Waiting4wind said..
Don't do what I did on the weekend when I was fitting my delta fin. ![]()
The last and only time I used it I remembered that It was a really tight fit in the box, almost impossible not get it in and out. So I thought I'd adjust it for a perfect fit before adding the fillet.
First I removed the rubber gasket it came with as it would ineterfere with the fillet. It took about an hour of sanding and testing to allow it to go flush into the fin box. With the base sitting flush the front end of the fin was sitting about 2mm proud of the the deck. The only way to make it sit flush was to tilt it forward but then the back of the the fin base was sticking out by the same amount. I'd already taken quite a bit of material off the base to make it fit and I didn't think it would be a good thing taking off as much again to allow the fin to tilt forward.
roll back an hour, my big mistake
I grabbed the board on the top of my pile to use for the test fitting. It's a starboard futura (a free race board), and not the board I would typically use with the fin. I then grabbed the other board, a 100L Exocet slalom board. Drop the fin it, and voila the front is perfectly flush with the deck. But now the base is a rattly loose fit in the box. So then I spend another hour building up the base with filler to make it fit snug.
I suspect the tail rocker / flat is quite different between a free race board and slalom board. Moreover there is quite a variation in the tolerance between the boxes.
In in retrospect I probably didn't need to build the base up again as the fillet should allow you to bolt the fin down and the fillet area should keep the fin snug.
if I decide I need to use the fin with the smaller free race board I will need to make a gasket of some sort for the front
A good excuse to buy a new slalom board.