I've recently bought a Fanatic Skate 109, which I want to use for foiling and as an alround family board which might or might not replace our trusted Tabou Rocket 115. It's never gong to be used for serious modern freestyle but for freeride, old school lightwind fooling around and foiling.
I want to replace the power box with a reinforced deep tuttle box like the ones made by Flikka, Seatexboards and others.
For use as a foilboard it would be better to shift the box forward by about 3-6 centimetres as this goes togethrer with the desired foot strap and mast positions for foiling. It might as well come in handy as I could use the power box bolt hole for the rear tuttle box bolt.
Starboard have obviously gone the same way in their Ignite RTF, where the fin position is moved three cm forward, which makes them provide a deep tuttle freestyle fin with a setback.
The big question:
How will the Skate perform with a fin that is further forward than normal?
I've tried to wrap my mind around it, but can imagine anything from great upwind performance and improved maneuverability to permanent spinouts and no planing at all.
Any ideas and advice will be enthusiastically appreciated, even more so when based on actual experience.
P.S.: It's obvious that swept back freeride fins or weed fins could be of help.
Instead of installing a deep tuttle box, why don't you just install double tracks forwards of the power box, then you can use the power box for finning and the tracks for foiling
Hi Thedoor,
that's a quick response.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I don't want to go down this path as I already have a deep tuttle foil (basically two) which I'm not planning to replace. I'm happy with one of them for me (AFS Wind 85) and think the other one might be a good learning foil for my lightweight kids (Fanatic H9).
So far, I've been foiling on a Standard Deep Tuttle Slalom Board.
Select to expand quoteZeeGerman said..
Hi Thedoor,
that's a quick response.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I don't want to go down this path as I already have a deep tuttle foil (basically two) which I'm not planning to replace. I'm happy with one of them for me (AFS Wind 85) and think the other one might be a good learning foil for my lightweight kids (Fanatic H9).
So far, I've been foiling on a Standard Deep Tuttle Slalom Board.
Haha, if I am not sailing I am monitoring this forum.
That makes sense.
Beating a dead horse dept.: How about tracks with a DT to track adapter? That way you get to extend the AFS a bit which is always nice when the water isn't flat (or why I sold my 85 when I found an affordable 95).
Is your board deep enough in the tail for a full deep tuttle box?
I reboxed my JP freestyle 101 with a DT foilbox and also changed the head of the fin to an off-set DT. Much like you I was inspired by starboard to reposition the box +3cm. In retrospect I'd have done the caculations myself.
The recommende foil for the adapted position is their gtr+ with 95+ fuse. My current foil has a 120 fuse so there was no need to place the box any further. The result is that the centre of lift is to much to the front compared to my regular strap position. When powered up this isn't a problem but in minimal conditions you have to keep pressure on the mastfoot while kicking the board airborn and this can be tricky. I'm switching to a shorter fuse next week to have a more natural take-off.
Switching fin heads isn't super tricky and there are some video's online that can help you. Maybe you can try and craft a carbon fin yourself. My guess would be that some brands will come up with off-set freestyle fins soon.
Other than that, a freestyleboard is amazing for foiling. It has explosive acceleration and it is impossible to crash hard. The shape is so forgiving that even after a foil-out you can just keep going. Not to mention that foiling with centreline staps is super fun and that it's sweet to have one 10-30/35 knots board
Thanks for all the feedback. Nico, this sounds encouraging to me. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a fun board on the foil, with my Slalom Board (Exocet RS 5.5) doing the job, but lacking a playful character.
I tried the board with a freeride fin and a 6.4 yesterday and am pretty sure that it will serve as a great jack of all trades and master of none for all the family. Mayba you're right and I should learn to rebox a fin. Lots of US and trimbox fins in the basement waiting to be reborn as tuttle.
Thanks for the track mount advice, too. I've considered it, but it doesn't appeal to me for the time being. Wouldn't a DT to track adapter make things more indirect and wobbly? When I was on my Fanatic H9 I felt it wasn't stiff enough for my weight. What unnerved me most was that I never knew if it was me or the foil when I didn#t make progress in learning to jibe. With the AFS I always know it's me when I mess up, which happens more often than not.
Nico, are their any pics of your conversion?
I'll send you what I have via direct message. The trickiest part is actually removing the footpad without tearing it and istalling the footstrap plugs imo. The rest is just measuring, routering and laminating.
I've done a bit of thinking about fin position. The default is 9cm from the back I think, but quite a lot of freestyle boards like the fanatic skate and sb flare used to have slotboxes so the rider had the fin right under his/her backfoot. Allegedly this felt very good. I've concidered using a 'normal' DT fin in my fs board, but the smallest one I have is a 37cm slalom so that's no option. On the other hand 27cm tuttle (slalom) fins are slim while 21cm powerbox (fs/freeride) fins remain 'fat', so I'm not sure if that's helpful either. Maybe I should get an old +-50cm g10 DT fin and chop of 30cm to get a fs-like forward placed fin and see how that feels.
Here's a link to a guy who made a chinook-like and carbon plate adapter, as well as reboxed his JP magic ride to a DT foil: foil-freak.com/category/projects/
I concidered having a tracksystem and powerbox, but that would add even more weight and friction. Maybe the trim option outweighs these downsides for you. I prefer a fixed position so I can trim around that to get a more constant result.
It is for sure a hell of a lot easier to install! For optimal strenght changing the powerbox (to have it integrated in the tracksystem foamblock) might be required, but it is probably optional.
I can send you a pic of the old powerbox in my board so you can see howmuch space it took in there so you know +- how much to mill out of a tracksystem foamblock
Thanks a lot, Nico!
Ist's going to be finicky, but can't be Impossible. I've thought of keeping the foot strap insert and building around it, but starting from scratch sounds more promising.
Trackmounts plus deep Tuttle would enable use of all sorts of foils, but I shy away from extra weight and hassle.
I remember seeing an adapter to mount PB fins in DT boxes, specifically for converted Freestyle boards. Required shaving a little off the fin head but it still works in PB.
Just for the feed back :
when I had to change the box on my Duo2 board I replaced it about 2cm forward. Foiling got much better with my Aeromod v1 foil, and it made no noticeable change for fin windsurfing.
I really have more fun with my straps inboard board (changed for single aft strap since pict) as it is way more responsive and playful
I only use my outboard straps board with cam sail for speed. 
I have been thinking about DTT box that could have a position adjustment capacity, and my friend Franck Gressier ([url=www.free-ride-addicted.fr/]free-ride-addicted ) told me he used to ride with a custom made fin box with several DTT position as he used both kite and windsurf foil : he made a long constant depth DTT with bolt hole every 3cm and used specific parts between the foil head and the botom of the box (as most of us used to adjust foil rake, but much more thicker and to have a constant depth mast head).
I really thing we need some way of fine tuning foil position, both for DTT or tracks. I just prefer DTT for it is only 2 bolts and structural constraints are better shared by hull and deck laminated skin than with dual tracks.
