Dear Jonathan, I was captivated by your study and dedication to detail because I am familiar with NACA foils and their characteristics in the air (as in airplane wings). But, I think it would have been better for the audience if you transfer all these numbers from your "excel" sheet to a graph because people would understand your explanations better, and associate the graph with a particular fin characteristics. The other thing I would suggest is perhaps to include video clips of what a particular fin is doing to you on the water, using the same board and wind speed. I know this part is pretty difficult to capture and accomplish, but it would help a lot of slalom sailors in the long run to determine when to switch from G10 to carbon, the fin shape and its NACA profile. Spin-out has been a discussion of the fin for a long time, but I believe spin-out is not so much fin dependent if you are able to keep your board on the water. Spin-outs happen as soon as the nose gets out of the water, exposing the entire bottom of the board all the way to the fin (i.e. you hit to a large chop). So, the area of the fin in contact with water pretty much determines whether you're gonna spin out or not. If you have a small fin your are pretty much out of luck because there is not much fin area in contact with water. Larger fins, on the other hand, have better chance against spin-outs regardless of their shapes because more fin area stays in contact with water. Spin-outs also take place if the fin loses its laminar water flow across its surface. That means that a large length fin with large chord spins out faster than the same length fin with shorter chord. Please don't take my comments in the negative way. What you have done here is a good study. Take care.
Great suggestions. I may do something like that in the future. For now I have got the wing foil bug and plan to focus on that this fall. Thanks for commenting! 🙂
Dear Jonathan, I was captivated by your study and dedication to detail because I am familiar with NACA foils and their characteristics in the air (as in airplane wings). But, I think it would have been better for the audience if you transfer all these numbers from your "excel" sheet to a graph because people would understand your explanations better, and associate the graph with a particular fin characteristics. The other thing I would suggest is perhaps to include video clips of what a particular fin is doing to you on the water, using the same board and wind speed. I know this part is pretty difficult to capture and accomplish, but it would help a lot of slalom sailors in the long run to determine when to switch from G10 to carbon, the fin shape and its NACA profile. Spin-out has been a discussion of the fin for a long time, but I believe spin-out is not so much fin dependent if you are able to keep your board on the water. Spin-outs happen as soon as the nose gets out of the water, exposing the entire bottom of the board all the way to the fin (i.e. you hit to a large chop). So, the area of the fin in contact with water pretty much determines whether you're gonna spin out or not. If you have a small fin your are pretty much out of luck because there is not much fin area in contact with water. Larger fins, on the other hand, have better chance against spin-outs regardless of their shapes because more fin area stays in contact with water. Spin-outs also take place if the fin loses its laminar water flow across its surface. That means that a large length fin with large chord spins out faster than the same length fin with shorter chord. Please don't take my comments in the negative way. What you have done here is a good study. Take care.
Great suggestions.
I may do something like that in the future. For now I have got the wing foil bug and plan to focus on that this fall.
Thanks for commenting! 🙂