Update on the FF22: No good news I am afraid. The castings did not meet Fred's quality control standards and he binned all of them. The problem arose from the the hollow core box being a little too large. As a consequence the gases could not escape quickly enough when pouring, and the result was excessive porosity in the foil surface adjacent to the hollow areas. Fred is reworking the core box and will re pour when he is happy along with a couple of FF18's at the same time. On a brighter note, the pours of all the other sizes went really well, so at long last, I have plenty of 20,24,28, fins available

Lucky I made a couple of my own 22s

fangman said..
The FF22 is still proving troublesome to cast. Fred re-worked the core boxes to make them a bit smaller, but still had problems with blow out through the side of the foil, which you can see in the photo below.


He is having another crack the core box now and hopes to re pour next week if all goes to plan...

Fred also cast up four of the 3D print done by Nebbian of the tiny FF18 for me. They are in the mail today, so I should be able to have a closer look at those next week.

Is Fred enjoying the challenge that you have given him. What does his usual pour make?

Be patient people, the FF 22 will be well worth the wait. The one I have made from a 24 is my most used and favourite FF and bridges the gap perfectly. I have now achieved 2 24kn hours using it, so the first one wasn't a fluke. Last Thursday I sailed for about 1hr 20min without an off sometimes in quite challenging conditions. In that time the fin only let go once and was rock solid in every jybe. Though I wasn't attempting alphas as maintaining speed was more important I still managed a 23. With the many quite solid weedbergs and shallow water anything other than a delta type fin would have been dangerous. It's also great to be able to say "I told you so" on a regular basis. Keep up the good work Ross, them 18s look great. You better work nights to get one of them in a useable condition.

That looks like it's handling some pretty thick weed snot their Fangman

sboardcrazy said..
Cripes that weed looks thick!

Not only does it look thick!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hitting a true berg with a 55deg fin will send you straight over the handle bars, even the ordinary weed will slow you about 5kts at speed, and trying to take off in it is a struggle, unless really powered you won't get planing until you hit a bald spot.

invite a dugong family to stay there for a few weeks ..

that's how I cut mine, its about 20 now, still needs plenty of work ...

What are you saying Fanny ? I don't love my FF20? It's like a great sheep dog, doesn't come inside, rides on the back of the ute with no chain, baths its self in the trough while having a drink and does all the running around for you. Just because I don't molly coddle your FF to the same level of TLC as you do I Love my FF, its a dam great workhorse.(Razor Crusher)

So I was a bit premature on trying my FF22, Had been busy and only roughed out the casting with the file, made the tuttle fit the box when Hoppy said Thursday looked good (bugger I was working, then the next crop was not ripe YEA time off) so I drilled & tapped. The cast seemed pretty dam good so bugger it I would give it a crack with NO sanding & absolutely no TLC.

Test results a couple of knots slower in the conditions, slower to get on the plane. Did manage a 21 Alpha in challenging conditions! SO I WILL be getting the sand paper out to get it up too speed, expecting great things from this fin as the FF20 is a ripper

So sorry Mr Fangman, I did proof read & spell check first.
No ploughing just Razor crushing