Just in case you're not following gps-speedsurfing, I've relayed the photo. We've been assured it's not a joke, if it is we've been reeled in a long way.
so turns out all those weekends pollishing those secret weapon 50knt fins would have been better spent with the family, or windsurfing!
hate to say i told u so, but..
"so turns out all those weekends pollishing those secret weapon 50knt fins would have been better spent with the family, or windsurfing!
hate to say i told u so, but.."
You never polished anything in your life.....Any polishing might push that wave fin of yours to .....maybe.....25kts if you stoped doing those flippy things
Here are the other 3 pics. It defies logic really. I do note the worst gouges are on the high pressure side. Low pressure side does not look as bad and I would think that would be the critical one for cavitation. I think I would rather have one without the carnage though.....
As the GPS thread speculates, Martin probably would have gone faster with a clean fin. Or maybe the profile is the most important thing and little dags hangin off would'nt add much drag. Sounds like a good oportunity for some fin wreckin trials, I'm not payin
This is no joke. The pictures you have seen are a special super-cavitating design from the C3 Labs. It is well known that the solid molecules in common beach sand can provide very high lift and dont suffer from cavitation.
Follow the link to see my own new super prototype that should make this approach obsolete and completely revolutionise windsurfing as we know it...
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=7858
Would I be right in thinking using a weedy lets you get that much closer to the shore due to it's shallower depth and as a result smoother water?
I was thinking more along the lines of aircraft wings, A straight one will give you more lift but also more drag at speed
while a swept one becomes more efficient at speed but gives you less lift when going slower
The Time machine fins are more upright and designed to give very high lift and very low drag at reasonably tight angles. Some of Mal Wrights performances at less than 120 degrees in very moderate winds have been quite sensational!! The fins are thicker foiled than the X series C3 and very much stiffer. They need to be very stiff because of their upright plan form. The X C3's that I have seen are quite thin in comparison and by all accounts perform best very broad to the wind where the load on the fin is less and the thin low drag section works best. It has been suggested that the high rake angle shape is not as disadvantaged by not being super stiff (harder to get from a thin foil) as a more upright fin is.
The drag bucket on the TM45 v7 fins is very deep so they also work very well at low loads broad off the wind.
The TM50 development fins are quite a bit thinner but still raked upright at about 12 degrees. The challenge with them has been to make them stiff enough. Some early test fins were not and it was immediately obvious. The latest ones are super stiff, feel superb and are aimed at ultimate 50+ knots conditions on a broad course.
The KA - Lockwood fins have a thicker foil and are quite stiff. They can take high loads and still go very fast well into the mid 40's and Chris has gone 48+ on a broad course. To me they don't feel quite as slippery as the TM45 fins on a tight course but are very stable and secure. The rake seems to make them very user friendly and give them a very wide usability range.
All of these fins are undoubtedly top notch speed fins with more performance potential than most of us can tap into most of the time. All have been proven capable of exceptional speeds. To go faster seems mostly to boil down to human factors and getting the ideal conditions.
Andrew, Chris' foils are a lower aspect ratio than Mal's. I have been running both planforms through Xfoil with the same section (mine, but I bet it's similar to Chris & Mal's as we are all heading in the same direction using the same tools... though I think Mal has been going for more asymmetry). With the higher aspect ratio Mal's work better at higher angles of attack (tight square courses) because of lower induced drag... Chris' work better at low angle ( broad courses) due the larger chord giving higher Reynold numbers. So I guess it's the old horses for courses thing.
Yeah....what he said
Ya gotta understand the physics/mechanics and try & apply it to the practical...
which is where all the variables (often un-quantifiable) want to enter the equation ....
it's a challenge