Tweaking the Asymmetric Fish

And since I was working in the garage, I felt compelled to dial in the template of the asymmetric fish I'm making.

Here is the nose.

And here is the tail.  I think it looks great now.  It came out at 5'10" and change.  It is fairly wide, but I'm going to have to make it thick so I can ride this thing.

I'll post more pictures of the cut board when there is a sunny day.  Next step is to skin the blank and get the bottom rocker faired in.  I'll show Marlon how to use the planer at the same time.

Dialing in the 4'6"

I'm now at the point in shaping this one where my OCD is a detriment.  I keep chasing the little asymmetries - and chasing, and chasing... you get the idea.

This is pretty close - and I'm going to stop the rough sanding here (80 and 100 grit).  Both of these pictures are of the bottom deck.

I'm using a slight downturn on my noses, since these things get flipped over and paddled upside down for a fair distance (to get the foil to deep water).

Next step is a quick hit with 180, 220 and 400 grit sandpaper.  Then I'll route out the voids where the high density foam block will go (going to use a premade one from Fiberglass Hawaii instead of a homemade one), vacuum it in place, then cut out the finbox slots.  Then glassing.  I'm going to try to get this one lighter than the 4'10" by using carbon tape along the stringer on top and by only using carbon around the mast track on the bottom.  I don't mind the weight of full carbon on a polyurethane blank, but I want to see if I can get similar response from a lighter glassed board from this one as compared to the 4'10".

Latest Progress on the 4'10" - 28 October

I was going to cut the finbox slots and glass the bottom deck, but La thought I should narrow up the front of the board (CODE FOR SHE DINGED THE BOARD).

I thought I was going to have to glue on a piece of foam and reshape, but I figured I could just sand the blank down some more.

After I fixed the ding, I still cut out the fin box slots.  This was actually the first time I was able to cut the box slots without any issues (my three previous uses had some minor alignments - nothing unrecoverable, but getting it right just feels way better).

Tomorrow I'll epoxy in the boxes and laminate the bottom carbon and fiberglass layers.

Furthering the 4'10"

Did some fine sanding.

Also routed out the area where my front foot will most likely land for the divynicell sheeting (I'm doing this because I can't stand pressure dings).  I'm going to finish off the vacuum press also.

Almost time to bag!!!

Fine Tuning Track Box Reinforcement Blocks - 8 October

Spent a few minutes getting the next steps in the board construction accomplished.  Trimmed the blocks so they are the same size -

Then sanding to make sure they have a similar profile - 

And here is how they'll sit in the board.  

Next step is to route out the holes that they'll sit inside of and epoxy them in place (maybe tomorrow).

Another Reason Why I Haven't Been in the Water -

I've been getting the 4'10" shaped.  This was earlier in the week:

Still a lot rough on both decks - planer lines.  But I've been using the long surform to blend in the decks.  These pictures are from yesterday afternoon after a fair amount of time spent with the surform - I even got the nose, tail and rails dialed in more.  Marlon went surfing with his cousin, but I stayed back to get this progress in.

The key difference in this board as compared to the prior two are the bevels cut in the bottom rails.  Most of the shapers are putting these into their boards in an effort to allow riders to recover from touchdowns (boards hitting the water and getting sucked back down due to surface tension - these cuts would allow a rider to "bounce" off the water or not touch it at all).  I figured I should at least try it out to see what the buzz is and if it would be worth it on future boards.  I am also planning out the 4'6" blank - probably going to make it into a kite foiling/prone board (but that is almost too tiny for me I'm guessing).

All this has been the easy part - going to have to vacuum bag on a divynicell patch (dent resistant front foot area on top deck), divynicell blocks for the mast tracks, and I am planning on laminating carbon fiber on the last 2/3s of the board for pumping stiffness.  That is probably two more weeks of work (after work and on weekends).  Will also be painting over the carbon fiber to provide some heat damage relief (no vent on this one - polyurethane blank). 

The Next Project - 4'10" Prone Foilboard

With Marlon's longboard all finished, I've been trying to figure out the template for my next board.  This one is going to be a stripped down windsurfing board and it'll end up becoming a 4'10" prone foilboard.

Here are the templates I've come up with so far.

I printed this one out already, but it isn't really growing on me.

This second one is Marlon's pick.

This is the one that growing on me.  I'll print them out and lay them on to the donor board (Naish Wave 87L Windsurfing board I got for free) to get a better feel for them before committing to a template.

Sunday Fin Setting

Marlon and I set the fins in place on his longboard yesterday.

The side bites are in perfectly.

The center box had an issue - I forgot to use the plunge setting and as a result there were two excessive cuts.  If we weren't going to paint the finished board, I would probably try and fix these.  Oh well - we're painting the board so no issue.

Now I just have to find time to glass this board (uuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhh).

Finished Shaping Marlon's Longboard

Small surf this morning - so we decided to use the time to finish shaping Marlon's longboard.  Used the planer to cut in the rail bands, and a surform to blend to top to the rails.

We broke out the dragon skin and sanding screens to dial in the rails, and then sanded the decks.  When we were done sanding, we broke out the random orbital sander and carved in the nose spoon.  We actually made it pretty deep, so Marlon should have the ability to park up front and eat a few ham sandwiches.  La bought me some Dapp's Lightweight and I closed up all the shaping mistakes.  THis thing is ready to glass (for tomorrow).

Taking a Short Break By Shaping

Knowing Marlon is anxious to get another board in the water, we decided to skip surfing and foiling to get moving on his new longboard.

We felt most of the foiling should be done to the bottom - getting it as flat as possible to make it a super fast paddler.  I'll put a spoon in the nose so he can get 10 toes over (but later after the top is dialed in).

We used the surforms first - and Marlon was comfortable with using it.  But I switched to the planer because we had to remove about a 1/2" of material.  After a couple of hours, the bulk/rough shaping to the bottom is done.

Now the question is do we work on this all weekend and knock it out, or do we go surfing....

Marlon's Board - Step 2

Skinning the blank.

I got him on the planer also (so it is not all me building this board)!

Starting Marlon's Longboard

Pretty timely as he accidently dinged the longboard he was using (I can fix that).  He did not want to make a mistake on this board so he asked me to do the first couple of steps - using the jigsaw to cut out the template and use the planer to skin the board top and bottom.  Yesterday before heading out to get him to a penguin suit concert, I was able to make a couple of adjustments to the shaping racks (still need to make another adjustment -

that is another post) and get the template cut out.

I'm happy with how the trimming turned out.  Cuts smooth as butter!

Marlon's Longboard

We got Marlon and blank and some fin boxes for Christmas and we are getting ready to shape it.  This weekend we got the template put together and transferred it to the blank (pictures on this to come - too late this evening to take pictures).