Apologies if this has been discussed before but starting to think of a road trip to the Golden Lake.
In my brief discussions with people that have sailed the Lake some weedies work better than others.
What are peoples preferences?

This year things are a bit different from previous years. The good weed is thicker after 3 years of good growth and there is now a lot of Algae type (snot weed) in the lake. The former makes more drag than previous years which is not really an issue, but the snot weed foats a bit and sticks to the fin when trying to start.
So this year I have had to go to 50 degree type weeds, rather than the usual 35-40 degree types I have always used in the past.

45 degree type fins still work OK as long as they are less than about 23 cm, and you try to avoid stopping in the thickest weed. The Tribal Weedspeed's and Extreme Weed's work OK in the latter category in under 23cm sizes. Over that you are getting a fair bit of drag in the thick weed in the shallower glassy areas.

The 3 fins I have been using most this year or a Black Project WeedSpeed 50, 25 (20 cm deep), a 21cm Techtonics Weed Demon (50 degrees), and in the speed board, a Chocko modified (raked back to 50 degrees) Curtis 17cm.

Early season I had good results with the 21cm Tribal Weedspeed (40-45 degrees) in the JP SL 70, but it does not suit the new IS80 quite as well.

The other reason the shorter fins are great is that you can feel more confident going into the really glassy stuff where it is only knee deep or less.

PS. You probably need to do it in the next couple of weeks if you want to sail the SE winds. They usually tend to disappear by mid to late March. But it can still be really good on the SW fronts through Autumn and Early Winter. They just are a bit shorter in duration, but often much stronger.

This is in around 20 knots of wind.

I found the fangy fins where good for all these conditions: thick weed, being raked about 50%, shallow water, being short for the same sail/board size , and not spinning out easily like the deltas. I used 21 for 90 lts board up to 6.6 sail and 20 cut to 17 for 70 l board sails up to 5.8. Extra advantage is that they are made of aluminum, so not easy to break them

In lighter winds why not sail the big lake at least you can use normal fins

I can sail in lg with jp Slw 165L 92 wide with 9.4 with a jp 31 weed 45 degree ..... just he he

I chopped a bit off the bottom curved the front edge of my fangys for the local conditions and it seems to work so I did the same to my Pepe weed speed as it picked up way more than the fangy and I'm keen to try it out.

Great job Pete, when you get back, you can have a go with my stainless leading edges

I'll drop my FF22 off.

I've done something similar to Peter for days when the tide is high enough at Liptons to not need to resort to a Lockwood Delta.

Chopped down two Lockwood Weedspeeds, swept back the tips, then got Pepe to re-rake and re-box them:


So far have only tried the 23, but it worked well.

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Pacey said..
I've done something similar to Peter for days when the tide is high enough at Liptons to not need to resort to a Lockwood Delta.

Chopped down two Lockwood Weedspeeds, swept back the tips, then got Pepe to re-rake and re-box them:


So far have only tried the 23, but it worked well.

Oooo ahhh! Very nice.

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sailquik said..

Pacey said..
I've done something similar to Peter for days when the tide is high enough at Liptons to not need to resort to a Lockwood Delta.

Chopped down two Lockwood Weedspeeds, swept back the tips, then got Pepe to re-rake and re-box them:


So far have only tried the 23, but it worked well.

Oooo ahhh! Very nice.

Should mention, I stole the idea from Boz!

Looking at visiting lake George where do you set up and launch and land ? Also when is the best time, can you recommend somewhere to stay. I am flying down from Brisbane, would it better to fly into Adelaide and get a hire car.a windsurfer mate of mine is very interested as well.
Do you windsurf off the other nearby lakes as well ? It certainly looks a top flat water spot. I look forward to to hearing from you soon.
Graham and Jason.

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Sorrento1254 said..
Looking at visiting lake George where do you set up and launch and land ? Also when is the best time, can you recommend somewhere to stay. I am flying down from Brisbane, would it better to fly into Adelaide and get a hire car.a windsurfer mate of mine is very interested as well.
Do you windsurf off the other nearby lakes as well ? It certainly looks a top flat water spot. I look forward to to hearing from you soon.
Graham and Jason.

