Just got my Fangy Fin 24 yesterday and had 2 hrs out on it, so here's my review.
First thing you notice, is that it planes immediately like a normal fin, unlike the Delta Fin's I have which need some momentum build up. This is a significant improvement compared to delta fins.
Next thing you notice is its upwind ability, it flies up wind at a decent speed. This also appears to be a significant improvement on the Delta's.
Weed: It planes through very Thick surface weed, this it does equally as well as the Delta Fins which was their strength. Enables you to sail in the thickest of weed, accessing the glassiest of water, which was never accessible with past weed fins. If you want to sail FangyLand, Albany Lilacs or Liptons and Point Grey, this fin is a must. In this area it's brilliant and the best fin of its type that I have sailed., , particularly for thick weed.
Speed: for the winds it felt moderately fast, you certainly don't buy the Fangy 24 as your clear water speed fin. For the thickness of weed I would rate it very fast. Particularly, given that most fins would come to an immediate halt. I believe there is a significant improvement on Deltas for speed.
Chop, wow, unlike the Deltas which would spin out easily particularly going down wind, these just hang on and give you confidence to keep going and going. Excellent and probably the most significant design and performance advancement here.
Toughness, I managed to smash a rock at decent speed, and was expecting it to be totally obliterated like a carbon or G10 fin would be with a similar impact. No....... just minor surface denting, which was sanded out easily by Mr Fangy, and looks as good as new!! Another significant improvement here.
I highly recommend this fin for thick weed, surface weed, shallow waters, and general weedy waters. Its been designed by a highly intelligent man, who did his research and made it come to reality. It meets its design brief perfectly and does everything well as intended.
I urge you to support this local developer/designer/producer/manufacturer.
Prices are found here: http://www.fangyfins.com/assets/player/KeynoteDHTMLPlayer.html#9
Perhaps you could ask the mod to rename this thread "Fangy Fin Review" and we can all post our reviews here.
Also, a BIG THANK YOU to Fangy and all concerned for making this happen! Much Appreciated.
Most of the times I've sailed LG, the weed was a fair way below the surface and not that thick. Apart from a patch off one of the Islands, where the weed was very heavy and on the surface.
In the former conditions something like a tribal weed speed fin with a curved leading edge is probably the fastest, not much rake at the surface, but somewhere around 45deg at the tip. But if the water is low and weed heavy and on the surface then a Fangy will get you sailing whereas others, will just leave you bogged in the weed.
Great review hardie! Told you you'd like them. Very interesting to hear you say they are faster than Deltas, possibly because of increased confidence do you think?
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..
Great review hardie! Told you you'd like them. Very interesting to hear you say they are faster than Deltas, possibly because of increased confidence do you think?
Yes impossible to tell really, its just a feeling, and the more confident you feel the harder your willing to push to go faster, so its not a rational scientific test, just a feeling
Great work Ross ??
Joe, how did you find it for gybes? I imagine there is no comparison
Good question Stretch, You need to gybe the board flat and it flies around, if you bank a wide board like my CA 74 over too hard/deep the fin's shallow depth means there's no fin in the water and you do a slider
Wasn't really concentrating too much on the gybes, and would only be fair to do a side by side comparison with the Delta 24, which I will not do, as the Fangy 24 is far superior, so I won;t ever waste any sailing time going back to a delta 24.
Select to expand quoteStretchy said..
Great work Ross ??
Joe, how did you find it for gybes? I imagine there is no comparison
Firstly i'd like to point out that I'm no master at gybing.
I borrowed the Fangy Fin 24 (before insulting Fangy) for a trial at Fangland.
I'd been pushing for a +20knt alpha for a couple of years and never quite made it.
After one session on the 24 i hit 21knts.
I think for one reason, the ability to access smooth water and really drive through the rails is second to none.
The other reason is the lift it produces enables you to keep good speed across the breeze and maintain you're speed across the alpha track.
I'm not very experienced, so someone with a few years under their belt could really extract more out of the fin that i can, but for weedy spots you can't not look at trying one.
gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2017-10-10&team=105
JP Supersport 118L; NP V8 7.0m; 31cm JP Weedy & Fangy Fin 24
Happy man review Hardie...great to hear they handle rocks ,,,I've hit a few on my delta pulls up ok too/
looking for a smaller fin ,may give the fangy.ago ...what size ya reckon for a 6.0....20 ?
price seems fair.
their web site is a strange one ..
Tardy I'm yet to try the 20, so not sure. The 24 worked great with my 7.0, and on my 74cm wide Slalom board. I reckon would definitely work with bigger sails, up to 8m. It depends on the width of the board, and particularly the width of tail of the board. The size and weight of the rider. Maybe the Fangster himself should answer this one?
Select to expand quoteTardy said..
Happy man review Hardie...great to hear they handle rocks ,,,I've hit a few on my delta pulls up ok too/
looking for a smaller fin ,may give the fangy.ago ...what size ya reckon for a 6.0....20 ?
price seems fair.
their web site is a strange one ..
First of all, thank you Hardie for the review. I promise not to egg your house again until at least next year.
I really appreciate the feedback from those who have tried the fin. I sailed a lot of km's on a Delta, so I am pretty happy that I have managed to tick all the "needs improvement" boxes. As I have said all along, the aim is smiles on dials, not so much numbers.
What size sail?
I have some really rough estimates based on my experience and that of fellow sailors:
20cm < 6m - I have used a 6.6 okay, and Swindy used a 7.1!
24cm < 8m - I have used my 8.5 - it was ok, but upwind ability was lacking.
28 cm < 10 - My biggest sail is a 9.5 Race and it was fine.
I am approx 110kgs and use gear from the last millenium so I am not the best yardstick, but I think the above numbers are pretty close. I think the best strategy would be to try one of the demo's before you decide.
The FangyFin 20 has the same surface area as a Delta 16, that is, not much. Compared to the 24, it does require more speed before it generates enough lift. It does not feel instantly 'locked in' like the 24. However, it shares the same user friendliness as the 24, and will not let go in chop, especially going hard downhill. The fin is not a speed fin, but because it imparts a lot of confidence, I think people will sail faster because the risk of an unplanned high speed enema is much less.
Website WTF?
Tardy, yes the website is a strange one. My apologies for its lack of functionality. It's my first attempt at making a virtual web server and building some content. I know it's super clunky and slow, but it only costs me 70 cents a month* to run and is keeping the Minister for Excessive Windsurfing Expenditure happy. Once I learn a bit more I will improve it.
(* Amazon EC2 cloud based server micro-instance)
And finally Stu, impressed with your work there. Still no soup for you, but maybe 'you haf piece of bread.'
Thanks ...70 cents ..a month a bargain ..
was them eggs hard boiled. ? better for windows .
