Hi guys. Quick question here. I have a starboard kode tufskin which has a removable centre fin. Up until now I have had it in to help my upwind performance but I have also encountered troubles getting on the plane. My question is does having this centre fin in affect planing performance and if so why.
Cheers Will
The centre fin will adversely affect planing. My wife has an RRD Easyrider with a fixed centre fin. Once I got this board on the plane with a 7.8m race sail. The whole board rose out if the water from the centre fin. It was a strange sensation as suddenly the big board rose out and had no contact with the water. There was little control.
Back in the day of slotted centreboards with a strap to grab the top, a big factor limiting high wind sailing was the problem of boards flipping over due to too much lift.
So if you want to plane on this board remove the centre fin and fix a blanking plate. The centre fin will make your planing board uncontrollable. There will be too much lift generated by the centre fin as the board goes faster.
Is is retractable, or do you have to actually remove it? If it's retractable, just put it away but don't take it out completely. You might decide you need it to get back safely. I have a JP Explorer and they have a retractable centerboard. I generally have the centerboard down (I'm a n00b), but for some things I have sailed with it up and it stays up because there's a rubber slot/curtain under the board that holds it in place.
based on the shots from the top - it is NOT fully retractable, butt as the name implies - a centre fin and not daggerboard
"With the centre fin fitted, the board keeps young riders upwind in light winds and makes learning easy."
"Fitted with the high performance fin in the tail and with the centre fin box sealed off with the supplied adaptor, the Kode Tufskin comes to life. Powered up with a full size sail, it transforms into a powerful, fast, maneuverable and exciting freerider. "
I think it is fairly clear from SB literature that for performance and planing you MUST remove the centre fin and seal slot off with the adapter !!!
