Saturday, January 3, 2009

Pointer Fins




These fins are for a kiteboard I have yet to make - a racing kiteboard. I posted an entry a while back on two current market offerings - North's LTD and NJS's versions of courseboards. I'll have these as the trailing fins on a quad setup. The leaders will be much smaller to turbulate the flow of water before these see the flow - makes the ride gentler (these are not small fins, and if they hit untouched flow first, the board will be ultra-sensitive to steering input and not easy to control).

These are also at an 18 degree cant (from vertical) so when heeling the board to windward on a close reach/haul, the fin is working more to keeping the board on it's higher (to the wind) line. These were CNC milled and are made of G10 epoxy (nice). Nils from NJS sold them to me (thanks!). I am happy!

The other kiteboards I have are all directionals with fins at a very light cant (about 4 degrees only) - great for surfing, but supposedly limited at going upwind (so I've heard - I believe there are other variables in this - rail usage, kite design,wind strength, rider skill). After this board is done, we'll see. Besides the fins, I plan on having a much harder/sharper/thinner rail over most of the board (1/2 to 2/3 of the board as opposed to 1/8 to 1/4 on a surfing kiteboard) with the thickness kept underfoot for float during lighter winds.

Should be an interesting project...

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