Do you take your fin off every weekend??

SailboatRC recommend leaving the IOM fin on, so I religiously do so – and have one of those lovely Potter Onesie padded bags for the whole thing. The fin is attached with an M3 bolt, needing a 2.5mm hex key.

In the Marbleheads, the fins are that bit longer – we all take the fin on and off every weekend as “the norm”. I had an M3 bolt on there, which turned out to be not really up to the job – too much leaping across the Datchet waves! Doctor Hetem has popped in an M4 bolt for me now (needs 3mm hex key) and I’m much more confident in it. I wouldn’t want my fin to be the third in living memory to have dropped to the bottom of the lake!

GH was careful to tell me to be very wary of over-tightening the bolt. I’ve been using simple hex keys left over from my cycling club days – nice ones with those round “any angle” ends on them. On the wide side, there’s about a 75mm throw so maybe the available leverage is a bit high. (See photo above). Too easy to over-tighten.

GH recommended one of those T-bar hex keys. However, as I dipped into the old race bike tool box I suddenly remembered I had a mini ratchet/torque wrench from a brand called Topeak (very big brand in global cycling). It has 2.5 and 3.0mm keys in the selection. The torque heads can do 4,5,6nm of measured torque, but I feel that even 4nm is a tad much for the Marblehead fin. However, as you throw the lever you can easily feel the “bite point”. Simply to provide shaft length to clear the deck well around the mast, I have the 4nm head on there in the photo (above), but have never let it “click”. If you look carefully at the top photo you can see “4nm” engraved on the shaft extension.

The ratchet on the handle is a dream for putting our long fin bolts in and out. Love it. Plenty of space in the tool box too. It comes with a little pouch, but my preference has come to be keeping the subset I need in a neat translucent plastic box – which turns out to be an old business. card box. I knew I’d find a use for those one day 🙂

The whole thing will be great for the Ten Rater (of my dreams) too !

You can see the current product on the Topeak website at this link below. Even better, the current product has 1-6nm of torque adjustment, an improvement over the 4/5/6nm set that I have. Click here:-

https://www.topeak.com/global/en/product/1602-TORQ-ROCKET-mini-DX