After my first session on the green stuff I'm interested to hear how sailors are setting up their equipment to compensate the super small fins being used?...
Low boom, long lines, mast track way back, straps back had me feeling like I was going up wind the whole time and couldn't seem to get rid of the back hand pressure as a result..

Is this something that happens when the wind is light or do you rig your sails differently with the small weed devices?

Weed tends to pull the nose down, and dead flat water means you need more angle of attack, so yes everything back.
Strange thing with the weed though, the faster you go the less resistance there is. So I think tuning could very a bit with wind strength.

Use a weed fin close to the depth of your standard fins.
Once over about 37 cm, you need more area over more depth and the ratio changes.
Higher booms help.

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LeeD said..
Use a weed fin close to the depth of your standard fins.
Once over about 37 cm, you need more area over more depth and the ratio changes.
Higher booms help.

Lee, what you say makes sense for a bit of weed floating on the surface. But I doubt you have ever sailed, in the conditions troppo is talking about. In weed that's growing all the way to surface and beyond, it's like sailing on a bowling green. Long fins just don't work, very low aspect ratio, highly raked is your only chance. Still a bit draggy at times, but the absolutely flat smoooooth is worth it.

At Albany, the waters that flat it's sticky because you aren't getting the normal chop induced air under the board.

Mast Track back,
Footstraps back
Boom up
Harness lines a bit further back so as not to load up back foot with the small fin.

Sails: As big a sail that you can just hang onto going back up wind. (that's just to get you to the top of the run anyway)
Down wind it's just balancing on the board because the waters that flat, nearly everyone complains about running out of wind.
On the Naughty it's better to be powered in the lulls and stood up with the bullets than lose speed in the lulls

Albany's bizarre in the way you can bullseye the weed bergs, when every fibre of your being is yelling at you not to.

You can quite easily go down the run with a 45-48? fin, it's the getting going which is fun

The new Tribal delta weeds can be used down to 14cm on a 54 wide board.

I use a 18cm Tribal delta on JP speed 54cm with a 7m and can get the board to rail up so could easily go down to a 16cm or further, the 18 goes up wind like a demon.

Weed fins for most of the popular Australian shallow, weedy, speedy venues are generally short in depth but still large in area.

12cm Tribal Delta weed worked perfectly for me at Lake Budgiewoi in my CA40 with 5.2m sail for 39 knots.

Mast Track as far back as I can get it.

Many weed fins move the centre of resistance further back. When I change from an upright fin to a 40-45 degree weedy, I have to move my mast track back to stop the sail foot dragging in the water.

When using a 50 degree and more, wedge shape, or "Delta' shape, there is usually quite a bit of fin in front of the box so the balance is more normal, but they don't 'lift' the boards as much, so mast track back is still usually the way to go.

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decrepit said..
Weed tends to pull the nose down, and dead flat water means you need more angle of attack, so yes everything back.

Funny that you say that weed pulls the nose down. With several different high angle and delta fins (Fangy, MUF Delta XT, maybe Speed Demon), I got the impression that they all give tons of lift that moves the nose up. I also remember Stroppo telling me that my board's nose was too high when I was struggling and slow on the first really windy day at Fangyland.

The rationale for moving things back with weedies that I heard more often was that the center of lateral resistance is further back than with a pointer, so everything else should move back, too. Obviously, it depends on the actual fin if this really is true - it's not really true for short "offset" weedies that have lots of area in front of the fin box.

I think your already on the money Benny probably just harness lines more back otherwise just adjust on the day if it's cranking and you can always handle one size up in sails because of the flat water so that you are absolutely maxed for top speed

Cheers fellas, may have just been a case of my lines way forward anticipating mega downwind runs but in reality the wind conditions didn't allow it coupled with the extremely small fin for a 62 wide and 7.0