Speed and Weed fins

What are the good makes of weed fins out there for speed and slalom.
MFC, JP (I use the freerides), Leading Edge (rare as rocking horse poo nowadays as no longer in production)
Choco are rumored to be making a speed weed, have seen the test ones (which look good) but as with everything to do with Choco "Jesus is delivering them"

Can you typically get away with a smaller fin if its weed given that the area of the foil is bigger?
Yes, however the lift generated by the fin is reduced, this allows you to be able to go quickish on larger weedies. I generally use a 23cm 45° weedy couldn't comprehend using that size pointer.

What angle will give you sufficient weed clearance?
Depends a hell of a lot on what you are sailing through.
One season we were going through Hardies run with pointers and being able to see our trails in the weed from earlier runs.
But then when we get the snot fields starting around spring time which gives 45º fins grief when going slowly.
30-45º would be a reasonable range.

Some personal observations on weed fins

• There are some crap ones out the which are woeful, the green and black ones are only good for throwing at stray dogs (don't bother retrieving them).


• Pretty much any old reasonable quality pointer will make a pretty good speedy weedy.


• They won't point up wind anywhere near as far as a pointer (just for Bender)


• I have only on one occasion gone faster on an equivalent sized slalom fin (yes I've tried a falcon personally hated it because of how I sail)


• Weedies are far more forgiving than slalom fins so much so that I've started adding 5-10º of additional rack to my pointers to take the aggression out of them (instant speed improvements for me)


• A weedy will generally tend to bounce up over a rock if you hit (unless you're Hardie and pick one sticking out of the water) whereas a pointer will generally snap and do other nasty thangs to your boards

Beware the weed fin, once you venture down the dark path[}:)][}:)][}:)]

Yes, they are annoyingly fast

I think it will work well when well powered for speed runs off the wind. On my iSonic 87 I usually run the Time Machine Speed 26 for Alphas and 1 hour runs with 5m and 5.8m sails. I reckon that fin is quite comparable for size. I don't have the 23cm symmetrical now but when I had the use of one I seem to remember it worked very well on the iSonic 87, bearing in mind I am quite bit lighter than you are.

I have the KA 23 symmetrical on my 'to get' list for 1 hour attempts in slightly weedy conditions. There is nothing more annoying on a one hour attempt than to have to stop and back up to lose weed that is costing you 3-5 knots down the straights!

The 23cm KA symmetrical and 5.8m sail combo is used by Tony Wynhoven to very good effect!!