Makani Fins Kawa, Loomo and Me

[Glowmaster]

This story is going to end in a fin review of the Makani Fins Kawa, but it is really about international friendships, kindred spirits and innovative cooperation.

Who is Me?  I am Ed Sinofsky, aka Glowmaster.  I am a Scientist by training and profession, 55 y.o. , but I am also an aspiring waterman living on Cape Cod. In 2005, I was actively windsurfing, but all my friends had gone on to other sports and pastures.  It wasn’t as fun alone, but I heard of a new variety to the sport.

  GPS speedsurfing.  Sailors could participate from all over the world, and could compare GPS recorded “tracks” and post them to the site GPSspeedsurfing.com for an international ranking.  I did this for a while until I realized I was slow compared to the rest of the world.  I did notice some posts from a New Zealand sailor, Craig Loomes. He had a link to his site for Naval Architecture.  I wanted to be a naval architect when I was a teen, so I checked out his site and was very impressed at the form and function of his designs.  I emailed him to tell him that and Loomo (his nickname) and I have been friends ever since.

He designed Earthrace, Planet Solar and other very cool vessels both fuel powered and human powered.  When I visited NZ a few years ago I arranged to visit Loomo at work, where he treated me like a long lost relative, and showed me the plans for Planet Solar.  www.lomocean.com www.planetsolar.org

As a gift he gave me one of his asymmetric speed fins that he and his mates had been playing with on the speed run.  This was his design, and although the fin was difficult to sail on port tack, when it is on starboard it is unbelievable!

One of the characteristics of Loomo’s designs are that he was one of the first, if not the first to do wavepiercing boats.  The whole boat is designed to go through the wave instead of up and over it.  This is how Earthrace works.  In 2012 when I decided to get into SUP I asked Loomo what he thought and he graciously ended up designing me a custom 12’ board that we had made here in the States from a CNC cut blank.  Of course it wouldn’t just be a surfboard, as I gave him design guidelines that I wanted no slapping in the nose.  I had heard enough of that in 3 decades of windsurfing. It looks like this:

Then he built some for himself, and a cool crank shaft paddle below.

Last winter our discussion wandered to SUP fins. We talked about how much more side force there is on a windsurfing fin, and how the angle of attack varies as we move and carve around.  An SUP fin doesn’t need to do that.  Craig suggested that maybe a standard NACA 006 foil used on most sailboats and SUP fins wasn’t the best choice.  He looked in his foil “closet” and came up with a different NACA foil that he felt had much lower drag.  Interesting. The foil has the max chord position further back, and is sharper in the entry, less rounded if you will. It is almost symmetric back and front, but not quite.

I had tried some pretty good windsurfing fins from Makani Fins so I approached them to see if they were interested in trying out Craig’s suggested foil and they were. Makani would design the outlines of the fin and sent me 4 fins. Two vertical, and two with “weed” rake. One of each had Loomo’s foil and the other 2 had the standard NACA 006.  My experiments last season were to compare the 4 to see if one stood out.  I did 25 , 5+ mile runs on the Bass River last year and used the super accurate GT 11 GPS that was used in the Speedsurfing competitions and has been shown accurate and very precise. After every session I would download and analyze the tracks.  I could see every paddle pulse as a spike and see how far above and below the average speed was.

I was very interested in trying the more vertical fins as they are so much better windsurfing.  In general I hate raked, weed windsurfing fins. My first observation is how much better the raked fins are in tracking.  My tracks with the vertical fins were scooting back and forth way to often.  The raked weed fins had significantly better tracking. I decided to focus then on testing the two weed fins with identical outlines and different foils.  I noticed a difference in feel, and measured about a .1 mph difference with the Loomo foil. I did not do these comparisons blind, so they may have been some bias.

Makani sent another set of identical fins to Tinho Dornelles in Florida.  Tinho verified my observations, and had his friend at NASA run a drag simulation and indeed Loomo was right. Lower drag. 

My testing is at speeds right near hull speed. I don’t really have the fitness to drive it over hull speed like some of the youngsters. I theorize that this lowering in drag may even be more important to those that can push their boards past their limits.

I wrote this for the Makani site.  Note that I am not a team rider, nor do I benefit at all financially from doing this. (I did get a Makani T shirt)

“Besides SUP, I race multihull sailboats, and windsurf. With this background, I have become keenly aware of the importance of fins and foils to performance. I was thrilled to be involved in the conception and testing of the Kawa SUP race fin. The chosen prototype was a swept fin for good tracking and a newly suggested low drag foil, different than the foil shape typically used on sailboat foils and windsurf fins. In over 125 miles of SUP testing this season, I now have the new Kawa on my board. It has a little more lower area than the best Makani prototype I loved this season, for even better tracking. The testing consisted of detailed analysis of GPS data on 20, or so, 5 mile paddles. Real time GPS speedometer readings supplement the stored GPS tracks. Computer analysis of the data shows how straight the fin tracks. The new foil tested better, with a higher average speed, and higher peak speed. It also doesn’t slow down as much between strokes. I can feel this when paddling. This lets you build your average speed more easily. This was confirmed by another tester in Florida, as well as mathematically confirmed as a lower drag foil by NASA. I chose the Kawa for my main fin after comparative testing with a Black Project WQ8, Allison Gladiator Hybrid fin, as well as the more traditional foil shape of the same Makani outline.”

