Hi All, I got a very nice basically new tuttle box carbon fin (36.5 cm), but the blade is not perfectly molded straight in the tuttle box. See pics below showing the fin lying on both sides of the finbox. Difference of the tip's position vs. the center is a centimeter.
Should I completely rebox or try to sand the box in a way that it will be "straight"? Then the screw insert will not be completely straight.
Or try else?

Anybody with experience?
Thanks in advance.

That's a lot
If its new new I'd return for exchange - as people rebox by eye better than that and a factory should have used a jig

Looks like the fins bent also. Could be an illusion .
If the fin is inline , I would doubt you could feel the difference.
But I also would want to exchange it .

^^what Mark said. Unless it was real cheap or a freebee. Thats 1.57deg so the threads probably wont line up. If you sand one side you are going to have to build up the other so you could fill the holes at the same time then re drill. Its a bit of work to get a good fit in the box after but doable if you are handy with a sanding block.

I had a theory once that a canted fin would relieve the hull of a bit of work on one tack and be even better. I reboxed a fin with as much lean as would fit in the box. 19 degrees of tilt. You could tell a bit of a difference but it worked fine on both tacks. I wouldn't worry about 1.57 degrees. You certainly won't tell the difference between it and a straight one.

^^^ Wow OK now I'm listening

If surfers reckon they can feel cant when initiating a turn - has it all been a bit Emporer's New Clothes?

We've all been told that cant has an effect at 4-8 deg....

Did your ultra canted fin initiate turns with less effort one way and need to be 'muscled' more the other?

Or does cant only have an effect when combined with toe?

OMG, the waaay over prices you pay for this gear, that is just ridiculous, you would at least expect it to not be faulty.

Did u buy it from a retailer or a cheap and nasty ebay bargain?

Only sailed it once. With nothing radical to report I lost interest. It did seem more locked in upwind on the port tack. I was thinking it might be faster off the wind on starboard tack. Windsurfing is such an asymmetric sport why should 90 degrees be optimal? ( Other than wanting it to behave symmetrically on both tacks.) So why are asymmetric speed foils, where you're not expecting symmetry, installed at 90 degrees? You'd probably need a sailor with more talent and feel than I have to fully evaluate them. I can post it to you if you want to explore its qualities in more detail.

^^^I didn't say he did ? r u making up story's again?
Just saying that the insane price of gear, you shouldn't have to fix it? Do you not agree with that or do you think that its acceptable for company's to charge like a bull for gear you need to fix ? Or did you just feel like swearing again


Seems in your first post you agreed with me that he should return it to the retailer ????

Or it's a kite race fin?

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
^^^ Wow OK now I'm listening

If surfers reckon they can feel cant when initiating a turn - has it all been a bit Emporer's New Clothes?

We've all been told that cant has an effect at 4-8 deg....

Did your ultra canted fin initiate turns with less effort one way and need to be 'muscled' more the other?

Or does cant only have an effect when combined with toe?

Nice thing about using ProBox surf fin boxes on my boards, is they use a insert that varies the cant.

in 10 years I've not come to a real conclusion. I also can use FCS fins with can't built in on the bases. Again nothing dramatic, maybe spring time I will really test this.

I had some fins that came "bent." I heated them up with a hair drier and twisted them gently (well not so gently) until they twisted a bit over to the other side. When cooled down, fins were almost spot on. Something to consider.

You can spend hours talking about fins - and that's maybe best done in the pub.
As far as testing fins goes, that's best done on the water.

5 degrees out of true might not actually affect the fin performance - so maybe just live with it - although I'd be annoyed about it, and would take it back to the shop.

We can also spend hours talking about other fin issues like toe in and cant. It's then a big mistake to assume that what you want for surfing is the same as what works best in windsurfing.

A windsurfer is driven by the wind and the rig puts sideways loads on the fin. The fin then creates lift through a deflected water flow as the board is driven forwards by the wind. That's very different from what a surfer wants on the wave face when he uses body weight against the drive of a fin, and it may be that only two fins of his quad are actually buried in the wave face.

It's quite common for some windsurf wave boards to have no toe-in for their thruster fins. And that's because the boards have to plane early and to plane fast in a straight line on the way out. Fin cant would not be great for jumping.

So we trade off those straight line, powered up needs, with the board's equally important ability to turn on a wave face.

I bought a Vector Weed fin from a kiter which was Power Box & Canted about 5 degrees.
I thought I would try it before re-boxing it.
It went ok in one direction & I was expecting to get thrown off when I gybed but couldn't tell any difference in either direction.
Looks really weird on the beach but in the water no problem.

I'm assuming that the box in the board is pointed straight ahead and has no tilt to it, it's only the fin that's not perfectly straight up when installed. If the fin was crooked, twisted, or not pointing straight ahead, that's cause for replacement, but just a slight lean to one side,,,, you'll never notice it.
Relax and find a bigger fish to fry.