I am returning to speed sailing after almost 10yrs and am sorting through some bits n pieces. I have a mint Mal Wright 'Time Machine' asymmetrical carbon fin (Mk2 I think) which I bought from Mal himself at a Sandy Point Speed Week around 2005.
While others destroyed their fins, mine stayed in one piece. Back in its day, this 21cm fin was considered small but it seemed to work ok.
Question is... is this still an acceptable fin to use, or is it one that would be be better binned compared to what is available today?



*Only white because of a painted finish.

Keep it and use it

Tnx Kato.
Anyone else with some input?

Never throw a great fin out!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if you get a better fin in your quiver, it's good to have a spare, as you say all the others got destroyed. It's nice to be able to just plug number 2 fin in and keep sailing.

Good fin - lots of lift, like the Tribal's. A bit too much lift for a 5.0m sail and < 75kg person, but still quick.

... all sounds good. Tnx.

That looks like a TM V2. G10 CNC. Should be an excellent speed fin. I went 44.5 peak on the TM V1 at about that time, so top speed will not be limited by the fin. If you ever decide you don't want to use it, it will fill the only gap in my collection of TM fins from V1 to V8 , plus TM48 and TM50. I think thats the only one I have not got in my TM Museum.

Mal always painted the CNC G10 fins with 3D primer paint to enable very fine sanding/finishing. The early ones were white, V3's to V5's were usually black, Carbon Moulded V6, V7, V8 and the &TN40 and TM50 where usually left in polished clear natural carbon finish from the mould.

I got this from Mal directly at Sandy Point in "06 maybe. It was black, full carbon, unfinished, so I had to finish it off myself. Had pinholes in the finish so I primed it and finished it in white gloss. Only used it a few times years ago... worked well on my F2 Missile Sm.
Will hang on to it for the time being, but if I decide to retire it... it's yours.
Tnx for the info Sailquick.

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mikey100 said..
I got this from Mal directly at Sandy Point in "06 maybe. It was black, full carbon, unfinished, so I had to finish it off myself. Had pinholes in the finish so I primed it and finished it in white gloss. Only used it a few times years ago... worked well on my F2 Missile Sm.
Will hang on to it for the time being, but if I decide to retire it... it's yours.
Tnx for the info Sailquick.

Thanks.
But that sounds odd to me. Of it was moulded carbon I think it must be one of the first TMV6's. All the earlier models were G10 CNC milled.

Now I look closely again it looks a bit like the V6.

The V6 is incredibly slippery and fast when you can turn it on, but it was notoriously difficult to get to 'drop in' to the 'drag bucket'. On the few times I got it there, it was unbelievable! It seemed to need to have a very low angle of attack to 'drop in'. Once there though, you could stand on it and go like hell! The best technique I found was to sheet out and ease up a bit when you hit about 40 kts and gradually reapply pressure as you accelerated. Mal's development of the V7 and V8 were aimed at retaining that super effiency and getting it a lot easier to turn on, and I think he did it.

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mikey100 said..
I got this from Mal directly at Sandy Point in "06 maybe. It was black, full carbon, unfinished, so I had to finish it off myself. Had pinholes in the finish so I primed it and finished it in white gloss. Only used it a few times years ago... worked well on my F2 Missile Sm.
Will hang on to it for the time being, but if I decide to retire it... it's yours.
Tnx for the info Sailquick.

f2 missile at WSP if you want to really go back to those times

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BSN101 said..

mikey100 said..
I got this from Mal directly at Sandy Point in "06 maybe. It was black, full carbon, unfinished, so I had to finish it off myself. Had pinholes in the finish so I primed it and finished it in white gloss. Only used it a few times years ago... worked well on my F2 Missile Sm.
Will hang on to it for the time being, but if I decide to retire it... it's yours.
Tnx for the info Sailquick.

f2 missile at WSP if you want to really go back to those times

WSP?

Wind Surfing Perth

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decrepit said..
Wind Surfing Perth