Touring/Race board Probox fin setup

[burchas]

I have an opportunity to buy a used custom board from a friend who is willing to install some additional stuff for me.
One of the things I wanted to install is the Larry Allison Probox Fin System. I’ve read some great stuff about the
system here in the forum and I feel this will be a great addition to this board.

I need some recommendation for the right setup and placement for this board.

The board is 12.6/27 with displacement hull. Its meant for mixed conditions (tidal rivers, choppy waters, open ocean)

• What would be the best fin setup for this kind of board?
• What is the optimal placement for the fins on the board?
• Does the central fin is a regular US Box or does the Probox has its own method for the central fin?
• Where can I purchase all the parts?

I saw some boards out there like the BlkBox El Camino http://www.blkboxsurf.com/uno-el-camino which is somewhat similar
to this board and uses this setup for the same reasons I wanted it which is: added lateral stability, reduce drag and superior tracking.

I would ask the man him self, but I haven’t been able to reach Probox Larry for over a week now (Facebook, email, phone, forum).

I’m including a picture with outlines of the board

[Larry Allison]

Sorry for hard time to reach me! Phone is ringing off the hook and Fins and Boxes are flying out to meet people and companies need. Glad to see that more people like yourself are making the move and understanding the need and advantage of Probox Finsystem with multiple fin set-ups on their Sup boards. Just got your number from PM and I am calling you now.

Thanks my Standup Zone friends for informing me that I am being paged. Big Mahalos, Larry

[burchas]

Thanks for reaching out to  me Larry!
It was very informative conversation. Really stocked to get things started.

I will post here once the pictures of the finished project once its done.

[Bulky]

Feel like I should chime in as I might be one of the reasons Larry didn't get back to you so quickly.  Just got a new (used) board for such a good price that I decided doing the ProBox upgrade too.  As I had to be in LA for work last week I ended up dropping the board with Larry on Monday evening and he had it done by the time I was rolling out of town on Friday.

I was just getting the new board dialed in during the first two weeks I had it and now I've added the ProBox system.  As with most adjustments, I'm not good enough to notice instantaneous changes but as I master the new dynamics over time I start to squeeze out performance gains. 

I've had two sessions now with the twins.  I can pretty much write the first one off due to conditions--messy/windy chop and a rusty paddler who hadn't been on the board in a week.  Today's paddle had some interesting developments--still not optimal conditions but I was able to maintain a higher average speed than I would have expected.  Here's some observations:

The ventral fin does seem to give a bit better tracking.  I still have yaw and need to switch sides to maintain a straight course, but if a ventral gives me a couple more strokes on each side before I need to switch, that's more time the blade is in the water pushing me.

Probably the biggest difference I feel is in the tail release.  First time out I fell four times when I had the wind and swell at my back.  The reason I fell was because previously when I came to the end of a glide (and they're mini-glides in this case), the tail would drop back in and stall the board.  It doesn't seem to do that with the twins where it coasts out of the glide.  Very subtle difference, but enough to cause me to lose balance because the board was behaving differently.  Add to that, I think I unconsciously used that stall to regain balance--but over the course of a paddle that little hitch results in a lot of starting and stopping--each time the tail sucks in, I'm using power to free it up and get moving again--power I'd much rather use to keep momentum.  Only fell once today, so I'm hoping I'm on my way to not only getting used to that but using it as an advantage.

That's what I've got so far other than to say I'm glad you've already had a chance to connect with Larry. Good guy.  Crazy about fins.  Master craftsman.  Great customer focus.

[Bulky]

Oops.  I meant to post a picture of my setup.  Here it is--

[burchas]

Hi Bulky,

Thanks for your thoughts. What drove you to install the fin system in the first place?
Were you feeling your board was not behaving the you expect it?

You see, I looked into the system for 2 main reasons:

• Lateral stability on a narrower board
• Reduced drag compare to bigger fins

From what I've read in the forum and after talking to Larry, I'll get exactly that plus other
added benefits such as the better tracking which you mentioned and suitability for a broader
range of conditions with the same setup.

There are some more benefits such as the installation method of the fin box and the construction
of the mechanism which is far more fault tolerant than the common systems.

There is even more, but that would require the man himself to make sense of it.

[Bulky]

I wasn't really displeased with the board. I don't think I had it long enough to really make a determination or be dissatisfied. Just was reading about them and thought since I got a great deal on the board might as well give it a shot. I'd certainly love to squeeze as much speed out as I can.

I didn't really need it for stability. My 14 is 27inches wide and that's fine for me, though any added stability can translate to smoother strokes which means you can move faster.

I also want to see if it mitigates the tail suck on my 14. With a square tail, you really need to get that tail to release and if you talked to Larry you heard about vortexes caused by single fins vs mounds caused by the twins. Gotta say I felt that right away as I posted above--the board feels like it coasts out of glides instead of settling back. Still early in the game. Gotta adjust my paddling to this dynamic and see if there's efficiency to be gained there.


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