Not much fun trying to sail a finless board 500m back to shore in a gusty (10-30kt) hot norwester (offshore) in Vic. with a fin that had snapped at the base of the finbox! (ie; no fin!)
That'll teach me for being a smart**se and trying to get too much lift from a chop-hop in front of a mate!
(although I reckon the damage was done before then!)
On the upside...core strength got a work-out trying to maintain stability and direction on the way back in, and suprisingly, I managed to keep upwind!
Did you use the good ol' harness round the bottom of the board trick?
Or did you just slog it in?
)
Same thing happened to me years ago with an old slalom board - tied off the harness around the back foot strap and let it drag in the water behind the board. Got back to shore the my arms were shagged for a few days!
It wasn't overly difficult to sail without a fin, the hardest part was holding my body rigid, and not over-correcting, which resulted in sideways sliding, I tried to dig the rail in a bit with one foot forward of the masttrack which helped keep me slightly upwind...I reckon the harness would add stability, but would be like towing a huge lump of weed. Either way, I don't particularly want to do it again. Thanks for the feedback.
Unfortunately I've had to use the harness trick a few times, it works quite well. The drag gives you the pointing ability. 
)
