Just do it Hicksy, you won’t regret it, these things are so versatile and open up a whole new world of surfing/usage. Make it wide/stable enough and you could take it up towards Shark bay etc and go touring on it around the lagoons etc, or do some flyfishing for bonefish from it, even dare I saw, go further northwards at the equinox tides and try bore surfing that river up near the Kimberleys’. Plenty of options, what I love about my mega mal is being able to surf tandem with the kids in 1 ft-2ft slop when no one else even would think of trying to surf!
Shows the extra rocker/nose flip I retained as do not want to pearl a board this big when tandem, also from experience on the bore, the noseflip is vital if you hook a trailing wave( you don’t want the nose digging in the wave in front!). Added advantage, when the surf is big and you are struggling through the breakers, if you get caught inside when the clean-up set comes through, roll upside down holding onto the rails and the nose flip helps push the board down under the white water without it ripping your arms off!
The stringer thickness is 6mm (approx 1/4") laid up in a sandwich of epoxy 4oz and MDF. Pretty flexible side to side but really strong on the vertical axis.
When the stringer has been shaped I then measure down from the top to 1/2 way in and cut out the slots, in this case 5mm. The measurements of the stringer at 1 foot intervals get transposed to the ribs and they are cut out to slot into the stringer. Sort of like those wooden dinosaur kits…
Thanks Oldy, looking forward to sharing the experience....
Looking good Hicksy! With summer coming on here in california, I’m going to be needing something that size pretty soon. Too bad I don’t have a workspace big enough. WIth your stringer, did you ever consider using a design like Paul Jensen does it, with the ribs being inserted from the middle instead of slots? Not that it would make a big difference on a stringer that’s three feet tall…
Quite an impressive evil plan for the stringer there…
WHat I was referring to is something like this photo I stole from Robbo’s HWS thread, as I don’t have any pix of my own of this part of the process yet:
the stringer is the one with “36” writtin on it. The rib is notched top and bottom, slid through the hole at an angle, then rotated into place. Only reason I’m considering that instead of the simple notch method is that with a pretty thin stringer that’s 1/4" solid cedar, I think it will be a bit stronger to have the unbroken edges top and bottom.
Btw, you’re going to get this board done months before mine is finished!
Pat
couldn’t get the pic to post in the text again, hmmm…
I get it now, basicly Robbo has too much time on his hands and goes that one step further…, beautiful work…
I like my stringers solid, don’t know why but I do, when the wood gets slotted in it’s glued inside and out, trying it’s best to maintain the strength in both the ribs and the stringer.
Makes a good solid skeleton, but I will be putting holes on the ribs on this one to save a bit of weight…
