Attach Foil on Freestyle Fish? Some input to that plan?

[kitecomedy]

Hi,
because of Covid I have little money - but spare time.
So my Plan: I want to try Foil again. Buying a Foil and attach it to my existing Fish. (if I get hooked, I can buy a proper Board later)
I had a very short try with Foil 3 years ago and thought it is kind of boring, so I never tryied again. But now (in getting older and especialy thinking about winging in future) I want to give it another try..

I own an old, not used, North Freestyle Fish (5'/153cm length x 19"/48cm width) with Foodhooks. It was strapless always a bit too short for me (I'm 182Pounds/83Kg and 6ft/188cm) and is not used for years (usually I’m riding a wakestyle TT with boots).
Riding level:
Kiting more than 10 years. Had this one foiling session 3 years ago, somebody offered me his LF Happy Foil. After 20 minutes I made some very short flights and stopped then. Back in time I had some 2-3 years of surfboard strapless riding.

Plan:
- Apply some wood on the Freestyle Fish with the three Holes were the fins usually go! So I don't have to drill the Board, fill the holes and all this
- Attach the Foil on the wood. (Becouse it is not fixed I can “move” the foil with more holes to the right position)
- Attach an extra leash between wood and board – so in case the wood rips off the board, the foil don’t get lost (I'm sure the Wood to Board is the weak point - not the connection Foil to Wood)
- If everything working out well and the Foil is at the right point – use some Sikaflex to attach the wood permanent.

My Questions:
- The Edge of the Wood is all along the Board: you think it is going to make it impossible to ride? even if I make a nice Edge?
- Do you think it is going to rip apart immediately?

Thank you…

[jumptheshark]

If your going to permanently alter the board, I would forget about the wood interface and just do 4 proper through bolts.

I converted a surfboard into my first foil board and documented it here:

viewtopic.php?f=196&t=2388827&p=896007& ... lt#p896007

It was pretty easy, low cost and worked well enough.

If I were to do it again, I would go lighter. I wen't overkill and it came out indestructible. Added a little more than a pound.

Your fish is a great candidate. Could be done with less than a pound of additional weight and you would still be able to use the fish as originally intended.

Took a little over a week and was done outdoors on a deck. No special tools other than a sander and a digital scale for measuring out epoxy.

Toughest part might be matching that green paint! If you are careful with a heat gun some solvent and a spatula you could probably remove and then re install the deck padding. Good luck.

[kitecomedy]

Thanks for your input! That looks for sure really good For my try it seems a bit too much..

It is not that I'm afraid to drill holes in the Board (its old, useless and got some damage already), the Idea with the Wood was:
I don't need to drill holes and fill them with epoxi (I really don't like that chemical stuff). As far as I understood from reading here, if you don't do that, the Board will suck water and get weak soon.
The other Idea with the Wood: I can easyly make some more holes and find the right size.

Maybe some mor input somebody?

[Pemba]

I agree with jumptheshark, I actually did something very similar, don't remember now but I must have followed the way he did it. I reinforced the board both on the top and the bottom and "connected" both by putting disks of PVC between which I made with a hole drill. So there's like a cylinder of solid PVC around each bolt (also going right through). That is much heavier than it has to be - also since I made various mast/strut positions.. I wonder now why I used PVC. Wood would have been much better I think because it bonds with the resin that covers everything. My biggest problem was to fit the (flat) plate of the foil to the (slight V) shape of the board. It's all heavy and strong. I haven't had any problems.

[kitecomedy]

I agree with jumptheshark

Thanks for your input! Guess my wood-idea was a bit punk-style (which I like) but maybe not the best plan I'm still collecting ideas.

[TomW]

It might work. But I'd use 2 screws in each box. Make the front edge of wood more forward and make it with V outline. Point of V forward, then bevel the edge.

[aidy makeando]

Nice board, I've got one just like it for surf , and a 2010 version in which I installed a pair of tracks resined into a a block of paulownia. This was then epoxied into the board, to the deck with a layer of carbon just in front of the fin inserts before laying up a couple of layers of carbon and fairing to finish . this means i can still surf the board if i'm away on a trip and somewhere. I'm super happy with the result, foiling is coming on great and so I am now making a longer mast and have fitted a new smaller rear wing

If i was to ghetto fit a plate to my green fish, which has the Tuttle fin boxes, I would use 3 long M6 bolts through from the top of the board, through the plywood plate to a T nut or washer and bolt underneath , rather than screwing into the fin box itself. that way you'd not be altering it's structural integrity or watertightness, and it would be easily removeable

Aidy