Is there any one who can feel a difference, is that drag really anything significant? Like when you’re prone paddling are you losing like 1 or 2% of your paddle because of this? Or does Konrad nuts hold tighter because they are always straight?
Wing nuts were super draggy on a high performance prone board (less than 28 liters) I personally will never use anything like those again unless its for towing. I like the hand tools alternative in wetsuit from Foilite as a much less draggy, but slightly harder to adjust alternative
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James Casey and Zane Westwood laughed at me when I asked them about it on SUP boards. Prone boards paddle even slower, but you have wave energy pushing you, so most people don’t care since the wave overpowers the drag no matter what.
Disclosure…I make and sell wingscrews.
My opinion is wingnuts being straight and aligned with the water flow has absolutely no bearing on if they will stay tight. My thinking is if there are forces on the wingnut itself, those forces should be more or less balanced, i.e. one side will try to tighten and the other side should try to loosen.
The key to keeping any wingscrew tight is tightening them properly (very tight by hand) in the first place and then checking/retightening after a short time on foil. Since you don’t have the leverage of a wrench, sometimes the mast will shift a little after your weight is on the board and usually one screw will end up loose. Retighten and you should be good for a while. Note that if you do adjust the mast position (you’ve loosened all the screws), it would be a good idea to recheck again after a short time on foil.
Regarding drag, people think that if the wingnut is aligned, the drag becomes zero. I am not an engineer but I don’t need to be one to know this is absolutely not true. Any wingnut is going to stick up into the water flow, regardless of if it’s aligned or not. The difference in drag between an aligned vs non-aligned wingnut is (very rough guess) probably 50%. 50% sounds like a lot but drag increases with speed so at slow prone paddling speed, your legs, feet, and leash create so much more drag, it’s probably not noticable to 99% of people out there.
I guess you could think of it this way…if regular flat head screws create zero drag, misalinged non-adjustable wingscrews create 100% drag, and aligned adjustable wingscrews create 50% drag. At slow speeds, 50% or 100% of a small number is still a small number. But the faster you’re moving, the more significant the number becomes. If you’re truly after a minimal drag setup, you should be using regular screws. I would think towing (due to potentially very high speeds) and downwinding (due to wanting no compromises or risks) are 2 cases where regular screws make the most sense. I have always recommended that wingscrews should be used primarily for easy adjustment in the water for a new setup or where you’ve changed something and want to easily and quickly get your mast in the ideal position. After that, I think it’s best to note your mast position and put the wingscrews away and save them for later use.
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