KD Marlin Tail shims

I meant to get out winging out first just couldn’t make it happen. Anyways I agree with the high speed that Marlin, it’s so stable. I also like the carve tail when waves aren’t moving fast and shorter period. Easier tighter turns. For Long sends and fast moving, staying under control id say the Marlin. I don’t have an extender for lift. Would like to try that out too. Apparently lift is coming out with carve tails with long fuse. Im thinking carve 20 long fuse, would be a great combo of turning and efficiency. Lol, splitting hairs now?

The 26 carve without the extender sounds like a handful, haven’t tried it yet or any of the stock glide tails. The longer carves would be great eliminating the extender. The long 20 would probably be really nice for higher winds! I still have an Axis 350P tail I’ve only tried once to fiddle with but with their new ‘skinny’ tails coming out, these could also be great. Fairing them in properly has been the holdup to give 'em an even chance.

Maybe Shep has tried some already?

Today though gonna give the Marlin a second try with the Go Foil 850HA. Last time I had it tuned a little too slow but have done some tweaking and it’s now pretty close to level. Keep you posted

Yeah, sometimes the tweaking is a bit tedious, largely due to our rough launches. Once you’re out, you really just want to stay out.

Things I’ve tried since the previous post. YMMV based on your conditions, weight, goals, etc.
Maybe somebody finds this useful at some point in time.

Did try the Go Foil 850HA with the Marlin, long story short, huge improvement on the 14.5FTL (which I will never use again w/ the 850). Feet fully 4" further back than the stock 14.5 L tail. Does feel like I’m foiling through marbles in the mid speed range. There’s a vibration that is probably just the various bits that aren’t faired in as it’s fast and efficient enough. Thick stainless washer under the LE and the TE is still 1.5mm higher (this is top mount). That’s just the way the GF long pedestal is built. More later as there’s more in the 850HA.

Great session today on the 150HAX / Marlin, bottom mount, FP L adapter mid position.
Noticed that if you tighten the front screw first there is a tiny gap between tail wing and adapter (the top of the Marlin is not flat but close between the screws). Wondering if I’ve been bending it by tightening both screws hard.
Long story short (not), I filled that gap with the skinny end of a .25 shim, tightened the front screw first, then the rear (so tuned the tiniest bit faster). Loved it! Conditions probably playing a role though as today was ‘nice’ 3.5 winging while the previous four days have been 2.8 varying from decent to sheeted out and flapping 50+.

Looking forward to a rest day…

Interesting, a lot to play with. Did a long DW with glide 25. Super efficient but my back leg was cooked!! Going to try the long fuse tommorow.

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How did the long fuse go?

Tagging on here to ask who makes the best shims? I got a Marlin 14 a while back and love it, found that I used the .25 shim included a lot. But its worn out overtime becuase its so thin and flimsy (3d printed). My ideal would be a thicker .25 shim, like the unifoil ones, unfortunatley they only make them in .5 increments. Anyone got any imput on this?

Foilparts shims are pretty good.

I could swear Uni had a 0.25 degree shim too, but maybe I’m wrong. The Uni ones need to be modified to work with a lot of stabilizers though because of that filler lump at the front.

Ok, just saw the foil parts shims and those looked pretty good. In one picture they look solid and in the other it looks like they are the same as the KD Maui ones (3d printed)

These look pretty solid. Tail Angle Shims — ONOFOIL

This shim kit is working nicely for me. Its injection molded quality rather than 3D pring, I took an exacto knife to the outline to trim them. But they are 30mm spacing and do the job nicely for KD tails

Those seem nice but no .25 option

People say .25° shims are available on Kanes Google drive but I’ve never found them.

You really need a .25deg shim? That’s like 150um difference in thickness from one end to the other, really only possible to even measure that using calipers.

Need isnt the right word. Iv been runing 0 shim and having a lot of fun after coming off of riding -.5 for a long time. Somewhere in the middle would be a really happy medium for me. Its not make or break by any means, just figured id ask around. Crazy how little of a change of the tail can be felt.