You have likely missed the window now for the nice regular summer SE winds. The season window usually goes from January to late March. There could be another burst, but it is incresaingly unlikely. It can still be great on frontal winds, but they are harder to time, and usually briefer in duration.

There are a few launching points depending on the water level and the wind direction, but the most used is at the 'Five Mile'. Follow the Lake George Road past the Pub out of town to the North for about five miles (8km) and you get to the end of the formed gravel road and "High Water' sign next to a natural boat ramp.

If you have a 4WD, you can continue on to the 'The Spit' between the Big Lake nd the Middle Lake and launch from there but it is quite a rough and sandy track.

Yes, driving from Adelaide is closer than from any other Major airport.

Try the Beachport Motel, or get a cabin in the Beachport Southern Ocean Tourist Park.

If you hold off until February next year you will have plenty of company.

and Jamie must be too busy to keep the toilet paper factory going for windsurfing....

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Sorrento1254 said..
Looking at visiting lake George where do you set up and launch and land ? Also when is the best time, can you recommend somewhere to stay. I am flying down from Brisbane, would it better to fly into Adelaide and get a hire car.a windsurfer mate of mine is very interested as well.
Do you windsurf off the other nearby lakes as well ? It certainly looks a top flat water spot. I look forward to to hearing from you soon.
Graham and Jason.

Search for our Facebook group ( LG gps windsurfing crew ) and I'll add you so most of the information you want will be answered there. Also lots of crew posting pics and videos off there trip. February is when a lot of crew are here.

Really should say if you are a kiter on a windsurfing forum.

The world has gone crazy dealing with this virus, pubs closed, toilet paper for sale on eBay, cats and dogs living together, kite surfers posting on windsurfing forums!

Good speeds at lake george have been obtained using the MUF DeltaXT50

I can confirm that. It seems to work quite well indeed.
Far better than the original Delta, but even that works pretty well in the really flat water where the weed is REALLY thick!

The problem with these is that they look to be hand-foiled by a gorilla with Parkinson's. Mine was so poorly shaped that on my first sail with it, I sailed about 300 m out from the beach at Liptons, spinning out constantly, turned around and sailed back, still spinning out. Took the fin off and never used it again, very disappointing. I appreciate there is a lot of variability with hand foiling, so your mileage may vary.

Contrast that to my experience with the Lockwood Deltas, amazing grip and predictability for such short fins. Very reliable in everything but really choppy conditions.

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Pacey said..
The problem with these is that they look to be hand-foiled by a gorilla with Parkinson's. Mine was so poorly shaped that on my first sail with it, I sailed about 300 m out from the beach at Liptons, spinning out constantly, turned around and sailed back, still spinning out. Took the fin off and never used it again, very disappointing. I appreciate there is a lot of variability with hand foiling, so your mileage may vary.

Strange I have not heard that before! Are you talking about the Delta XT or the Delta XT 50? Delta fins require you to adjust your sailing style to get the best out of them the guys that have mastered them can get away with sailing much smaller sizes which mean less resistance and contact with weed and more speed. Sailing 600m on it is not really giving it a chance it may also have been the wrong size for your set up that day. But as with everything in windsurfing what works for one person may not work for someone else.

Sorry Legless I can confirm a similar experience to Pacey with MUF. I had a large version of one of their standard weedies (not the delta's) which was found to be asymmetric with a difference of 1.5mm between sides.

I sailed it a total of less than 1500m and I generously put it that only 300m of that was not cavitating the fin. I threw it further (quite literally) than it could sail in a straight line before letting go.

Pepe ended up fixing it by building up the surface and putting a good profile on it after which there was never an issue. He really is a wizard of backyard manufacture.

The issue is that some of the G10 fins that come out of China are not CNC. At best they run a number of sections off the CNC and hand shape in between and some are hand shaped off templates. I know this as I have done research into Chinese fin factories.

