George Downing and the First Fin Box

Here's an excerpt from the new issue of Ocean Magazine, 

Out Now!

Photo: Marshall Crum

“In the early days I didn’t know quite where the optimum place was to position my fin,” Downing said in a recent telecon from his shop in Honolulu, Hawaii. “I couldn’t keep glassing my fin on, then re- move it, and re-glass it...that was a pain in the ass. So I began thinking of some way I could attach my fin to my board with- out having to glass it on. Knowing about sailboats and the different wood used for sailboat construction, I made the first fin box out of wood with a groove in it so you could take the fin in and out, plus it would enable me to experiment with different size fins. The only problem with my fin box design was I had no way of securing the fin tight to the box. By making the box out of teak wood, made it perfect for ocean use. I used a piece of cardboard to secure the fin tight against the wood before I paddled out. Unless somebody invented the fin box before me, mine is the first one in history. I still have the original balsa wood board I installed it on." — board circa late 1940s, fin box added in the early 1950s 

You can view the whole article and the rest of the magazine here: http://content.yudu.com/Avdro/OceanMag/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=