What are the good makes of weed fins out there for speed and slalom.

Can you typically get away with a smaller fin if its weed given that the area of the foil is bigger?

What anglewill give you sufficent weed clearance?

What are the good makes of weed fins out there for speed and slalom.
MFC, JP (I use the freerides), Leading Edge (rare as rocking horse poo nowadays as no longer in production)
Choco are rumored to be making a speed weed, have seen the test ones (which look good) but as with everything to do with Choco "Jesus is delivering them"

Can you typically get away with a smaller fin if its weed given that the area of the foil is bigger?
Yes, however the lift generated by the fin is reduced, this allows you to be able to go quickish on larger weedies. I generally use a 23cm 45° weedy couldn't comprehend using that size pointer.

What angle will give you sufficient weed clearance?
Depends a hell of a lot on what you are sailing through.
One season we were going through Hardies run with pointers and being able to see our trails in the weed from earlier runs.
But then when we get the snot fields starting around spring time which gives 45º fins grief when going slowly.
30-45º would be a reasonable range.

Some personal observations on weed fins

• There are some crap ones out the which are woeful, the green and black ones are only good for throwing at stray dogs (don't bother retrieving them).


• Pretty much any old reasonable quality pointer will make a pretty good speedy weedy.


• They won't point up wind anywhere near as far as a pointer (just for Bender)


• I have only on one occasion gone faster on an equivalent sized slalom fin (yes I've tried a falcon personally hated it because of how I sail)


• Weedies are far more forgiving than slalom fins so much so that I've started adding 5-10º of additional rack to my pointers to take the aggression out of them (instant speed improvements for me)


• A weedy will generally tend to bounce up over a rock if you hit (unless you're Hardie and pick one sticking out of the water) whereas a pointer will generally snap and do other nasty thangs to your boards

Beware the weed fin, once you venture down the dark path[}:)][}:)][}:)]

The KA production speed fins have enough rake (30deg leading edge from memory) to shed light to moderate weed at speed. They are also exceptionally fast!
The smaller two sizes (20and 21.5cm) are starboard tack asymmetrical only. The 23cm version comes in assy. and symmetrical which is a very good all round weedy speed fin and about equal in area to a 26cm pointer.

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sailquik said...

The KA production speed fins have enough rake (30deg leading edge from memory) to shed light to moderate weed at speed. They are also exceptionally fast!
The smaller two sizes (20and 21.5cm) are starboard tack asymmetrical only. The 23cm version comes in assy. and symmetrical which is a very good all round weedy speed fin and about equal in area to a 26cm pointer.

Yes, they are annoyingly fast

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sailquik said...

The KA production speed fins have enough rake (30deg leading edge from memory) to shed light to moderate weed at speed. They are also exceptionally fast!
The smaller two sizes (20and 21.5cm) are starboard tack asymmetrical only. The 23cm version comes in assy. and symmetrical which is a very good all round weedy speed fin and about equal in area to a 26cm pointer.

i have one of the symetrical 23cm KA's, havent tried it out on the isonic 86 yet, mainly use it on the CA 44... wonder if it would be too small for the isonic 86? say on a 5.8 sail... (im 90+kg's) with the empashsis on the +!

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stringer said...


I have one of the symmetrical 23cm KA's, haven't tried it out on the isonic 86 yet, mainly use it on the CA 44... wonder if it would be too small for the isonic 86? say on a 5.8 sail... (im 90+kg's) with the emphasis on the +!

I think it will work well when well powered for speed runs off the wind. On my iSonic 87 I usually run the Time Machine Speed 26 for Alphas and 1 hour runs with 5m and 5.8m sails. I reckon that fin is quite comparable for size. I don't have the 23cm symmetrical now but when I had the use of one I seem to remember it worked very well on the iSonic 87, bearing in mind I am quite bit lighter than you are.

I have the KA 23 symmetrical on my 'to get' list for 1 hour attempts in slightly weedy conditions. There is nothing more annoying on a one hour attempt than to have to stop and back up to lose weed that is costing you 3-5 knots down the straights!

The 23cm KA symmetrical and 5.8m sail combo is used by Tony Wynhoven to very good effect!!

yes the ka 23 sym is what i have started saving for