Elmo again I have not come across this issue before. The fin box shape on the fin particularly with tuttle box often need to be sanded to get a good fit but this is the case with almost all fins that shape the box out of the G10 compared to fin that have moulded fix box heads.

I also fin it strange that MUF Delat XT 50 has done over 43 knots at lake george which would not be possible if the foil was out of shape. In addition I use Delta XT 50 30cm which you would expect to have the most variation due to size I find is rock solid and very hard to get to spin out. Yes is smaller sizes and I use down to 14's which will spinout if you put to much pressure on the fin with your back foot which you can pull back but over time you learn to sail with less backfoot pressure particularly when going upwind.

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mr love said..
The issue is that some of the G10 fins that come out of China are not CNC. At best they run a number of sections off the CNC and hand shape in between and some are hand shaped off templates. I know this as I have done research into Chinese fin factories.

I know labour is cheap in China but I find it hard to believe it would be cheaper to hand shape the fins rather than CNC them. Secondly the surface finish on the fins is not a hand finish. I am sure there are dodgy manufacturers in china but I also believe there are good ones to else brands like Neil Pryde, Gasstra would not be making sails and a whole load of other windsurfing gear in China

Maybe WA got all the duds???? I've seen some terrible ones over here, including a few that were bent, how does a delta come out of a factory bent?
So at one stage were they trialling different manufacturers could WA have got all the rejects?

I know some of the orders Fangy put in, arrived very late with different sizes, & different boxes to what he ordered. It was his frustration with this that prompted him to develop the Fangy fins.

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decrepit said..
Maybe WA got all the duds???? I've seen some terrible ones over here, including a few that were bent, how does a delta come out of a factory bent?
So at one stage were they trialling different manufacturers could WA have got all the rejects?

I know some of the orders Fangy put in, arrived very late with different sizes, & different boxes to what he ordered. It was his frustration with this that prompted him to develop the Fangy fins.

Something very strange happened in WA. I am guessing Fangy order was before the XT 50 existed and was for the original 55 degree Delta?
Why did Fangy not get back in touch with MUF to get his order corrected? I am sure they would have if they had sent the wrong fins.
Again I have never seen a bent MUF Delta fin and I have seen a lot of MUF Delta fins over the last 8 plus years I have been using MUF Delta fins.

I thought Fangy developed his fins to improve performance over the 55 degree delta which was also the reason for the creation on the DeltaXT50 which was created for GPS conditions in Australia.

You'd have to speak to fangy about all his bad experiences with MUF, I know he contacted them multiple times and just gave up in the end.
And yes this was with the original deltas. And I've definitely seen at least a couple of bent ones.

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decrepit said..
You'd have to speak to fangy about all his bad experiences with MUF, I know he contacted them multiple times and just gave up in the end.
And yes this was with the original deltas. And I've definitely seen at least a couple of bent ones.

I have a feeling this was a long time ago when MUF was run by the original owner who was mostly based in Maui. It has been for about 5 years being run from Germany by its current owner. I used to have them sent to me from Maui now they come from Germany. I have got delta fins off both old and new and have never been sent the wrong fin and I have ordered more MUF delta's than anyone else in Australia so if there was a problem I would have seen it.

Not sure how a bent one is created from a flat G10 sheet. Maybe a shipment got heat damaged somehow.

I will need to let people try my Delta XT 50's out at peel inlet to see how good they can be.

Apologies for the hijack to Old Salty. Regardless of the commercial issues, I would like to say a big kudos and thank you to Dietrich Hanke who was the designer behind the original Delta. That fin was the first fin that allowed me to safely sail the magic carpet. It opened up this whole new wonderful world of sailing fast on the thick weed on my doorstep, provided a massive smile on the dial for a lot of people and inspired a whole bunch of fin development from some very talented people. Big green thumbs up to Dietrich H from me, and besides, without that fin, I might have ended up kiting.