Quad fin boards – punter review, fin drive, and technical stuff.
There has already been a lot written about quad fin boards on this Forum – mostly from those who haven't sailed them. We've also had a lot of pictures of boards that have been converted from single fin to twinsers or Quads – whilst few sailors have gone on to describe how these re-born boards handle. Several manufacturers now have quad boards in their 2010 ranges, whilst being vague about why we should buy one. Almost all brands will have a quad board available for 2011, so it seems the smaller brands are trying to catch up with JP and Starboard who did it first. Quatro are the other innovative brand behind the most Quad custom boards – but their own Quad production board is a very odd-looking beast, only now becoming available.
The early quad production boards have been in circulation for some time now, and those of us lucky enough to sail 'off season' from November to March have had a chance to try them and to see them sail. Here in Cape Town there are loads of Starboard and JP quads on the water – but, equally, twin fin boards and single fin boards (even apparently old fashioned ones) can still be seen ripping up the waves here too. The pros often have their favourite board, but for many this is a twinser, rather than a quad. I'd say that preference is also more likely to be based on board size than it is on fin set-ups.
It's perhaps a good time to remind ourselves that the quad board's chief protagonist, Kauli Seadi, sometimes himself prefers twin fin boards. Where ever you sail there will be one size and type of board that will best suit the conditions.
So whilst twin fin boards are increasingly popular and single fins are by no means dead, the jury is still out over quad boards. What we know so far is that these are wave boards that simply feel different: They are perhaps kit to try for yourself and see if you like, and they are boards that are perhaps best matched to certain conditions or certain wave beaches.
They are not lake boards, and a single fin FSW board would be faster and a better all-round choice for bump and jump or marginal conditions. So quads, like twinsers, are specialist wavesailors' toys. That's not to say an intermediate couldn't score a good session on one.
I'm still undecided what I think the true advantage of a quad board is, but I now see part of the story and have stuff to say (and hence this thread).
I've had a couple of Starboard Quads on demo from the shop here in Cape Town. These are used boards that were tested by the German 'Surf' magazine (for their future issues) and are now up for sale – and my mate in the shop here knows I might be a buyer for the smaller sizes, so I've had them on loan. I've got the opportunity to try some JP quad boards too (weather permitting) and have also seen prototypes of the 2011 models from JP and RRD and F2.
The boards I've seen are all pretty different and herein lies problem number one: The more fins you add to a board the more the permutations are endless. It's not clear that even the shapers know what they are doing.
With a single fin board you of course first have the hull shape (already the biggest variable) then you have fin position, and then you can fine-tune further with fin size and onshore/sideshore fin profiles. With a Quad set-up you have all that and more. The designer has to ask: How big should the fins be? How should they be paired? Should the front pair be bigger or smaller than the other two? If you fit big fins at the front then does that move the centre of lateral resistance further forwards, taking it underfoot but maybe too close to the mast base? Should the fin boxes have toe-in? Should the rail fins also have 'cant' to match any hull vee? So many questions – no clear answers.
I'd say the shapers have got past the 'suck it and see' stage and now are at the 'well that works, so let's see if we can improve it' stage. I predict the 2011 products will be more diverse, but hopefully more refined. And maybe convertibles are the way to go, allowing each sailor to experiment or fine-tune for sailing conditions.
Before we get bogged down, let's talk about feel.
I just sailed the Starboard Quad 71 and the first thing you notice is how much 'grip' the four big fins give. Normally out here in windy Cape Town I'm sailing a Starboard Evil Twin 70 and I'd say the hull shapes of these two boards are similar but the fin set-ups transform the board. My ET70 is already fitted with 15cms fins that are half the width of those initially supplied by Starboard and so you can guess I like a slidey, loose feel. Not surprising then that in my 'punter review' here I'd describe the 2010 Starboard Quad boards as 'over-finned'.
