a final bit of fintology..

hmm, fintology.. that’s a stupid word but it’s all I could think of for the minute. I’m stuck in waiting for a courier this morning so I may as well fill some blank space on your screen.. This is probably the final carbon kayak fin post for now.. it needs to be posted as the fins have been through a reasonable amount of testing now and appear to be doing very well.

Despite being hollow and quite light they’re standing up to rough launchings and landings very well.. just the usual scuffing/abrasion from sand and pebbles. These fins haven’t got any form of additional clearcoat over the moulding.. at the time I didn’t see the point in the extra time and expensive in finishing with, say, a 2-pack polurethane for a set of prototypes.. but in future I think I will, it is tough stuff and should help keep them looking nice a little longer.

Here are some pictures of the setup I have on my XS.. the center fin is a smaller, higher aspect ratio fin than is standard.. the reason for that is a regular 3.5″ fin in the center box on this boat stiffens up the turns way too much – it is a relatively long boat and doesn’t need all that ‘finnage’. Running with thrusters only kept the boat very loose in the water but I found myself wanting more grip and more drive in certain situations.. hence that fin design. It is 3″ tall with a base measurement also of 3″.. and it has worked a treat.. I find the boat now has exactly the kind of the behaviour I was looking for, it has turned out to be, for me, a perfect set-up.

center fin on my XS

The thrusters are a pretty standard shape, 3.5″ tall, flat on the inside face with a 7mm deep foil shape but significantly stiffer than regular fins. I’d hoped the stiffness would give me a sharper turn response… and that is exactly what I got. Not much more to say about that except they work great. They were a little more difficult to make than the center fin due to the ‘depth’ of the detail in the root, took me a few goes to get it right but now I know what I’m doing I have myself an ‘endless supply’ of fins.

thruster fin

People have said I should be selling them, mainly based on the looks I think.. but as a commercial exercise they don’t really make sense.. it is time consuming and fiddly to make a fin with all the local reinforcement necessary so I couldn’t sell them at a price competitive with the commercial glass fins on the market.. and the market is tiny relative to surfboard fins. I am however in the process of meeting requests from a few friends for sets so if you did want a set, or even a custom fin design drop me a line.

3 thoughts on “a final bit of fintology..

    • Hi Mark, thanks for your message.. I don’t have the time to make any sets at the moment I’m afraid, too much other stuff going on with work and so on. That’s not to say I won’t ever make any more but I couldn’t commit to making you a set. Sorry about that! Thanks for reading though!

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