Remember 10-12 years ago when NAFA wanted you to put your smaller otter on a 6-1/4" wide board?

Even the Large Otter were supposed to go on a 7" wide board.

The 8" boards were only for "the larger Western Otter"

Why is it that now about all the otter stretchers sold are just one standard size around 7-1/2"?



I thought it may be because the FHA manual called for it, but the FHA manual calls for one board 9" wide??



I ask this because we don't get a lot of those monster otter in this part of the world. Say I stretch an otter on a 8" board and it stretches to 32" (LM size). That same otter stretched on a 6-1/2" board is going to be roughly 39", which bumps you from a LM to a XL.

Are they sized by square inches?

Any clarity on this would help, thanks in advance!

Where did you get that 2nd figure?

I just looked at the FHA Board Sizes on the FHA website and it does not agree with the dimensions you posted. They do only show one size but it is not 9" @ 66"

FHA Board Sizes

I do have boards I got about 12 years ago stamped Bobcat/Otter in 3 different widths at 66". They are 7", 7 1/2" and 8" @ 66" At 40", they are 1/4" to 3/8" narrower.

Xxx

It's in their handbook

I guess that’s what I’m getting at. You can’t find 2 places that agree on the dimensions otter need to be stretched to.

The simple line of thinking is “well if you’re shipping to FHA, stretch them to what FHA wants”

That’s the problem, FHA has multiple recommendations out there for what they want.

Make your own boards to fit your section of otter.
Just keep the length to width ratios the same.in other words the natural shape of the animal.
The actual measurements in inches are a guideline.
Otters vary considerably in size in different sections in North America.But they do not vary in shape.
Make two sizes of boards for the otter in your section one for larger otter and one for smaller otter.
Same goes for a lot of other species also.