Challenging myself, EPS/Epoxy semi fish

General Discussion
1

Ok, next project im going out of my comfort zone. There will be a few first's for me on this one. I picked up a 6'2'' H new marko blank the other day, and im going to make a semi fish.

This is my first experience with EPS/epoxy, so that'll be a challenge, then there'll be riding the thing hahah. The rough maximum dimensions i'll get out of the blank are

 

6'2''

13'' Nose

20" Wide ( if im lucky, should be ok to hit 20" )

14 1/2- 14 3/4 tail.

Its 2 3/4 thick, which is fine by me, im used to 3'' thick x 21 wide, and the narrowest tail i own is 15+. Im 5'9 x 180lbs ( i should be 175 and working on it! ). At the moment im confortable on a 5'8 x 21 x 3 eggy twin fin, which paddles great ( no surprise there! ). Im not concerned about paddling the semi fish, or even catching waves, just what happens when i pop up and i dont have all the planing area im used to. Oh well, i'll adjust.

 

For bottom im keen on single concave, for lift in small waves ( what i surf most ), and the setup will be twin fin ( probox aipa twinny's, faaarken great fins! ), but i'll be putting another set in for a supercharger/twinzer option, and an edge fin quad setup, just gotta see what fits where, but primarily it'll be a twinny with the option of a superchargers.

 

I have a template that almost fits perfectly in the blank, with very little wastage, but there are some kinks in it i will try to sand out, or i'll just start a new one.

 

Im in no hurry, as im about to glass a 6'6'' single fin egg ( yeeeeeeew!!! ), but i'll slowy add pics.

 

Mark

2

Lookin’ forward to this Beerfan!

3

I have a sneaky suspicion you were talked into using a Marko blank in another thread… haha

4

double post

5

Simple, a 2 hour drive through the city, or a 20 minute drive!!. Easy decision!

I was gunna do an egg, but changed my mind.

6

 

A rough idea of what it will look like. I managed to get it to

 

Nose -  12 7/8

Mid ( - 1" ) 19 3/4

Tail 14 3/4

Had a bit of a sand with some 80 grit, seemed to sand ok. Its so close to the dims, i may well do this with block and paper, except maybe foiling the nose, but i want to keepsome foam up there. This is definately the lowest volume board i've surfed, i had a shortboard a few years ago that was narrower, thinner but a little longer, which i paddled and caught waves with ok ( i was heavier then too ), but im happy to keep some foam in this one. Still trying to picture where to start and finish the single concave. I have a rough idea, but i dont want it to be where the finboxes will go. Im ok with a sander, but not that good yet!!. I was thinking starting it around where the rocker starts to flatten out ( chest area ), and have it almost as wide as the outline, and then pull it in and deepen it between my feet, and then fade it out in front of the fins??.

 

Cheers

7

Been reading up on single concaves. Might just leave it flat bottomed. Confused!.

8

dbl

9

flat to vee make it fast!  outline looks good!

10

beerfan, im really looking forward to this build.  Im gonna be doing a twinny very soon and was thinking a single into a vee, flat between fins but not decided yet.  Will be following this with great interest mate.  Well done for breaking the comfort zone.  Let the fun begin

11

I like the outline.

Flat bottoms are good. Fast and predictable.  Just ask Greg Griffin.

12

Ok ,flat bottom it is then. I did flat to slight vee in my eggy twin fin, but it has a 17 1/8" wide tail, so i think it needed it. This is the narrowest tail i've surfed for a long time, and being a twin fin, i reckon it will go ok with just plain old flat. Im also tempted to leave the tail square too, though it'll look much better with a swallow, i just thought it'd help to keep the tail up and out of the water?. Thoughts?

 

Cheers guys

 

Digger, how's your latest project going??

13

set up the shaping bay, bought some adjustable towel racks that will allow me to adjust the hieght, I am going to set up a 8 foot long light stand with them that is movable, add a shelf to it for the shadow, once that is in place its all systems go.  I have the compressor set up in a different room and bought a 10 meter hose which I run along the the roof to keep it out of the road.  Not long till I start, i hope as early as this coming tuesday, making a 5'10 egg for my boss's grandson then making a twinny for a mate and one twinny for me, then have 2 small eggs to make and 2 8 foot mals, somewhere in the middle of that want to make a 6'5 2+1 step up board for the points for this seasons cyclones.  Think I might be busy for a while, hopefully somewhere in there will get a surf in too, its been two weeks :(

14

the tail looks GREAT square , Mark !!

 

  cheers

 

  ben

15

 

For me to do any board work now, i have to fully re arrange my shed, then when done, put everything back. Its a f&cking nightmare!!. Anyway, im just about to start the rails. This blank is pretty flat decked, and the rails aren't too thick, which is what im used to, so it should go pretty quickly.

 

One question though. I have a few gouges near the nose, looks like when being shipped, the stringer from the board under this one has put a few gouges in the foam. I dont wan't to add anymore rocker by sanding them out, so was thinking i could fill them with the dreaded spackle??? And if i do, will it be ok to just do that small area, or do i have to do the whole board??? I know it will make it lighter, but i can always add more/heavier glass. Im not into feather weight boards, just looking for a little lighter than a standard poly, but with a little more float and more durability.

 

P.S Just playing around with fin positions, i should be able to comfortably get a twinzer/thruster setup on this with no worries. A rail quad option will fit in those boxes, but they'll be very close together, and the rear fin will be 2" off the rail so not sure how it'll go like that. Main fin setup will be twinzer, but it'll be good to have the option of a thruster.

 

 

 

Cheers guys.

16

Hey Beerfan

Welcome to the future!

Just spackle that ding
in the nose after you shape it. You can choose the spackle the whole
board if you have pock marks or just let it go. Depends what epoxy
your’re glassing with too. Quik Kick doesn’t drain into the voids all
that much so spackling is mainly for cosmetics and not reducing resin
usage.

Glass 6 bottom, 6/4 deck for a PU-like weight board, will be slightly lighter depending on overall volume - and a lot stronger.

Have fun!

~Brian

17

looking forward to the pics mate

 

18

Hey Beerfan, outline looks great!

Shoot me a pm if you haven’t already bought epoxy. =)

19

looking good mate, hows the foam to work with…

20

So far the foams been great to work with. For interests sake, the blank, trued up weighs 1.4kg. Now, im not into light weight boards for the sake of lightness or performance, just noting the weight at each stage.

 

Cheers