Looking to boost light and onshore conditions for my Quad

[capetonian]

Try your board with the 16 cm rears, and plugs in the front boxes. You've got nothing to lose.

I sail my Quatro 110 L quad as a twin with 17.5 cm twin fins for sails from 5.5-6.7. Works well for me in cross onshore conditions. Gets planing earlier than set up as a quad - standard MFC quad set (QS 400) was 16.5 cm rears and 9 cm fronts. I'm 84 kg.

The only time I prefer a quad set up is when there is plenty of wind to plane and the board is bouncing around too much, then switching to quad settles the ride down.

[manuel]

Will try that next. I did like the 16+11 more than the 16+8 setup because the board connection to the wave was more precise and less floaty. If I can get that nice rail carve with secure front foot drive as a twin then it could work.

Should the fins be more forward? To loosen the ride I moved the rear 16's farther forward than the 13's when used with the 11's up front.

[manuel]

hmm... tried twin MFC ProFlex 16cm and it felt pretty quick (4.5 powered to underpowered), faster than my freewave which is a good thing. Jumps were much higher. I liked how radical it felt on a wave, yet spinout threshold was quite acceptable. Upwind performance was so-so. The fins released smoothly not abrupt so there's some carving sensation without being so slidey. The board was a bit more bouncy, fins were all the way forward.

Will try with fins 1.5cm off the front. I might have to move mast track forward, a touch behind center now.

First impression was that it slid onto the plane, it's a progressive acceleration add opposed to a sudden pop. But it felt less draggy and delayed than with the quad setup. Top speed was also improved, it felt fast.

More tomorrow.

[Waterat Pat]

Manuel did it ever occur to you it might not be the fins at all? Starboards I have tried in the past have what I call the patented Scotty Mckercher rocker with pronounced tail kick. Great on a wave but a killer for early planing in on shore conditions. Quads are pretty loose because of the fin setup so don't really need all that rocker kick.

[manuel]

It's a combinaison of both but it's mostly the conditions' fault !

I did try with the twin fins a bit farther back, it was a little stiffer in the turns and didn't have much influence if any on planing, speed or drive. I will post updates when we get a light wind 5.0 day.

So far I do like it, it seems to have less drag even on a wave (a bit less sticky with more board out of the water). I was worried about loosing board bite but it felt pretty much the same when loading up the rail. The only thing is that it's a bit bouncier.

[manuel]

Ok after much testing, I am now on 16+11. The 16 are quite far forward (had to grind down the base to set farther forward), they are where I used them as twins. The 11's are maybe 1cm off of the front?

Now I have good drive, I can push strong and get support in light winds (for lulls, bad onshore chop/swell, early planing, etc). It's not skatey but I can still break the fins loose, the grip is tremendous on a wave though, feels very safe going down a choppy wave and I can use so much force at the top turn it feels great.

Top speed isn't that bad at all, definitely not slow the plus side is that I have great control. I got a bit more lift, the nose rarely hits the chop and I can expose the windward rail more easily to maintain the plane.

On a gusty 4.5 day, but not overpowered, I didn't find it particularly stiff, it was fine. Because of side-on conditions when not a wave, we are either going upwind or doing a downwind run right before a jump so having strong fins (or a faster board) helps a bit.