Fins

[Cruisinby]

Installed a mast track in a 9' x 32" wide North Pacific round pin board.   Sailed it yesterday in lite winds, waist high waves, smooth water.   Fin set up is 7" center fin with 4" side.   Loads of fun on a wave, no problem tracking straight.   No real complaints, looking for input to what others are using fin wise.   I'm not looking to plane, would a bigger center fin help going up wind ?

thanks   

[nalu-sup]

My experience with wavesailing SUPs is that fin size makes very little difference in getting back upwind. Unlike sailing a short windsurf board where the fin provides much of the lateral resistance to get you upwind, the long waterline of a SUP provides most of the lateral resistance, so I have found very little difference between using a large center fin, and just using a thruster or quad setup with 4 ½" fins. I would say to play with fins for performance on the wave, and not worry about the upwind aspect.

[PonoBill]

Don't worry, you won't be planing unless you find some 50+ wind, and even then only briefly. I like a medium-sized dolphin for sup sailing, something in the 7-8" range. I've tried reversed thrusters, and they work OK. I might be reading your post wrong. are you thinking about a fin as a centerboard? Some of the early SUPs, most notably the Starboard 12'2" and the 12'6" had tuttle boxes to permit installing a centerboard fin. starboard even made a flavor of 12'6" with a swing fin that could be kicked into place. But no, you don't need one unless you're sailing in very light wind, like sub-10 MPH in the sit up and beg position.

[Cruisinby]

Not concerned at about planning, looking at wave performance in 8 to 15 knots.   Another fun day today before it became windy enough for a regular sailboard.   Thanks for the info, next test will be with lopez thruster fins all the same size.  Thanks

[PonoBill]

That's exactly what they're good for. Getting out and driving into waves when the only people out are the 75 pound Zen planers.

[JimK]

I use a 26cm to 28cm center Surf Fin (in a thruster setup 5" side fins) when I have heavy upwind work Like this weekend with Hermine


JimK
Extreme Windsurfing