g'day Macroscien

I've lost a number of fins over the years; broken bolts, snapped fins etc. I did try the harness thing once but always found it easier to stand on the nose of the board and sail it in backwards. Back foot right back on the nose so that the nose is buried in the water and creating some drag, even have foot hanging off the back a bit if necesary.

It probably helps that I learnt to sail in a spot where it was 200m of thick weed and shallow water before reaching the sailing area so my choice when sailing there was always (a) sail board backwards or (b) walk 200m through thick weed with coblers and stingrays.... I learnt to sail backwards pretty quickly.

The other thing I've done when I've snapped boards is to body drag in to shore with regular rests for the arms if I've been a few km or more off shore. Either way you often end up down wind but much easier going back up wind once on shore

dunno if that helps

had this happen to me years ago when i was living in Perth, i was about 1km off the north side of Woodies Pt, and i lost the fin completely, Totally crapping myself as its deep blue water, a mate came along on his jetski and towed me in, it wasnt until later that a mate told me about the harness trick dragging thru the water.

i had pulled the rig down and rolled the sail around the mast and laid on top of the board and boom and started paddeling towards shore.

My sailing these days is mainly on the GC broadwater, too many liabilities to worry about now to do any kind of ocean sailing.

GP

definately worked for me in well over 20knots, dunno about sub planning, I live near Geraldton WA so don't usually sail under 20knots I've sailed sinky wave boards and slalom boards this way no probs but not in margnial winds, it does feel pretty slippery though.

This happened to me a couple of months ago off queens bch redcliffe, was on a glass wave board, 5.8 wave sail in 30knts. The fin departed the scene about 800m offshore.

The harness tied to the back footstrap and dragged behind didn't do anything.
Body dragging was working but very tireing, would have got back doing this if I wasn't trying to keep upwind of the northern rock groyne and the rocks around the corner at scarborough.
Tried sailing in(on a reach) which worked well in bursts. I found by sailing with the front foot well forward of the mast keeping the nose slightly burried with the back foot somewhere just behind the front straps. The front foot was pushing the nose down wind and the rear foot pulling the tail to windward( like what you do when pulling the board back from a spinout) The sail was featherd in and out to try and balance everything, but was hard in the overpowered conditions. I did sail forward but all of a sudden the tail would slide out and I'd end up in the water. (I think this would have worked well if the wind was lighter)
After awhile a local brought out a plastic fin and shoved it in one of the empty thruster boxes and it held enough to sail back without any problems.

Macroscien said...

>>>>>>>

BTW is it worth ( or even possible) to glue it ( fin) back?

Yep, I've fixed a few like this, use 5min areldite or something to glue it together as accurately as possible.
Grind out a section about 40mm wide across the break on 1 side and fibreglass it up, repeat with other side.
then sand back any excess so fin fits in slot.

One of my mates sailed about 1km without a fin, just by standing at the mast base and not sheeting in very hard.
I think keeping the leeward rail submerged as much as possible helps.

I had to do 3 km without the fin a couple weeks ago, strapped the harness really tight through the rear straps so it wouldn't pop up (nearly) and managed to come back on a semi plane....

I was wondering if I'd left it attached behind the board with a cord ? would it have worked (sort of floating anchor ?) ?