I posted this at the end of another thread but I thought this may be a better place.

I'm thinking of getting a weedie for my slalom boards so I can give Lake Illawarra a run.

I currently use a Tectonics Falcon 32 (on my 80L - 58cm & 90L - 62cm slalom boards). Sail Size would be 5.2 - 6.6m

What size and type weed fin would I need to replace the Falcon 32? Looking for suggestions for a fin that will allow me to go fast with confidence. I know they vary in design so a reccommendation on size and brand would be good.

I wont get a chance to use it much so looking for one fin as the best compromise.

vector speed weed fins...solid....fast Black Project fins look good haven't used them but have used their normal speed fin which a very nice....a lot cheaper too.

Hi Des, everyone down here has a different idea on weed fins. We probably all agree that they have to be stiff and they have to be 45 degrees to shed the weed. So don't rebox anything to less than 45. If the weed is light (it's not at present) my 38 degree fin has worked, once it's up to speed.

I tend to go long, 28cm if moderately windy and 32cm if 6.7 weather. Stiffened up Select fins. If it's real windy, 5.0 weather, the select 24cm weed fins are popular and work OK without carbon stiffening.

If you want to go real fast even shorter fins seem to be the go. I did one run on one of Leo's super short fins ( 10 knots short of what Leo does on it ) and was surprised how well it gripped.

I have been using a 24 Choco weedspeed in my speed board and 90 litre slalom with 5 and 5.8 sails must say rock solid never lets go so gives a lot of confidence to push hard, speed wise have had just under 42 but mates have had 44 and 45 on the same fin. gets upwind with ease to do more runs, going to get a 30 soon as well. have had mates borrow it and they bought one straight away. (second wind, perth)

On the freeride board with powerbox have had select freride weed fins and are ok used a 24 and 30 they are good in the sea, done 38's with these in a old torquay board, use a 36 Jp weed as well my 6.6 and is great but really not much top speed but go upwind well and are good for cruising the bay..

one thing I will only use 45 degree fins 40 just dosen't cut it.

Hamma has Vectors and must they they absolutely rock as well.

Might try a black project but haven't heard much about them.

I always assumed that you needed to go bigger in a weed fin. I tried one on my FSW board ( quite large compared to my normal fin) and it didn't feel too good, couldn't drive off the back foot and the trim felt wrong. Mind you this fin is over 15 yrs old so probably old technology.

I'm not planning to rebox my fin just looking for the equivalent size in a weed fin. It seems everyone is going smaller, I guess the stiffness compensates?.

So should I be buying a weed fin in a similar size to my stock?

des i think its got something to do the width of the tail, leo's using a 19cm because of the narrow tail width, im using a reboxed 33 = 23 on a ca44 , i assume there is a formula tail width = fin length, work that out and you wont have a problem

I use a 24cm choco weedy in isonic 86 with 6.3 and works well.

I am hanging to try the new black project weed speed.

Over the years all i have used is weed fins, and one thing that is a must in a good weedy is stiffness, if they are to soft they don't point and don't create enough lift to get your board to release and accelerate. For those boards and sails i would use something between 26-30 cm depending on hard you are on your feet. At the moment i am using Maui Ultra fins. The slalom weed has pointing abilities better then any other weedy of used. I use a 28 in my 90ltr with my 5.5 and 6.3 and a 30cm with my 7.0. The 28 has done 39.7 and 30cm has done 37.5 knots. Not bad for a fin of that size, and good price to with the Aussie dollar.
What ever you decide to get make sure it is stiff, not overly thick in the foil and proven, there is heaps of weedys on the market, but not all of them will give you the performance you want.
A good weedy is as fast and relaible as any other speed fin around.

I worked out the Rake 30° fin,used in 22cm from Andrew Daff, a fin with Rake 45°.
She is at the moment my fastest Weedfin.The 40cm Rake 30° made with the dutch Edwin the fastes Formula Topspeed in GPS.In 45° is she 32cm, vertical.That should be only a information. www.designlessacher.eu Wolfgang

Ok now I'm confused. Looking at the choco site and the posts above the 24 weed speed seems the right size. However if I look at the Choco slalom weed fins the 32 is the rec size and the smallest fin for slalom.

So what is the difference? Is it that the speed fin is designed for a narrower tail board or is it just super stiff to compensate for the smaller size?

keeping in mind that I'll be using the fin on my slalom board.

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Waiting4wind said...


keeping in mind that I'll be using the fin on my slalom board.

i guess it depends on what size sail your going to use , if you want it for illawarra you will be using a sail about 1/2 a meter larger because of the flat water to what you would on botany

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Waiting4wind said...

