VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Has anyone been shimming their foil base plate to get the best alignment of the foil blade with the bottom of the board?

If so, what have you been using?

Foilmount do sell a shim kit with (3) 1 deg. shims and articulated t-bolts so bolt alignment has 100% bearing. $59 USD for shims and bolts plus shipping.

Looking for options others are using.

I have done this on most boards, if they are not purpose built foil boards with flat bottoms.

Option 1): stainless steel washers under the base plate

Option 2): plastic fibreglass spreaders as they are already tapered, roughly 2mm thick, just drill holes for the bolts (bondo brand is most common, 3 for $5)

You can measure the degrees out of whack using a degree measuring tool at the board midpoint and the fuselage. Or a construction level can get it close enough.

Your bolts may now be just slightly too short to grab the T-nuts in the slot. Here's a trick: get one longer 8mm bolt, screw in a few turns and then lift the nut up in the track. Put an L allen key under the nut to hold it up, then remove the long bolt and screw in your regular one.

Thanks Juan.

I was wondering about those fiber/plastic shims they sell at home depot. They are used to shim doors frames and thresholds etc.

Like Juan said-laminating squeegies or floor laminated shims work great too.

Starboard now includes a 1.5 shim with their top plate masts. Seems to give a better angle when measuring with an electronic angler measurer.