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Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 12:12 pm
by kitesurfbali
Hello friends,
during our Race Series in Bali a huge problems occurred.....
Sea Weed... With 25 cm fins is inevitable to get stock!!
So who is making them?
Any info would be highly appreciated.
Bye Jankie

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:12 pm
by kitesurfbali
Come on anyone? Any idea...
I made my own Sea Weed fins for my surfboard... See pics...
But I'm not sure I can make for a raceboard!!!

I was thinking to order some Seaweed for windsurf to use in the back...
But they are straight and the one on our raceboards have an angle.
Underground race board: http://www.undergroundkiteboards.com/race.html

I can modify the front one by myself!!

Looking forward to solutions...
Bye Jankie

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:58 pm
by DrLightWind
kitesurfbali wrote:Come on anyone? Any idea...

I was thinking to order some Seaweed for windsurf to use in the back...
But they are straight and the one on our raceboards have an angle.
Underground race board: http://www.undergroundkiteboards.com/race.html

Looking forward to solutions...
Bye Jankie
It's under development.
At our spot the weeds are so bad in the last couple of weeks that people can't use their raceboards,
so they're trying to come up with a remedy for it without loosing much up-wind performance.
I will post, if I see anything new.

DrLW

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:10 am
by FredBGG
http://www.futuresfins.com/

Take a look at the SUP weed fin. Looks like a race board fin but swept back.

Image


I use future fins sea sheppards on my Fish board. Very swept back and they go over kelp no problem at all. They go upwind very very well, but they may be a bit too foiled for race boards.

Image

I also tried a surfboard with only two fins. Only 3 inches deep, but they ran along about 1/3rd or the board. It did not turn too well, but it went upwind like a charm. Something to try out.

Tarifa fin company makes a windsurf rave fin designed specifically for weeds.
If I am mistaken the find are screwed into the base so you should be able to change the base to use it in a Kiterace board.

http://www.tarifafincompany.com/product ... urf%20Fin&

Image

Hope this helps

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:50 am
by d0uglass
I think weed fins designed for windsurfing would be the best bet (short of custom-designed weed fins for kiting) since they are shaped for higher speeds than weed fins for surfing or sup.

There are many makes and models of windsurfing weed fins, but the True Ames Blade Weed is a popular one that's available down to pretty small sizes like 25 cm-
http://www.trueames.com/wind_select.php ... ade%20Weed

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:13 pm
by kitesurfbali
NEED HEELLLPPPPP...

I asked a local surf shaper to make Sea Weed fins for my race boards.
He is suggesting to make them with an angle of 35%!
But in a previous post someone was talking about 40% or even 45%...
Looking by all those pictures is a bit hard to understand how many degrees those windsurfing fins have.
Any suggestion would be really appreciated.
Bye Jankie

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 6:42 pm
by FredBGG
The less the angle the more the board will work as it does with standard fins.

With a high angle the fins will feel like they are furthur back.

Also by being very angles they will reduce turning speed of the board.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have 4 fins the front two fins will do most of the weed deflection. I think that in this case the front fins need more inclination than the back fins or the back fins might only need to be angled near the tips.

The overall angle of the whole lot will depend on several things.

How hard it is to sink the kelp in order to go over it.
How slippery the kelp is

Then a guess as to how much preformance will be lost by having a given amount of angle to the fins . Less angle more drag in the kelp.. you will need to find a compromise between how much speed to gain over the kelp compared to preformance loss on the rest of the corse.

Maybe the way to go is to have fins with a variable angle like the dager boards on older windsurfers.

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:49 pm
by d0uglass
45 degrees is the standard for windsurfing weed fins.

Less than 45 degrees will not shed weeds well, more than 45 degrees will not perform well.

I would go with 45 degrees.

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:40 pm
by FredBGG
My favorite windsurfer weed fins were 45 degrees, but with a little ramp right at the base of the fin
that srarted from 0 and went to 45 over 2 inches. The base was also offset on the fin so as to position the fin furthur forward on the same finbox so as to counter the effect of the swept back fin.

Re: Sea Weed fins for Raceboards!!

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:47 pm
by droffats
Here are some pics of the seaweed fins next to regular fins. These are for a Airush Sector 52 and the weed fins are for either an Airush Sector 52 or Sector 60.

-Droffats
www.adventurekiteboarding.com