Ok now I'm confused. Looking at the choco site and the posts above the 24 weed speed seems the right size. However if I look at the Choco slalom weed fins the 32 is the rec size and the smallest fin for slalom.

So what is the difference? Is it that the speed fin is designed for a narrower tail board or is it just super stiff to compensate for the smaller size?

keeping in mind that I'll be using the fin on my slalom board.

I had a choco speed weed 24 for a while, good fin but unless you are going to be using it deep of the wind on the bigger board, it will be a bit small, great fin for smaller boards but i think you will benefit more from a bit bigger fin.

hey Des
on my falcon 110 6.7m sail 26cm fin top speed 38.somthing
carbon art50 6.7 24cm - 22cm
carbon art 44 6.7. 22cm spweedy 6.2.and smaller i use my 19
speed nut I just use the 19 cm just making a smaller one for the 5m as the 19 held the 6.2 so I recon i can go down to 17-18 just for fun
all fins are mine so no help there if you want to buy one but if I'm down there your more than welcome to borrow one i only use one at a time and usually on the small gear stuff .
look forward to seeing ya down there if you have an old fin you dont like I can rebox it for ya also

Leo thanks, I may have to try and borrow a fin to get the best indication of size.

i did a bit of research on the web last night and the reccommended size for a given sail size varies greatly from brand to brand. So I can only assume there is a variation in design that accounts for the difference in recommended sizes.

The speed specific fins are generally smaller but I feel they may not be the best option for a slalom board. And I do want to sail back and not walk to my launch spot.

Thanks for the offer of reboxing. I do have a fin I could re box but it may be too small, as I have already had it reboxed once and chopped down.

So whats the process of stiffenning an existing weed fin? I thought I could try it on my freeride weed fin. Would I just slap a layer of carbon cloth on each side?

Below is my Free ride weed fin -its an oldie!! For the (old) locals, I bought this from John Halls shop on the norther beaches!

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Waiting4wind said...

.

So whats the process of stiffenning an existing weed fin? I thought I could try it on my freeride weed fin. Would I just slap a layer of carbon cloth on each side?

des you dont need to laminate the whole fin, carbon is soft and you will wear it out quickly and can have problems with delam , what you need to do is rout out 1mm of the fin and lay a couple of layers of 200gr uni carbon fibers vertical, working with uni is easy but you will need a wheel to move the fibers where you want them , make sure you have cleaned the fin thoroughly thinners is best, then rebox
if leo has offered to do it i would take him up on his offer , you will end up with a better fin you can buy , as you know custom is the way to go, that way your guaranteed of getting what you want

Also, when you lay the carbon up, use peel ply and wadding. I lay the peel ply on, then the wadding, then put a flat board over the top of the wadding and lay a 30kg bag of cement (that I have in the shed) on top of the whole deal, which gets rid of any air bubbles and stops delam.
After the lot dries, I sand it back, then clear coat. When that dries, I use wet and dry to smooth the fin back to, as close as I can get to the original profile.

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Waiting4wind said...

Leo thanks, I may have to try and borrow a fin to get the best indication of size.

just rebox that one mate it will not be any shorter that box just unscrews and bobs ya uncle from what i can make out it will be 28-26 cm start as long as you can then start chopping ;-) but i run a 26 on my 110 67 wide slalom with 6.7 works a treat.
drop it round mate happy to do it I owe ya one.. your the man that got me started ! now i dont have many straight fins
just get me a couple of bolts from sam wss as i don't have any cant guarantee it will be great but it will work for sure you can always make mods after just bring a saw and some sandpaper :_)

Just reiterating Ian's comment from above - for the Lake you must have a 45 degree weedy! I bought a Black Project Weed Speed 28 recently but its rake is only 40 degrees and , of course, it caught on the Lake weed. It feels very nice when going - stable and fast, but almost impossible to get going in the "fast, calm" shallows, because of catching and dragging weed. I have reboxed the fin to give a 45 degree rake - hopefully I get to try it out this week.

It is probably a different type of weed, but 30 degree fins worked fine at Lake George.
Used the Lessacher 22 cm 30 rake Duo for the One Hour runs and it was great!
Used the KA assy speed 20cm (about 30 degree rake) for NM and it was fine too.

That said, I have a feeling we will need 40 degree rake on the tandem to get going without getting hung up at the start.

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lelos12345 said...

Waiting4wind said...

