can bend it more than a few mm don't buy it!
If it's free or very cheap, you can either add a layer of carbon to stiffen it, or cut the flexi tip off and shorten it.

I'm not really up with commercial products, but I guess freeride fins are designed for manoeuvrability and those flicky spinny things they do, some are very short to enable them to ride the board backwards from the nose with the fin out of the water. I'd stay well away from them!
Slalom fins are probably meant for handling big sails and cover all points of sail, so they'll be larger, and thicker than a speed fin that's designed for maximum speed downwind, sacrificing upwind ability.

If you're going to join the GTC, there's more to think about than just speed, for 3 of the 6 divisions you also need good cross wind ability.

If you're only sailing in shallow heavily weeded water with very small chop a delta may be the way to go.
Is anybody else there using them? If so see what they think.

Ideally you're going to need more than 1 fin to cover that sail range adequately. I use a 30cm 45deg with my 6.6 and a 24cm with my 5.0 on a 90l board.

So what fins are you using at the moment?
What needs improving with their performance?

I think you are getting mixed up between Freeride and Freestyle.

Freeride weed fins often work well as weed fins particularly in reducing spin out as they are often a bit thicker than the speed or slalom weed versions this can be see with the MUF delta range. More experiances sailors may fin the thinner slipperier fins faster but if you are spining out you will go faster on a slower thicker fin that has more grip.

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legless said..
>>>>>



I think you are getting mixed up between Freeride and Freestyle.

Freeride weed fins often work well as weed fins particularly in reducing spin out as they are often a bit thicker than the speed or slalom weed versions this can be see with the MUF delta range. More experiances sailors may fin the thinner slipperier fins faster but if you are spining out you will go faster on a slower thicker fin that has more grip.

OK that makes sense, but I wish the terminology was clearer, it's a bit confusing for an old fart like me.

Select to expand quote

decrepit said..
We're getting very specific with weed fins now. A lot depends on depth of water and type of weed. If you're in very shallow water and dense weed, the 55deg delta is the way to go. If you have to cope with chop, then avoid the delta, as most of the area is close to the surface and it has a long overhang in front of the box, it's inclined to spin out very easily in the rougher stuff. If you have light weed growing from the bottom, (like Lake George) you can get away with only 30deg of rake, once you're up and planing, but you'll pick up weed when starting from the shallows. I tend to favour, a fin with 30deg rake at the base with a curved leading edge so it's a bit over 45deg at the tip, (like slowy's tribal fins he did 46kts here a month or so ago with one). That handles light weed from the bottom nicely. If you have weed just floating on the top in deep water, then a straight leading edge at 45deg with a curved trailing edge works well, (like the black project fins).

BUT It's very important for any weedy that it has no flex!!!
Put it over your knee and if you can bend it more than a few mm don't buy it!
If it's free or very cheap, you can either add a layer of carbon to stiffen it, or cut the flexi tip off and shorten it.

I'm not really up with commercial products, but I guess freeride fins are designed for manoeuvrability and those flicky spinny things they do, some are very short to enable them to ride the board backwards from the nose with the fin out of the water. I'd stay well away from them!
Slalom fins are probably meant for handling big sails and cover all points of sail, so they'll be larger, and thicker than a speed fin that's designed for maximum speed downwind, sacrificing upwind ability.

If you're going to join the GTC, there's more to think about than just speed, for 3 of the 6 divisions you also need good cross wind ability.

If you're only sailing in shallow heavily weeded water with very small chop a delta may be the way to go.
Is anybody else there using them? If so see what they think.

Ideally you're going to need more than 1 fin to cover that sail range adequately. I use a 30cm 45deg with my 6.6 and a 24cm with my 5.0 on a 90l board.

So what fins are you using at the moment?
What needs improving with their performance?

So what fins are you using at the moment?
The fins i have at the moment are the ones i bought with my second hand kit. A series of three from 28cm to 34cm made by Torquay fin company.


Thats the logo on it anyway. I know that the company that made them closed down several years ago due to retirement but thats about it.

What needs improving with their performance?
To go on top of the sandbars (when covered) for the really flat water i need a shorter fin and one that won't have as much of a severe stop if i hit the bank than the slalom fins i currently have. There isn't often weed on top of the water so the 30deg fin with a 45deg tip sounds like it would suit best.

I would like a bit more speed but I do like being able to get upwind easily, although i know i can edge the board to get upwind too.
Also Swan Bay can get really choppy with the flats across the bars being the runs but when its like that its deep enough for a standard slalom fin anyway

Thanks for the help so far.

thought i saw a post where some of you down under were re-boxing your own weed fins
from stiff slalom fins

what about the unifiber fin from Lessacher ?
it is shorter than other weedies for the same sail range
and supposedly fast as well (hell? :-) )
unfortunately I have NOT tried one yet

somewhere you guys not only suggested BlackProject, but also Choco

fin experiments are fun - a way to change equipment not too $$$
a lot less than sail or board experiments ....

let us know what ends up working the BEST 4 u !!

