Blank was left rough sanded with 60 grit sandpaper, and then forcefully sealed with resin using a squeegee.
I have two layers of 4oz on each side so far, with each layer being done separately. I plan on doing another layer on both sides, so it should be bullet proof.
Graffiti style supposed anti-shark pattern on the bottom breaks up the expanse of all that width, and gives me a centreline to set the fins. Stylised pi symbol at the nose appeals to the mathematics nerd in me, and covers the area I butchered with the hand saw when I was cutting in the nose rocker.
These images show the planshape and rocker/deck line more accurately than previous posts.
I’ve ended up with approximately 1" of tail rocker, and 1 1/2" of nose rocker - the equivalent of taking my 7’ McCoy and chopping 2" off the tail and 1 1/2’ off the nose.
Of course it wouldn’t really be one of my own without a decent screw up along the way.
I routed the front side fin holes to suit fin plugs that were no longer available. I had to cut some wooden plugs with a hole saw, set the smaller fin plugs into them, and then set these into the board. It wasn’t a complete disaster as disasters go.
In 1970 I had R. Cunningham shape me. 5’8 Twin. The concept was that it would go in the back seat of a VW Bug when hitchhiking. I was concerned that I might have to pass up a ride with one of those North SD county blondes in a Karmin Ghia or an MGB-GT Lowel
Wow, that looks like a ton of fin area you’ve got on it there Rohan, on the other hand, it is a 5’4" board so it may actually be quite a normal amount when seen in person.
Will be curious to see what fin setup you find works best for it once the restrictions ease and you can get out for a play with it.
For me I’ve found with really thick and wide tails, that a Widowmaker setup feels a lot more natural than a Thruster. Because of the bulk in the tail it’s not ideally suited to the constant rail to rail transitioning that a Thruster prefers.
I’ve tried Quad setups in the past and found them to be great under the right circumstances, but sometimes not so good, with a tendency to “stick” at times you didn’t want them to. But the potential is there I think due to the same reasons that the Widowmaker works well. The last surf I had I used a thick wide tailed board with a Spitfire Quad setup for the first time, along with a small centre stabiliser fin to give me some more than welcome “centreing” effect. The Spitfire outline fins seemed to have mostly fixed the “sticking” Issue, I assume by reducing the horizontally distributed fin area, so I’m keen to pursue this a bit more.
COVID 25km travel restrictions ended here three days ago. Yesterday was strong offshore winds and well lined up overhead swell at the beachbreaks closest to me. So I ditched work at lunch time and headed down for my first surf for about 5 months. From its first outing, with the fin set up shown, I can report the following.
It paddles great, even though the nose barely clears the water surface ahead of it when you find the correct balance point. It took off on a couple of waves almost by itself, as I’d given up paddling for them, but it just went anyway.
I thought I would have at least a couple of take offs where my back foot might miss hitting the board altogether, due to it being so short, but it never happened. The paddling balance point must correlate well to the foot positioning upon jump up. The feeling of seeing no board ahead of you, even in your peripheral vision, is unnerving, but quite liberating.
It felt great holding a trim line, was super fast, and very, very loose - too loose for me as it is. I will definitely up the “finnage” for the next surf. I think the Bonzer style angled side runners added too much lift to a tail that already has more than substantial lift due to its volume. A longboard type of pivot, point and shoot style of surfing suited it best. Really throwing my weight into turns resulted in a bit of sliding, and almost swapping of ends on a couple of occasions. But what a fun challenge it was finding out how to best manage its characteristics.