Leo thanks, I may have to try and borrow a fin to get the best indication of size.

just rebox that one mate it will not be any shorter that box just unscrews and bobs ya uncle from what i can make out it will be 28-26 cm start as long as you can then start chopping ;-) but i run a 26 on my 110 67 wide slalom with 6.7 works a treat.
drop it round mate happy to do it I owe ya one.. your the man that got me started ! now i dont have many straight fins
just get me a couple of bolts from sam wss as i don't have any cant guarantee it will be great but it will work for sure you can always make mods after just bring a saw and some sandpaper :_)

Hi Leo, the approach sounds very technical. I might take the saw with me when we go for a sail so I can do some fine tuning!

I'll definitely have to try your 26 cm. Actually it sounds too big for you! Do you want to sell it?

Thanks guys for all the input, hate to have to buy a few to find out which works.

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Waiting4wind said...

lelos12345 said...

Waiting4wind said...

Leo thanks, I may have to try and borrow a fin to get the best indication of size.

just rebox that one mate it will not be any shorter that box just unscrews and bobs ya uncle from what i can make out it will be 28-26 cm start as long as you can then start chopping ;-) but i run a 26 on my 110 67 wide slalom with 6.7 works a treat.
drop it round mate happy to do it I owe ya one.. your the man that got me started ! now i dont have many straight fins
just get me a couple of bolts from sam wss as i don't have any cant guarantee it will be great but it will work for sure you can always make mods after just bring a saw and some sandpaper :_)

Hi Leo, the approach sounds very technical. I might take the saw with me when we go for a sail so I can do some fine tuning!

I'll definitely have to try your 26 cm. Actually it sounds too big for you! Do you want to sell it?

Thanks guys for all the input, hate to have to buy a few to find out which works.

if I'm down there its usually 25kn + so i dont use the 26 or the 24 so your more than welcome to give them a go.... sorry not for sale as there my faves for down there
sam has some flying objects at the shop they go well I reboxed one for craig and it did 39kn with no dramas not too much lift but a couple of coats of putty spray would solve that
see ya tuesday?

Hello Ian, I'm at Lake Illawarra & looking forward to tuesday. Bit concerned as a result of this thread as the max delta I have is Daffys 22 Lessacher. Might stick a bit of teflon tape down the leading edge. Will be good to catch up with a few of you anyways.
p.s. Just thought, teflon glue is a bit of an oxymoron.

G'day Mal, you're a long way from home! Be great to catch up. Usually a mob of Gustbusters and the odd 'roach Primbee lakeside any time the westerlies blow. A trip to Sandy Point is in the planning, you can help wind it up.

If that fin is 22 deep you'll be fine. If it's 22 degrees? Not sure that teflon will do it. Someone at the lake should have something suitable.

How do people re-box fins?

I have tried the plastic converters but they seem to have too much movement.
My next attempt will be to use an old board as a mold, stick the fin in and pour epoxy around it.
Will this work?

for reboxing check out

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Gps/Weed-Fins/?page=2

basicly make a silicon mould, make fin supportover the mold, pour in exoxy & glass
I make the inserts out of alumimum tube & drill & tap with a m6

make sure you keep evrything straight!

Ive seen some conflicting info on the rake angle of fins. So this may be dumb question, where do you measure the rake angle. is it the leading edge relative to the board or is it from a line perpendicular to the board to the leading edge?

des you havent given it enough thought, try again

To markdemol
I have done exactly what you have mentioned using my current board as a mould (also I had made plaster casts previously) I just coated everything with releasing wax plugging up the screw hole then positioning the fin at 90deg in the hole with tape then pouring tinted resin with glass mixed in. The fin slips out easily and fits back in nicely. This was for a powerbox.

Powerbox would release a bit better than tuttle i would assume given the tapered sides. I might still give it a go before I go to the trouble of making a proper split mould or a silicone mould like most people seem to be doing. Or maybe someone has a mould I can borrow....

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markdemol said...

Powerbox would release a bit better than tuttle i would assume given the tapered sides. I might still give it a go before I go to the trouble of making a proper split mould or a silicone mould like most people seem to be doing. Or maybe someone has a mould I can borrow....

theres no need to make a mould as long as you clean the box thoroughly then use a wax ,make sure you buff the wax before it dry's then use a pva plastic mould relese you wont have a problem and remember to overlap onto the board with the wax and relese, when the bog has jelled use a long Stanley blade to cut flush with the board then wait till it cures
mark i have an old box you can use for a mould

Thanks Keef. Maybe I can get it off you next time we are at the lake.

Ps did you get the email I sent you about mast track positions?