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.

The ongoing current 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. Cavitation tunnel testing in Newcastle University’s Emerson Cavitation Tunnel,
5. Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) modelling combing 1 & 3 above, (currently active)
6. Fin optimisation using the previously developed models as a design tool, (currently active)
7. On-the-water testing by F-Hot's sponsored professional windsurfers.