help with mirage drive

The front fin has the about 1/4 of the mast exposed while the back fin does not.

Is this normal or do I need to adjust fins?

JOHN, for one thing, your fins are overtightened at the outhaul clew screw. Remove the fins, double check your mast length to be equal, measure the distance between masts at top and bottom to verify that one is not bent, remount your fins.

Loosen the Outhaul Clews so that about 1/8" of fin is sitting in the outhaul clew slot at the rear of the fin. There they should have plenty of flex and be able to move up and down the masts slightly as they twist. Should look like this:



They should work much better.

This is sort of typical - the front mast is usually the one that hits the bottom and gets bent back. Once it is slightly bent that sweep of the new mast angle will cause the fin to creep away from the sprocket base. Either way it isn't any big issue - and the drive will function still at nearly 100% effectiveness. Hard to tell by those pictures I'm purely guessing, but I think it could be that the mast is slightly bent from having had an impact with the bottom.

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Jacques Bernier
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