Over the years I have worked with Steve Cook at ‘F-Hot fins’ - a leader in the design and fabrication of composite windsurfer fins who supplies many professional sailors, including world champions. The fin, although in size a small part of the windsurfer, is an extremely important part of the sailor’s equipment which we have found to be at least as critical as both the sail and the board.

My MSc. Research Project in 1993 on the ‘Hydrodynamics of Windsurfer Fins’ included a simple global force model and Velocity Prediction Programme (VPP), classical aerofoil theory and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses and tests in the Southampton Solent University towing tank.

Current, ongoing work consists of seven stages:

1. Computer Finite Element Analyses (FEA) structural analysis,
2. Laboratory mechanical strength and stiffness tests,
   
3. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling of the water flow past the fin,
4. Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) modelling combing 1 & 3 above,
5. Cavitation tunnel (the water equivalent of a wind tunnel) testing in Newcastle University’s Emerson Cavitation Tunnel,
   
6. Fin optimisation using the previously developed models as a design tool,
7. On-the-water testing by F-Hot's sponsored professional windsurfers.