From http://www.miamiwindsurfing.com/fins.html, 22nd January, 2007.

 

Written by Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, ARG3.

 

 

Stiffneses.
From S to H you can decide wether getting a lot of power with a soft fin or getting a lot of control with a stiff one. For lighter wind you need softer and for stronger harder for more control.

Rakes.
The rake measures the angle created between the fin and the bottom of the board. More rake for us means a straighter fin making 10 the maximum rake, almost straight angle with the board and rake 0 a normal rake from past years.

You can give more rake to the fins and this will get you more power and upwind angle. When the wind picks up you wanna get more control leaving the rake more to the back.

Profiles.
Thicker foils give you more power, more angle and make you feel a little bit steadier feeling but you will loose top speed. Thinner foils give you a better top speed but you will loose power in the lighter air and angle.
We also move the thickest point forward for a smoother feeling and backwards for more speed oriented fins.

Area.
More surface on fin makes them more powerful and less area makes them faster but less powerful. Having bigger tips and narrows bases gave us more control, and keeping skinny tips like in our slalom fins made us reach amazing speeds as Finians new world record.

R13.
The R13 is the easiest all around fin for racing. On light air this fin offers a nice lift and power, combined with an easy trimming feeling. On stronger winds this fin keeps always a nice control feeling, good angle on the upwind and a nice easy speed trim in the downwind.

R14.
Based on the R13 we made the R14 for stronger wind or lighter people. We reduce the thickness and area of the fin decreasing the power and increasing the top speed. The result was a really controllable fin for stronger winds. Lighter people who preferred a faster feeling than a powerful feeling love this fin.

Concept of the new models.
Boards started getting bigger in the tail this years so we felt we had to increase the power of our fins to match the new concept of boards. The sails became really stable as well with the double luff so we decided we could go for more power on the new models. We introduced this new generation of fins R16 and R17 that provide a lot of power, control and top speed as well.
New compromise of thickness + area!!! Good upwind and fast downwind!

R16.
Tying to get a more powerful fin we increased the area of the fin on the tip comparing to an R13. We find out that this gave us more power and angle but we lost top speed. So we decrease the thickness of the fin and made it almost as thin as an R14 giving us the top speed again. The result was really good as we had a really good powerful fin for middle winds and a completely new style comparing to the R13.

R17.
Based on the really good performance of the R16 we wanted more power in the light air or even in stronger winds for powerful riders. We increased again the area in the tip of the fin and kept the same thickness as the R16. The results were instant as in the light air we could point more again without missing any top speed.

R18.
Based on the development of the R17 this is a very powerfull fin mostly for light wind conditions.