ejmack said..
So... windsurfing can be the most satisfying experience, but also the most frustrating. Why is it that manufacturers can f#@k things up so easily!

I have a new tuttle fin that seems out of spec to the box in the board, or vice verca - the fin base is not deep enough by 4-5mm. I'm after the best way to modify/fix. At the moment I have made up some rubber spacers which sit at the bottom of the box but I keep loosing these when I take the fin out and to be honest they make fitting the fin a bit of a chore.

I think Tuttle is meant to fit using the material and the taper of the sides of the base of the fin, not relying on the top surface to meet the board.

In this respect, you should be able to fit a regular Tuttle based fin into a deep Tuttle fin box without any problems, just using longer screws.

In practice, at least for me, this means choosing the board with the size of tuttle finbox you decide is the 'master' and matching all your fins to that, and then matching your other boards to those fins... I have used coatings of epoxy to build up the surfaces, and sandpaper to smooth them down.

ej, grab an aluminum can and cut some strips the depth and semi-circular width of the rounded ends of the tuttle base. This is the part of the fin base that needs to be packed to ensure a flush fitting (not the sides of the base). the aluminum strips will easily sit in the fin box and when you push the fin in they easily mould to the curved shape. Add more strips if need be until fin sits flush.

Awesome, thanks guys.

sotired said..

ejmack said..
So... windsurfing can be the most satisfying experience, but also the most frustrating. Why is it that manufacturers can f#@k things up so easily!

I have a new tuttle fin that seems out of spec to the box in the board, or vice verca - the fin base is not deep enough by 4-5mm. I'm after the best way to modify/fix. At the moment I have made up some rubber spacers which sit at the bottom of the box but I keep loosing these when I take the fin out and to be honest they make fitting the fin a bit of a chore.

I think Tuttle is meant to fit using the material and the taper of the sides of the base of the fin, not relying on the top surface to meet the board.

In this respect, you should be able to fit a regular Tuttle based fin into a deep Tuttle fin box without any problems, just using longer screws.

In practice, at least for me, this means choosing the board with the size of tuttle finbox you decide is the 'master' and matching all your fins to that, and then matching your other boards to those fins... I have used coatings of epoxy to build up the surfaces, and sandpaper to smooth them down.

I think I stand corrected. The sides certainly look parallel!

Which makes me wonder why I thought they tapered. I must be thinking of the sides of a powerbox base.

mr love said..
Yep Evan, The tuttle has parallel sides so no taper, it is the front and rear edges that control how far it disappears into the box. So you need to either add tape, mono film shims or epoxy filler to tune it perfectly. Unfortunately the tuttle is sensitive to small production tolerances either in the box or the fin head so you often have to tune it to a particular board. Yep, frustrating.

Makes sense, thanks Martin.