Season is warming up nicely

After a very cold couple of months with only a couple of sessions my fitness is at a low point. This is now hopefully quickly changing, I am forcing myself to exercise every morning and evening to boost any time on the water. This last week I have been out more than the rest of this year so far. Nothing great to report, just a warm up to what I hope will be a great season.

New sails are on the ship on their way over here, and recently I took delivery of my new Black Project Type RS 'Ultra fast downwind slalom' fins. I ordered the 30, 32 and 42cm and already had a prototype 34cm. The 34cm is the only one I have used properly so far with my 7.3 Hot Sails GPS late last year. It is a fast fin when running off the wind, with a slightly looser feel than the 35cm Type R, which I prefer as I love my 35 Type S.

You can see most of my fins in the picture, there are a couple of the tiny speed fins missing from it. These are my regularly used fins. The new Type RS 30 and 32 will be great for my 6.6 in choppier water, and I am looking forward to trying the 32 with my 7.3 on flat water with a small board in well powered conditions. Clockwise from the left in the picture are my Type R fins (40, 45, 50cm) for big board/sails, then my most used Type S (29, 32, 35cm), WeedSpeed fins (34, 42cm), medium size slalom (32.5, 35, 37.5cm) and finally at the bottom of the pic are the new shape Type RS (30, 32, 34, 42cm). I think I am covered for all conditions, hidden away with my speed board are my Type S 24 and 26.5 and a prototype 20cm speed fin.

The white block you can see over the 40R is a device I have made to fill the void in a deep tuttlebox, I find this so incredibly useful for quickly getting the bolts in without threading the brass inserts, and ensuring the fin doesnt rise into the box when tightening the bolts. As I use Allen head bolts over tightening is a lot easier than with a normal screwdriver.

The Type RS 42 was a gamble, I rarely use a fin so big and have so far only had a session in very light winds with my 8.8 where I rarely planed. I should have chosen a bigger fin to go with my Exocet SL Sport 78, which is a wide 129l board. I think in well powered 8.8 conditions this fin and board combination will be great, but at that point I always look to move down to my 8m which I find to be a couple of knots faster. This fin will be great as the biggest for my RS4, and smallest for the SL Sport. It will be my go to fin for summer cruising I hope, when the winds here often ramp up enough in the afternoons on hot days for some cruising.

Thanks for reading,

good speeds and winds

The Bus.