Gestalt said..
Ok thanks for being so open about something you have put a lot of time into.
Certainly looks like your system is producing results. Im still keen to see a comparison to a straight setup.
Like I said, I left straight fins behind many years ago as even with straight fins, the result both for turning and drag was very very clear.
Gestalt said..
For me, the elephant in the room is the AOA. Whilst it might be possible to install a box at decimal point accuracy, the AOA of the water is going to vary well beyond that level of precision which would have an impact for sure.
Yes, off course, that is why we have been looking to see what is the average situation, the closer you get to that, the better it will handle a variation in the AoA. So if you see that for a V bottom shape the average situation needs 0.2 degree more toe over an inverted V bottom, it is easy for me to adapt to that. Besides I also look at where a board is aimed for, if it is aimed for tight turns at lower speeds, I may add a few tenths of toe. Not much but still it is easy for me to make such small variations by gut feeling. And with the mini tuttle fin set up, it is easy to modify the toe a tiny bit on a few pairs of fins to cross check every now and then. Plus we looked for a foil which can handle the widest variety of AoA without stalling and there is a lot to be gained as well when I look at most other "wave" profiles. There are data bases with thousands of profiles with all the data of their performance in air or water and they have a search function so it is not so hard to find what you are looking for and in the end you come to 3 to 5 profiles which are (visibly) very close to eachother and you can pick one from them.
Regularly I have interns who are studying engineering in various fields who help me with this research. In Europe they can get a Erasmus scholarship for going to do an internship abroad so they don?t cost me much and some do a really good job. Also the matter is often quite complex so they can learn a lot plus get to do a lot of sailing. Various of them have told me that they had been applying with various windsurf brands before contacting me and didn?t even get an answer.
Also amongst my customers, I have various experts in various fields amongst which in hydrodynamics but also in composites, CFD, CNC or general engineering who also give me information, even if it is just where to look for, how to research something, they even may research something for me in a lab or where to get something made.