After WoodOgre’s build of the Kahalo kook box, I’ve had a flatwater design in the back of my mind, working and reworking it, but since I moved back to the beach, I pretty much only surf anymore, so not much need for a SUP. A customer approached me and asked for a flatwater SUP, and basically left the whole design and plan to me, so here is what I came up with. This board is loosely based on the 404 Danny Ching 10’6" trainer–I’ve paddled the 12’ 404 Monster and really liked it, so thought this would be good for a smaller lady cruising the bays of Cape Cod. I’m trying a bunch of “new” (to me) techniques in this build.
I drew it up in BoardCad, then took the “ribs” and built what strip canoe folks call a “strongback”.
bending strips for the nose internal chine:
Used the shaper to mill up a TON of bead and cove strips…I think it was on the order of 120.
For a while, you can do both sides simultaneously. Usually, canoe builders use staples to clamp each piece on the strongback, but I didn’t want a ton of holes, so used QUALITY 3M tape and spring clamps to hold them down. The compound curves in the nose were a pain…lots of really tiny strips (1/2") to conform to the curve. All the strips are reclaimed redwood siding or basswood.
Once you get to the point where the strips are meeting in the middle, you start building assymetrically…keeping good notes of the order of the strips if you have a couple different sizes.
Then trim all to the center line and start building in the other side.
It gets tricky to clamp as you get close to closing the gap.
The customer is a microbiologist and her only design request was to try and incorporate her study organism, a T4-like phage into the design as I saw fit. Since the hull has a big down sloping tail, I thought that would be the perfect place to highlight the phage. Used some 233+ with the sticky side up to hold all the little bits as I fit them together. TEDIOUS!
With a layer of glass you can see the facets of the “head”
I didn’t want a sharp edge to the board, so I fit a thin extra piece along the inside top of the rail as glue support and a little extra meat for rounding the deck transition.
Clamping the crap out of the rear panel, while the internal glass is still tacky…it would be too stiff to bend if I waited until full cure. Then I painted thinned resin over all the plywood and unglassed wood in the interior as a moisture barrier.
layed up the top deck, 1/8" planks with the standing part of the deck as 1/8" okume plywood
Couldn’t think of a good way to clamp it outside a ton of bricks, so I borrowed a vaccuum pump and ghetto rigged a vacuum bag…old glue bottle lit as the port, bubble wrap, green scrubby pads and a towel as breather. Actually worked really well once I rolled and duct taped the whole seam.
Cleaned up the edges with a hand plane
All put together, ready for sanding and shaping the edge.
I knew I wouldn’t like the plywood look and figured that there was a good chance the customer would want to put a deck pad on it, so I masked and painted the standing part of the board.
burned on a few logos
Finished up the glassing (but didn’t take pictures)…sanding it this weekend.
The board needs vents…and since the achilles’ heel of HWS boards is venting (or more particularly, folks forgetting to vent or close the vent), I decided to try some GoreTex vents. But I struggled with the idea of putting a plastic insert in the deck. While I know the customer wouldn’t notice one way or another, I wanted to be stoked on the final product, even the little tidbits. Luckily, I’ve got the machines to fabricate my own plugs to fit the GoreTex inserts.
Using the metal lathe to fabricate a fitting, and tap it with the M12x1 thread that Gore uses.
I put little grooves on the outside to hold the epoxy-brass connection
Drilled and tapped the threads
Completed metal insert. I figured that part of the reason that the store bought plug is recessed is because the insert is hollow plastic and kinda fragile, so I made a wood insert to protect the metal.
Turning the wood vent plug
two plugs, back to back.
Final product…I made them a little wider so you can fit your fingers in to unthread them if necessary, rather than need a socket.
Seriously… that is an awesome board. What kind of glue did you use for all of the slats? When I built up the rails on my redwood board I had to wait a day for the glue to dry on each piece. It took me about three weeks to finish, and I had far fewer pieces that you did. I am dying hear that there is an easier way.
No, so far as I know, neither BoardCad or AkuShaper have any “stock” displacement hulls available. It took a lot of tweaking to get it the way I wanted it. But it was easier to use than some of the canoe hull programs I tried a while back…they were NOT user friendly. If anyone wants the BoardCad file, just send me a PM…I make no guarantees that it would machine well on a CNC machine, but it is good enough for a HWS.
I used Titebond III for the slats. If you get a good fit (which happended more once I got the hang of it, the first couple had a few gaps), you only need to clamp for 30 min to 1 hr in SoCal weather. I typically glued 2-3 strips at a time and for the first while could do both sides simultaneously.
While the build thread makes it look like this took a short time…this has been a LONG project (about 5 weeks, working a couple hours a day most days). Way longer than I hoped for and intended…in fact, it has got me hard up against my deadline to ship (Wednesday), so I should go finish it and the fin!
Ok, pretty much done. Every time I glass a board, I wish I had just paid a pro, as it is the least enjoyable part for me (but I’ve also been disappointed with some of the pro glass jobs I have gotten)…It is hard to get good at glassing when each board takes a month or more to build. I tried out WoodOgre’s (and the canoe people’s) roller glassing/hotcoating…definitely saves weight and stress on a big board build, particularly with a tight weave glass–much easier for me to get a tight lam with a minimum of resin.
Final board weight was 34 lbs, with the fin. Supposedly the foam version weighs in around 28lbs, so I feel pretty good about it.
A custom quick change fin screw…nice to have on paddleboards because they are so big, it is easy to whack the fin on something when carrying it around.