Moose, I either make my own from scratch or modify existing ones, that's why I'm not full bottle on commercial fins, I don't use them.

Yes Joe , there's quite a lot of us here, making or modifying weed fins, so we've tried quite a lot of ideas.

I was with slowy when he got a 46 on something like this.

http://www.tribalwindsurfing.com/fins/weed/

I think he was using an asymmetric version, which isn't raked as much. There wasn't much surface weed, but plenty growing up from the bottom, probably about 15cm from the surface.

I've also heard good reports about these.

www.mxrwindsurfing.com/ufo-weed-speed/

I've been hearing Black Project's name being thrown around a bit, has anyone sailed one of these? Im thinking a 31cm Black Project WeedSpeed looks about right and its in my price range as they seem a damn sight cheaper than the mXr's.

http://www.buyblackprojectfins.com/race-slalom-fins/weedspeed-%E2%80%93-weed-shallow-water-speed-slalom/


Also what fin size should i get for sails 6.5m-5m (only going to worry about that range for now) on an 80L slalom board? Is 31cm right? Are there any calculators or is it really going to be a buy in the ballpark and then work out what feels comfortable?

Sorry for all these question and thank you so much for answering them.

Why not catch up with the local crew at swan bay, I'm sure Red is a vector fins team rider and will have fins to demo and jarques has mxr fins, they probably have something second hand as well, check the boys on Facebook conneware cremasters
I use vector and Choco weedys both good.

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jimbob SA said..
Why not catch up with the local crew at swan bay, I'm sure Red is a vector fins team rider and will have fins to demo and jarques has mxr fins, they probably have something second hand as well, check the boys on Facebook conneware cremasters
I use vector and Choco weedys both good.

Yeah, that crew has been very good to me over the years, even picked up one of your old sails off red last month too, a 6.7 NP Supersonic?
I suppose I'll have to get on their backs and see if i can give a decent weed fin a go to see what size suits although they could probably just tell me.

Your weight also has a bearing on appropriate fin size, the heavier you are, the bigger fin you need for the same size board and sail.
I'm fairly light, under 70kg, and a 30cm fin is right for me in a 65cm board and 6.6m sail, but would be much too big for a 5m sail.
I normally use my 5.0 in a 43cm or 48cm board, and the fin between 17cm and 23cm, depending on whether I'm going for speed down wind, or across the wind.

I've only seen a few black projects, but they seemed stiff enough, and the straight leading edge at 45 deg with curved trailing edge, is a good deep water, weed on the surface design.

I had trouble at Swan bay with my Black Projects last month. Ruined my trip a bit. Anyway, they have been great even at Swan bay up until then. May have been spring weed growth or something.

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SeaSkip said..
I had trouble at Swan bay with my Black Projects last month. Ruined my trip a bit. Anyway, they have been great even at Swan bay up until then. May have been spring weed growth or something.

I also had trouble at swan bay with the black projects. Jacques and I studied them and found that the leading edge is slightly concave. This led to the fine ribbon weed at swan bay not releasing at the tip. It all gathered there. I really liked the BP fins but since the only weedy spots I sail are LG & swan bay I went for something else. Like Jaime said- chat to red and jacques.

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DanP said..
>>>
I also had trouble at swan bay with the black projects. Jacques and I studied them and found that the leading edge is slightly concave. This led to the fine ribbon weed at swan bay not releasing at the tip. It all gathered there. I really liked the BP fins but since the only weedy spots I sail are LG & swan bay I went for something else. Like Jaime said- chat to red and jacques.

Really I hadn't realised that, certainly a concave leading edge is the last thing you want

I've been using the unfibre weed duo's at Swan Bay. They work a treat. I tried the MUF Delta there also and they are too shallow for when the bars are under.
I'm saving for Tribal weed fin for 86lt slalom for my 5 to 6 sails. 25 cm
Red has some nice Vector weed fins. I'm sure he'd help
There are some great comparison tables on Tribal & Vector websites. You could probably also ask them as well.

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TheSailingMoose said...

jimbob SA said..
Why not catch up with the local crew at swan bay, I'm sure Red is a vector fins team rider and will have fins to demo and jarques has mxr fins, they probably have something second hand as well, check the boys on Facebook conneware cremasters
I use vector and Choco weedys both good.

Yeah, that crew has been very good to me over the years, even picked up one of your old sails off red last month too, a 6.7 NP Supersonic?
I suppose I'll have to get on their backs and see if i can give a decent weed fin a go to see what size suits although they could probably just tell me.

That's good the sail has gone to a young bloke (see you are 18 on your profile, I have no young blokes to pass old gear onto here that's why I passed it on to red, have a couple old boards too.