Hey Guys,
I am in the middle of a shaping rabbit hole… haha. Recently finished a Mini Simmons style board and it worked so well for me I decided to do another and play around with some different fins/contours etc.
I became interested in the concept of the Eaton Zinger after seeing some photos Mini-style zingers Joe Bauguess had shaped.
Still trying to wrap my head around fins/placement
I’ve poured over the archives looking at everything I can find on fin placements/cants for bonzers, twinzers, and zingers. I’ve looked at Bonzers & twinzers in shops and taken measurements. I dont have a physical model of a zinger to look at, but I have looked at probably every photo of one that is on the internet lol.
Taking this into account and combining it with what I understand about fin placement on a Mini Simmons, I’ve pretty much settled at some placement dims. This will be a 5’6" x 22.,5" x 2.75" board with a pretty standard mini outline and low rocker. Tail width is around 19" at 12" up. I am thinking of putting the boxes for the “zinger” main fins at 5" from the tail, 21/8" from the rail, toed in 1/4" with 2 degree cant. The side runners are 3" depth 6.5" base bonzer style and I am thinking of setting them 1&3/8" toward the rail and further forward so that I will have enough adjustment to have anywhere from a 1/2" gap to an inch of overlap between the trailing edge of the runners and the lead edge of the main fins. With some adjustment there I can play with the placement to dial it in just right as long as the boxes/ runners are in the ballpark.
My first question is about cant on the runners. It looks like most of the Eaton boards have a similar cant to Bonzer runners at ~20 degrees, but when I eyeball photos of the Zinger-Simmons boards that Joe Bauguess shaped it looks more upright like 10 degrees. From learning about Twinzers it seems that 10 degrees is a popular number favored by Wil Jobson for his “canard” style fins, and from what I understand about Mini Simmons style boards a more upright, drive oriented fin cant is better, so I am tempted to go with 10 degrees rather than 20. Anyone have thoughts on this?
My second question is about the Zinger trailer fins. I called Fins Unlimited to see if I could get my hands on a pair, but have not heard back. I was able to create a template so that I can foil my own if needed, but I am curious about the foil shape. All the pictures make it look like a 50/50 foil. Am I right on this?
Last question… I promise. The advice I got when I shaped my first Mini was to place the fins as close to the tail as possible, which I did on my first boartd and it worked great. However, every mini-style board I have found with Twinzer, Zinger, or Quad fins have them placed further up, from what looks like 3 to about 7" from the tail. I understand that moving the fins forward will increase the looseness of the board at the expense of drive. I am imagining that because of the added fin area and 4 fin layout the board can work with the fins further up, but I have no experience to back that assumption. Do the numbers I settled on for rear fin placement sound reasonable?
Thanks all, I appreciate this forum so much and all of you who have been willing to share your thoughts/experience with beginning shapers like myself! You are all a big help and an inspiration.
Charlie
