Hi guys I have this 8ft Frye pintail I fixed up a while back. I always disliked the fin on this board, the foil looks all screwed up. I’ve since learned how to foil fins and would like to put one of my own perhaps out of marine ply. I have a 7.5" Frye I could copy, in addition to a template for an 8.5" Christenson fin that works really well in similar boards. Keeping with the theme of the board I also have this red fin that was an alley find off a snapped board. Its got a similar rake to the Frye with a bit more base, I could cut the tab off it. I used to own a similar pintail frye with and looking back on photos (blue stripe board ) it probably came with a Frye template fin.
The paradox of choice… any recommendations? It’s odd the frye template would work on a pintail like this , I’d think you’d need more a Brewer style fin.
You can design your own fins from scratch on CAD.
For construction I think it somewhat depends on how much flex you want. All-fiberglass construction in PE resin will give you a consistent flex depending on how you foil it. Personally, I wouldn’t trust an all-wood fin with a 7+" depth. If it was me, I’d sandwich (2) 1/4" panels of ply between a layer of fiberglass, maybe 6-8 layers. Then you have a fiberglass spine AND halo with the lighter weight ply forming the less critical side layers. Scuff 1 panel and glass it with the multiple layers and let that set up, followed by glassing/clamping the other panel to get the fat-boi panel. You can use a lightweight non-woven veil between the wood and FG cloth to get the better adhesion.
For one of my projects I bought a 1/8" panel of G-10 and clamped (2) 3/16" panels of aircraft ply on one side (it was a big twin fin template) to make a set of fat twinnies. It worked great; super stiff, though. .