The Quad 71 comes with visibly-huge 16cms front fins and 11 or 12cms 'after burner' fins. The total area of the fin group is thus substantial and this is what accounts for the grip of this board. How might we describe the effect on feel? Imagine picking up peas from a plate with a toothpick and you'd get one at a time, whereas use a four-pronged fork and you could stab at four. Imagine picking up a bar of soap with a nail and then stabbing it with a fork instead. The quad board sort of feels that powerful and 'anchored', like you have extra control. It's not clear if it's fin lift or the water being channelled or deflected between four fences – but, whatever, the board will take loads of back foot load and it storms upwind. This upwind advantage is great news for those who struggle with walks of shame or who simply want to get upwind fast to catch waves for down-the-line riding. The same 'fin drive' is great for jumping waves too – as you get extra 'push' when launching off the wave.
I was expecting the downside of all that fin 'wetted area' to be extra drag, perhaps slowing the board down, especially when starting out. But I didn't notice any problem with this, and the boards certainly don't feel slow. I'd say my ET twinser is faster though.
What I wasn't sure about was that these quads seemed a bit stiff to turn on small waves. Do I need more practice on a board that is new to me? With my 2009 ET twinsers I can turn on a sixpence and slide the tail out at will, but with a quad you can find the fins sometimes 'dictate' where they want to go – and you have to drive hard to make them turn in the arc you want. My worry is that fins supplied are so large that you are in a constant fight to dominate them, before they dominate you. What you also get is a hard and precise ride, in total contrast to the soft, loose and squirelly tail of the twinser board with small fins fitted. Many will prefer the former over the latter.
I was left feeling that I'd happily own this Quad 71 but I'd probably want to try much smaller fins in this board, perhaps ending with half the area of those supplied. That would allow you to surf off the board's rail a lot more. (Replacing four fins however could be a pricey business.)
I also tried the tiny Quad 66, which has a lot of 'must have' appeal for me, being so small and cute. I'd say the 2010 Quad 66 is similar in hull shape to my 2009 Evo 66 but tweaked a bit at the tail to take four fins. Again the fins supplied seem way too big for a board of this size. The appeal of this 66 litre board will surely be for smaller sailors, and for my the single fin Evo I use a 20 or even a 19cms single fin. The Quad 66 however comes with two 16cms fins and two 11cms after burners – so that's perhaps three times the area as you need. (Just one of the 16cms fins on its own looks big enough for me.)
In the end, I won't be buying the Quad 66 because it doesn't do anything beyond what my Evo 66 already does. For Cape Town a 66 litre is also too small for me, given the huge (shark-infested) lulls you can get on the outside here. To be honest, since I got a 70litre twinser, I think this is the smallest board I need – as twinsers don't overpower. We can now say that Quad boards don't overpower either, except in that four big fins can start to tell the board what to do when the sailor should be in charge.
Perhaps the mistake Starboard made is to assume many average/weekend sailors will like a bigger fin area. JP too have long since over-finned their boards, in favour of the bigger sailor. And with a quad set-up this extra area is a temptation because you don't get the railing issues you get with an overlong single fin. When a quad fin or twinser is over-finned you often don't notice, because the board tail doesn't lift as it would with a 'railing' single fin.
What I think the fin group does do at speed however is to get more determined to head in a straight line, and with a quad you can get a board which tells the driver where to go in the turn rather than allowing correct driver control. We might speculate that fin drive starts to dominate the rail lift.
Am I right? If I was a heavier sailor I might look at this another way: The grip you get from a quad board may be exactly what some want in windy weather. The tail of the Quad certainly feels anchored to the water and offers complete security and suredness for the back foot.
The last (and crucial) issue is what are the benefits of all this 'fin drive' on the wave? On a proper, big, clean, driving wave that is – the sort most of us don't get on very often.
Once driven by the bigger wave's slope and power – and less by the sail – you're like a surfer and the ability to load the back foot hard and even to pump the back of the board will suit those wanting to catch more waves as they shape up and to drive hard along them.
It may also be that all that fin grip is just what you need when snapping top turns in the wave's critical section.
But there is where I need more research – and perhaps a higher sailing ability – to give you an answer.
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