Ok, I tried the schnitz slot fin and mini wing from my rs1 on the SC. 5 sets over the last week. Now it feels nice.  Very stuck to the water in a straight line when you're getting ready to pull out. One issue I've had since day 1 on the SC is that it tends to slide the tail more than the RS1, especially on my off side.  That's gone. I could probably even shallow the fin up to make it a little looser feeling in the warm water now. Maybe I'll try 2.595 instead of 2.560 for depth this week.

I never tried the stock fin on the Senate C. Since I already had the Schnitz fin on my RS1, I used the Silver CNC profiled RS1 fin and wing on it first.  Regardless, I used Rossi's settings. On all the skis I've used the Schnitz fin on, I've used the stock Schnitz settings. That included the SixamSS, RS1 and now the SenateC.

Schnitz fin seems to make Senate C even better.

Last edited by JayG (Tue, Jun 30, 2009 4:13 PM)

The Schnitz fin makes the ski feel like it hugs the water.  No tail slip or blow out gives me a bit more confidence. 

Fast behind the boat & both turns are smooth with either fin.

I may not have given std fin enough time/adjustment.

Hi Guys,

I'm the proud owner of a 69 inch Senate C and I am a bigger skier.

I recently sent the text below to the Water Ski Forum and didn't get any real responses to the questions I asked.


"Does anyone have experience on how to tweak the ski set up for heavier people?  I have a copy of Paul Jager’s ski set up program and did a little experiment on keeping everything the same except adding pounds to the weight of the skier.

So for a 210 lb skier the following is the data from the Jager program for a MPD ski.

210 lbs
Binding,    Wing,         Length (tips), Depth,        DFT (set)
28.330,        8,                 6.453,             2.618,          0.448


Keeping everything else the same except changing the weight to 260 lbs I got the following data

260 lbs,
Binding,          Wing,              Length, L (tips),   Depth,       DFT (set)
27.33,                8,                        5.891,                2.775,     0


So does anyone have any experience on this?  Does a heavier person move the bindings back make the fin shorter and have more depth as well as push the fin back in the ski?  I’m especially interested in how to tweak Schnitz’s slot fin / mini wing for a heavier person as I don’t think one setting suits all especially if you are a bit heavier than most.

I did some intermediate weigh calculations as well and determined the change is more or less linear so each 10 lbs move the bindings back .2 inches, make the fin shorter by .112 inches make the fin deeper by .031 and make it closer to the back of the ski by.090 in.

Not trying to get too accurate is the common knowledge to move the bindings back, shorten the fin, make it deeper and move the fin back if the skier is heavier and the reverse of all of this if the skier is lighter?

…and…does the slot fin / mini wing or speed slot fin work the same way?

Thanks in advance of your answer

Murray Mortson (mortyski)"

So last weekend I just set my slot fin deeper and shorter and I did like the setting a lot.  I think for a heavier person the fin should be set differently than a lighter person.  I think if you set up the slot fin at about 2.6 and as close to the back of the Senate as possible with the fin about .2 inches shorter than Schnitz's reccomendation of 6.542 with the caliper tips (to the cutout where the fin goes up into the ski about 3/4" forward of the tail) that would be a good starting point.

Good luck and let me know how it worked out for you.

Not trying to get too accurate is the common knowledge to move the bindings back, shorten the fin, make it deeper and move the fin back if the skier is heavier and the reverse of all of this if the skier is lighter?

That's my experience as it works also if you are on the top or over the top end of the weight range for a particular ski length.   When I skied a longer ski I needed to move both my bindings and fin forward to get the turn correct.  The same for <45 degree water I had to go forward.

FYI fixed the bounce.   Fin back,boots back, patience in the turn, ran really nice in todays 15mph winds and 22 mph gusts.    One of these days it will be nice to try this ski with sub 10mph winds.

Thanks

My binding setup with on 2009 69" Senate C with Animal Boots is 30.75" to heel rubber.  I could not get further back to the 30.25" stock setting without major binding plate modification and the ski seems to ride well.  Comforting to see Murray running bindings ahead of mine, I may try his total setup if I stop progressing.

Schnitz slot fin is 2.564",  6.550", 6 degree mini wing.  DFT is as far back as the fin block allows.  (Stock is 2.5605, 6.542) After setting the fin position, I remove the 3 positioning set screws and tighten the fin box.  I believe my Schnitz fin is thinner than stock fins and the set screws keep the fin box from clamping as well as it can.

Running the ski with more confidence this week at -22/34.  The water in TX is hot, slow (and getting shallow).  I experimented dropping the mini-wing from 8 to 7 to 6 this week.

As an update on my ski, as the water has really warmed up in the last few weeks I went ahead and took the wing completely off. That freed up the ski immensely. It had been feeling as if it was a bit behind me and like I could never get up on the boat when the water went from 82 to 92.  Now, I can really get it out in front of me and drive it through the wakes. I ran 2 at 35 at 34mph today which was my first complete 32 off pass at 34. WhooHoo!

Thanks for the interest Murray.  My skiing is getting much more consistent at -22/32 mph and -22/33 mph.  I am getting to inside of 6 ball at -22/34 mph. 

This ski is making the course fun for me again but my wife still kicks my tail.  It is easier for her to drive because I am now much smoother on the boat and generally in a better mood when I come back to shore.

I reduced mini wing angle on my Schnitz slot due to hot Texas water.  I will take it off tomorrow based on Shane's recommendation.  May break out the video camera too.

Hi,

I've never liked the feeling of a ski without a wing and the mini wing is so small it has just the right effect.  The speed slot fin is even better.

I'm not surprised you didn't like the ski.  In my case I have to slow down the momentum of 1/8th of a ton and without a wing it's tough to do that.

best,
Murray