The production version tracked even better than the prototypes due to more area down low, and I sent the prototype to Loomo in NZ to use on his SUPs. 

It is so much fun to be involved with the conception of an idea, it’s testing and verification of the idea. I read with great pleasure a review from SUP the Magazine April 2014

“The Kawa is a light, sharp, deadly race fin that was mathematically confirmed by NASA equations to have a lower drag foil than previous prototypes. That means greater paddling speed, fewer paddle strokes and longer glide. It tracked well, shed weeds like a sea monster and was ultra speedy during our tests. A fine buy for any Sup racing aficionado.”

How cool is that?

In the interest of further advancing SUP fin development if there are any fin makers out there that want us to tell them the foil we tested, just make one for Loomo and one for me.

Thanks to Louis Genest at Makani for letting Loomo and me play.

ed

[Glowmaster]

More images relevant to the story

[Glowmaster]

more images

[Glowmaster]

more images including the production Makani Kawa

http://www.makanifins.com/products/kawa-sup-race-weed-fins

[juandoe]

Nice write up, thanks for the story!  I'll give it a shot.  Coming from a windsurfing background as well, I have always wondered why the SUP fins tend to have so much thickness.  Seems a thinner fin would have less drag.  I am not sure the foil is adding a whole lot of lift at our speeds.

[surfcowboy]

I love science. Thank you for the testing work and also the post.  A really great read. Hope you stick around to participate in the shaping and design discussions. This sport is evolving quickly.

I also need to learn to windsurf. Who's in LA that can teach me? Seems like a lot of smart guys do it. I could benefit from the association. 

[cnski]

Great story and research conducted. The fins and board look way cool. Have you tried the Loomo board compared to other comparable sized boards? I've been a longtime speedsailor as well and have the GT-31 and post times on gpskitesurfing.com. I share your love of fast fins!!

[supthecreek]

Great read Ed!  I don't partake of the speedy race boards, but I love the work that was done on the boards and fins.

I watched the Earthrace documentary this winter.... very cool stuff. Big project, crazy risks.

Quite a connection you made and interesting project... thanks!

[Glowmaster]

Thanks Guys.

It was fun to write the story.  This was a very unusual product development. 
As far as the Loomo board, mine is 11'11" limited by the size of the CNC machine used.  The wake off the nose is absolutely gorgeous.  A wave peals off the bow so cleanly you can see through it.

Maybe you can see it here:



and



I let a pro down in Florida test it before it was sent up here.  At its size it is very fast.  At the end of my first year I had already clocked a 4 Knot Nautical mile, averaging 4.6 mph for a mile. No current.

I won 3 races with it beating some 14 footers. 

The boards weakness is bow steering.  The bulb that gives you the gorgeous flow also is a handle for the waves and currents to push around.  The times I have fallen have been when the bow is pushed right or left and off I went.

I got a 14' Ohana last year, and the Loomo is a little ignored.  I need to get it out again.  The bow wave is so mesmerizing to look at, I have hit moorings! 

The bulb also becomes a bit of an issue when seaweed is around as it collects it quite efficiently.

Supthecreek, the Kawa was on the board you tried on the trip up the river. 

Here is a link to another interesting Lomocean project.

http://www.3news.co.nz/World-first-rowing-boat-to-break-trans-Tasman-record/tabid/423/articleID/254230/Default.aspx

[Argosi]

Came across this thread while looking for a new fin for my Starboard Ace in sidewind conditions. The Makani fins look good. I'll likely order one.

Thanks for the testing of the fin foils Glowmaster. It would be nice to see more controlled tests of fins to get beyond the subjective.

[SUPflorida]

Glowmaster ...great post...just stumbled on this thread doing a Google search...any updates to the design since its inception? Any NACA foil number that could point me in the right direction?  If you have promised to keep it confidential I understand, but you never know until you ask...

[SUPflorida]

Poking around the NACA files and ran across a Gottingen 445 foil...6.4% thickness at 40% with a finer entry than the 0006. This sounds close to your verbal description.

Maybe better yet NACA 000834 cord 200, thickness 60%, origin % 45.

[Glowmaster]

Thanks SUPflorida.

Close.

I PMed you the answer and asked you not to publish it.

This year I tested a smaller area version of the Kawa, going to be called the Terra.

This fin worked very, very well.  Amazed at how well it tracks for how small it is.

I want even a thinner one to test next year.

[Luc Benac]

This year I tested a smaller area version of the Kawa, going to be called the Terra.
This fin worked very, very well.  Amazed at how well it tracks for how small it is.

Hello,
Would you mind giving more comments regarding difference between the Kawa and the Terra outside of the obvious smaller surface published on the web site.
It looks like the Terra is already available (in Canada).

Cheers,

Luc

[Glowmaster]

Shorter chord, thus thinner.  Smaller area with less area at the tip.  On a 14'er with a pretty wide tail over 10 strokes a side. 

Tip has been attacked by me, many times, at various hard launches, but the G10 is incredibly rugged and only needed a light sand now and again. 

CNC foiled and much smoother surface than other fins I have seen and tested.

Lighter this year as available in honeycombed carbon.