Milsy said..

mmmmm, yes, were using much smaller than that, 15 deltas, bottoming out off the plain, the weed we sail through grows to the surface, very thick, really, sailing hasnt improved much in my 8yrs, whats changed a lot, thanks to the gps, is fins, and the flatness of water, people have moved away from sandy pt style strips and sail shallow weed banks heaps more,,, the deltas take some getting used to, definitely require different pressure on deck, let go a lot more, but they do get better with practice, and the spots they have opened up for us on the central coast is amazing, apart from the east coast wind factor, i cant imagine anyone getting better than what we got, and this will be our first winter, with the right fins, and better understanding of what directions, etc, personally i'd love to see carbon art or anders bringal design a board solely for the delta, i think a longer thinner tail, more back of board past back foot but much thinner,,,,,,,,,,,,your fin looks like a finworks, just with less rounded , less curve trailing edge, not really, it might just appear that way because you raked it back more, is pepeweed custom a fin works mould?

hardie said..

This next one is an interesting study of an alpha, when looking at this one you notice I've got very good speed going in, and then to square up parallel going back out, I seem to be unable to get back up to any high speed across the wind. From memory this is one of those one's where I've probably gone at a slightly downwind angle across the wind picking up that extra speed, then when I'm heading back to 50m proximity, I'm needing to pinch up wind, and you see me struggling to get back to that high speed I took into the incoming run, the importance of trying to stay square to the wind both ways: There's a lot to these bloody alphas

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sboardcrazy said..

..so aim to reach in + out?

evets said..

I have ocasionally try to head up wind slightly for 30 or so meters just before the gybe. My logic is that once at max speed this is unlikely to slow much and it gives me more room to bear off and accelerate after gybing to maximize speed on the return leg and still hit the 50m on a beam reach. Has anyone had success with this method?

Ian K said..



Then you might as well put the finbox 75mm forward while you're at it. Currently weed fins are compromised or designed around the finbox being in the wrong place. I think part of the success of the delta fin design can be attributed to the long thick base which allows the leading edge to be almost in the right spot. The best weed fin I've sailed was a delta design built by Keef. His CA sl55 sailed magnificently on it. I offered to buy board and fin on the spot. It's an XL delta with a whopping leading edge overhang. Without the constraint of the finbox location I wouldn't be surprised if that style of fin could be refined to work even better.

decrepit said..

are we building a case here for some sort of adjustable box? I guess there's a lot of people here who regularly change fin angle, at the moment you'd need different boards to get optimum results for all angles.

Bonominator said..

^^ Great idea. Here's perhaps a better one. Simply make the Tuttle box a little longer and place the fin where you need it in the mould.

Has the added benefit of strengthening the whole assembly in the board.

[edit] Plus it has the potential advantage of moving the front screw from under the rear foot strap on some boards...need to look at that also.

Tuttle II?

Bonominator said..

^^ Great idea. Here's perhaps a better one. Simply make the Tuttle box a little longer and place the fin where you need it in the mould.

Has the added benefit of strengthening the whole assembly in the board.

[edit] Plus it has the potential advantage of moving the front screw from under the rear foot strap on some boards...need to look at that also.

Tuttle II?

anthony perkins said..

Here is our adj tuttle box, I have made for our new speed tandem. Takes 3mins to adapt any Tuttle fin to it. By drilling two small holes, one in each end. Plus the fin can still be used in other boards. This version has 55mm of adjustment overall. It has two segments 20mm and a 35mm.