ah… couldnt wait until i did the fins to take some photos here is a teaser of the almost finished deck. outline is curver than shown in this shot.
Thanks to a few crew who helped out heaps via PM,s (you know who you are) and the rest of swayers for the help, also to sways as a great place to research, inspire and build things.
built for a fat boy to surf waist to head high beaches, 6’2" by 16.5 by 23.75 by 17.5 by just over 2" thick, thin rails with a hard tucked edge last 2 foot, will be set up as a quad.
bottom still to gloss final sand/buff and fins to finish…
Kit I dont know your boards look preety sweet to me… Not too much work still got to glue/tap skins up so it dosnt take to much longer to put in the western red cedar strips.
And I stuffed up here and there on it the photos make it look heaps better than in real life.
a couple of shots of the bottom, shows the curvy fish nose
and one of the stuffups…
when i cut for the tail blocks the WRC strips are mismatched, didnt take care to line them up when making the skins, didnt have enough width in the tail blocks to put in the classic fish bum curve, little bit there but not as much as i hoped for. Anyway just me been picky.
other things to watch for.
A) dont use permenat marker to mark out templates as it bleed thru during skin lamination to EPS.
B) dont use WRC timber filler putty, colour not even close…
C) be careful with FCS plugs, sandthrus meant patching over plugs required
Thanks george, used your suggestions for quad placement
Going to try some canards first up as per templates from oldies post, cut the 6mm ply last night. Still not sure but will either do 5mm balsa each side over the ply to give a thicker foil of ~ 12mm (1/2") or 3mm ply to give 9mm foil.
any other sugestions for fins is more than welcome
Also got a stack of cardboard templates from chip so heaps to play with when i get around to building more fins.
no swell at the moment, heading down south in a couple of weeks so should get it wet then.
"no swell at the moment, heading down south in a couple of weeks so should get it wet then. "
W-E-L-L , actually , with the cyclone coming up north at the moment …
forecast , as at 10pm 2nd january , for thursday the 4th [day after my birthday] : -
" 2.5m seas and swell off rotto at 6am thursday …1m at cott "
… interested ?
will the fins be ready by then ?
[if not , I can lend you some of mine …Ian and I are planning to hit it at around 6.30am , latest …yes , on our BOARDS !
…I’m keen as , to try out those webber curved side fins , with the “wingtip” back fin …now , wouldn’t the CURVED ones be “interesting” in a wood compsand quad fish eh ? [interested , Shane ?]
had 2 1/2 hours last night on the 6’6" HWS, now need to do some repairs on that ahhh…
6’2" might be finished but not the fins, may take you up on the offer, thanks. This morning was looking good inconsistent but still the odd set coming thru.
finished and finned, just need to get it waxed and wet missed this weeks swell but theres allways next time. Went for four MR fins might be a tad too much but these looked right with the super wide tail (17.75") and my hefty weight. In the mean time i am building a set of smaller light weight canards to try. and as long as i dont rip in out i can always go smaller…
The board with these fins on and the tail block is pretty tail heavy it will be interesting to see how it sits/paddles in the water. Thats where a set of buoyant fins may help?
comparison shot with the 6’6" HWS fish
fins ah shinny new fins…
trailing edge 6" and 12" up from tips and set 2" and 1.5" in from rail. Fronts 5 degree cant rears ~3 degree both set with toe 4" off each side of the nose
that’s a LOT of fin for a 6’2"…4 MRs… I suspect you’re going to want to swap out 2 of those for something smaller. but ya never know, that’s the fun of it!
Well got it wet this morning in waist to head high glass, if someone had said to me a couple of years ago that i (~120 kgs, 260lbs) would be riding a 6’2" fish just over 2" thick i would have laughed and asked for some of the same drugs…Walking down to the beach with this thin arse board under my arm i was thinking hell which one of my mates am i gunna have to give this too as this thing feels like a toy
Anyway jumped in and hey it paddles ok, sitting out the back up to my nipples i turn and paddled for my first wave not expecting much as i was surfing a fat reefie that was either fading out into deeper water or closing down on the bigger ones, instant pick up and onto the wave no worries, jam a bottom turn up to the lip to fade out, just think on where you want to turn and its there. Board even with all that fin, feels loose and on some of the bigger sets drove well off the bottom to get back up to hit the closeout lips.
Very easy to take late takes with short length and rocker, and oh so light to throw around. In superfatpats words " its a keeper" anyway time will tell on better waves how it goes, but you always get a good feel from the first surf on what its going to be like, and i cant slag off the shaper anyway…Great feeling to ride something you have built
So to all those fat boys out there that dont think they can ride short and thin, you can if you put enough surface area in the board.
well wind and swell played ball and I have spent more time in the water than at my desk at work (gold…) Had a 2 hour session at lunch and on better waves the board goes great, very loose with the 4 big MR’s and doing hacks and moves I havent done for years. mmm feel like a grom again. Probally dont look like one.
Board/quad set up is very good, fast down the line and loose enough on hacks, plenty of hold on the larger drops. Only down side so far is sore arms from paddling a sinker…
Even felt the compasand flex on a late take-off, nose flexed bigtime instead of digging in and throwing me off nice…