All,
I sail an Exocet RS3, 100L slalom board and usually use a 36cm pointer with my 7.0m sail. I need a weed fin however unsure what size I need as an equivalent to what I'm currently using.
Any comments appreciated.
You should be able to get away with 30 - 34cm weedy! I use a 31 or 36 with my 7.3m sail depending on the wind strength.
If you are sailing shallow weedy water have a look at the delta fins which I use a 18 - 20 cm with the 7.3m sail! Good luck and enjoy the flat water that weed banks give you!
There are MANY fin selectors out there - Select , Makani, etc
their suggestions range from 30 - 38 cm depending on rake, etc
with a nice board like you have - must you use a weedie ??
where i sail weeds are usually close to shore and so, just stay further out
when i know there could be weed issues
personally am not a weed fan on those kind of boards ...
A lot depends on the weedy, there are some really terrible ones out there, and there are some quite good ones.
Here, most of us sail with some sort of weedy all the time, and over the years, we've slowly evolved different sorts of weedys for different conditions.
If you have deep water, and light weed floating on the surface, you can possibly get away with a 35 to 40deg fin with straight leading edge. If you're sailing in shallower water, with light weed growing up from the bottom, you're better of with a curved leading edge, so there's more rake where the weed is. If you'r in shallow water with heavy weed growing on the bottom and coming all the way to the top, creating lovely smoooth water, then as MattDowse says you're better of with a shorter, heavy raked fin, 50 to 55deg.
BUT one thing in common for all raked fins, they should be STIFFF!, the more rake the stiffer they need to be. Put it over your knee and try to bend it, if you can move it more than a few mms then you might as well throw it out, you'll just hate sailing with it. I think this is the main reason weedys have got such a bad name, the other thing about longer weedys, is they shift the centre of lateral resistance further back, upsetting your normal tuning. This is where deltas have an advantage, they don't move the centre of lateral resistance back. In my case they move it along way forward, so I try to stay away from them.
Sorry I'm not answering your question, I'm just pointing out how hard it is to give you a useful answer.
The Vector weedies are brilliant. You'll need a 32 or a 34 but I guess you would need to try both to know for sure.
I use a 31 weedie with a 112L board and 7.3m sail or a 36 weedie with a 122L board and 8.0m sail.
Where you put the mast base is also important - further back loads up the fin more and can lead to spin-outs. Move mast base a touch forward if this happens...
I'm on my Tabou Speedster 100 and with a 7, I use MxR and UFO fins all 55 /24, 26 unreal. When I've used my 5.6 55/20 is sensational on the same board. Hope this helps you in some way.
Is weedy generally much slower then ordinary race fin ?
My standard fin was V. 36 and for few days I am first time in my life on 38 BP weedy ( due to incredible free weeds infestation on GC)
IS 97. OD 7.8
Something to be mindful of with different brands of weeds is some refer to vertical length and some the actual length of the foil.
I use
- 38cm long x 31cm deep with my 7.1.
- 34cm long x 28cm deep with my 6.3
- 31cm long x 25cm deep with my 5.7
Select to expand quoteMacroscien said..
Is weedy generally much slower then ordinary race fin ?
My standard fin was V. 36 and for few days I am first time in my life on 38 BP weedy ( due to incredible free weeds infestation on GC)
IS 97. OD 7.8
If you're in heavy weed, a good weedy is much faster!
