Yet another board build . Super light wind heavy pilot special.

Wooohooo!!
FKD
Thats GOLD Imax!

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Imax1 said..

FKD
Fat Kat Designs.
Couldn't help myself
Will sand emblem to give it a ghost effect .

Brilliant! That's superb.

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Tardy said..
That's a cool design ...good you added a sea theme too ....adding the starfish .

If I put one on the deck and aligned the starfish with the vent plug ..........mmmmm???

Final clear coat .
Im not sure how i should finish . I've heard a 200 grit finish parallel with the board is best for slipperiness , is this true ? Ive also heard that if water droplets bead on a finish it creates more drag . The rough surface stops this happening . Would i notice any difference ? The speed guys might know !
If i buff it super shiny it will look this darker color , if i sand finish , it will look much lighter , until wet , then it will turn darker shiny again .
Im thinking sanding to give it the matt finish and look like the pic above . I could go as fine as 400 grit to keep it matt any more and it will start getting shiny .





Ghost pussy.

What sort of a question is that Imax, you live on an island full of pensioners ...................... you should finish with 3 beers and a nap

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Imax1 said..

Neighbor loving ambient tones machines
Fangy , you must have soo much love in your neighborhood .

Yeah, I am very careful about when and how much I do to try to be a good neighbour. All my sanding / finishing tools are air driven which allowed me to apply decent sound insulation to my bank of air compressors. Happily, I am surrounded by parkland on two sides and my neighbours on the remaining side are deaf as posts, and shielded from the noise by the house too.
Thanks for posting the photos, I am very interested to see how you go about finishing the fin, especially given your attention to detail and standards exhibited on the board construction...No pressure! :-).
I rarely make gaskets anymore, so I am following that bit closely too, just in case I need to make one in the future. Oh and the using woodworking tools on aluminium is damn a good tip, I wish I had discovered it long before I did.

Last season I did lots of reading and research on what finish works best. Unfortunately a lot of the research is done with Reynolds numbers that are too low to reflect the environment windsurfing fins operate in. In the end, and after experimenting a lot with different finishes, I decided that whatever blows ya hair back will be probably be fine. But for me personally, I like the highly polished surface for a number of reasons:
1) it seems to oxidise in a finer and more regular pattern with longer intervals between a restorative polish.
2) The smoother the foil the more efficient it is.* Note: I am not saying less drag*
3) I like shiny bits of metal that don't necessarily come with diamonds embedded.

Most telling was an experiment that we did last season. Two sailors ( not me ) generously offered to be the guinea pigs using their own fins and gear. We had a control FF22 that was smooth >400 grit ( I cant remember the exact numbers here). The experimental FF22 had a relatively rough finish by comparison.( maybe 120 grit ) Two sailors with similar ability on similar boards with the same size sails. The end result (comparing the GPS data) was that the rough fin may have been slightly faster, but the smooth fin had remarkably more lift.
In real terms, that meant the sailor on the rough fin spent most of his session trying to work back uphill, whilst the smooth fin sailor had more downhill runs and a more satisfying sail. Smiles on Dials rather than numbers was the FF22 design principle, so on that basis alone the highly polished fin wins hands down in my book.

(That being said, my own fins look completely feral, unloved and about as smooth as a gravel track these days. )

Final clear top coat . I think ill keep this side shiny . It will be a couple days before i can polish the deck and then add grip.
Kinda looks like a psychedelic oyster and getting used to it .

Imax, a few more details please. What process did you undertake etc?? Im quite keen to try this on some of "over sanded" fins!!

Great build thread. Your board looks fantastic, congrats on a job well done

Grip.
Sugar coating ....SWEET !
Tape off area .
Thats 1.5 kg of sugar . 1 kg caster , 0.5 kg normal.
Not too rough and not too fine .


Roll on even layer of resin , not too thin , not too thick .
Move board outside onto driveway , ( keep the ants outside ).
Heavily sprinkle all the sugar on top.
Blow sugar around the board and all excess sugar off either by mouth , which takes a lot of effort , or air compressor , ( used to blow off with mouth with polyester resin , what a rush ) .
I find it easier piling on the sugar rather than trying to neatly sprinkle an even amount . It all blows off to a perfect amount as long as you dont use too much resin , and neatly roll the resin .



Pull off tape outside while still wet before bringing inside .
Wash about a kg of excess sugar off driveway .



Done !
Next day wash off sugar and very lightly go over with 600 wet and dry paper . If you dont sand , it will be over grippy and sharp and positively painful.
I find this the best grip , it lasts forever , is very grippy and not too bad on the knees when climbing on to uphaul.

Foot pads .
Cardboard template to make sure of happy size '


Cutting out pads at 45 deg angle .



Tape down a bit '
Mark with pencil .
Tape around .


Tape a lot around .
Nails in four holes .



Push pad over nails .
The nails are to accurately guide the pad down .



Glue both sides with contact adhesive .
The plastic lids are there so i dont get an accidental not aligned stick .
I pull them out just before touchdown .



Peel off tape , repeat on others .
Makes it super neat .
Done .

What a Pearla ! Looks great Imax.

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Gestalt said..
looks awesome

hey is it just me or is the mast track very close to the front straps?
just figured maybe an optical illusion because of the length of the board.

The mast track is where it should be . The front straps are more forward than normal .( about 10 cm ) , I'm not just fat but also over 6 ft and like a wide stance . I do this to all my boards.
Actually it's 5 cm more forward than standard , so are the straps and fin box . Effectively adding 5 cm to the tail in the quest for early planing . On most boards the front rocker starts under the mast track , on this it's about 45 cm more forward .

Awesome, I've enjoyed following the build. I bet you can't wait to get it on the water