Im building a hydrofoil board atm.
Its mostly about shaping it for maximum glide and release to get the board out of the water on to the foil.
Having surfed and made my own equipment for 30 years i couldn’t think of purchasing one.
Im enjoying the build i haven’t posted boards on swaylocks for along time and i fluff about and procrastinate alot now im olderso don’t have a deadline.
Just looking forward to riding waves differently
It will be mostly used with a wing or a sup padle.
Ill post photos now and again and happy for any feadback in the process.
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Looking good!
What are your plans for mounting the strut/mast?
Back a few years ago, the ‘shape shack’ subforum of standupzone.com had quite a few builds of foil craft. I have not been online there recently.
Ive reinforced the mast mount zone with 2 peices of gaboon marine ply around 3’ long with back blocking each end and were the mast mount is positioned 1 1/2" thick red ceder blocking, the structure is through to the deck.
The mast mount will be 1 1/2" ceder routed flat into the bottom this part will be to mount the tracks.
The ply was chosen for its strength to weight as a structure it should spread the stress better than the shop boards. Ive considered the weight compared to just using high density pu foam inserted and its not much compared to the benefits of the structural advantage I will gain.
Im around 105 kg and 6’5" tall so hence the overkill.
I do and repair more and more foil craft, surf and kite first, now sup and wing. I think you are right with your ply wood connected mast rails to deck. I would extand ply wood deck side so it “conected” booth foot to foil. One key for strength for me is to have a foot+foil plateforme ultra stiff by itself so the rest of the board is only for flotation and is build as light as possible.
Yes my consideration making the strigers roughly the length of a comfortable feet spacing was to create a mechanical conected structure from rider to foil and responsibly judging the spacing of the wood members to only reflect engendered necessity.
Was just a guess, im fairly confident it will take more abuse than the retail variety im not a propeller head just an old surfer in a shed.
Thamks for your thoughts
Spent some time this morning with the router making the ceder track mount fit in to the stringers and bulkheads.
I would have had it glued in but one of my children had car troubles so i spent the rest of sunday on the spanner 
.
Was covered in grease so called it a day.
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Solid ceder plank 1 1/2 "x 7"x 4’ glued in with Polyurethane glue.
The brand i use is sika it doesn’t contain any acetone or chemical that could effect the eps.
It foams up during curing and helps avoid bottomless voids that cause draining when laminating.
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It will be strong !
200 gsm carbon twill 3 layers on the mast track .
1 layer of 4 oz s cloth just because i have it laying around and thought it would add to the durability.
The tint is swamp monster green custom mix with no care.
Laminating the deck.
3 layers of 200gsm carbon twill over the standing position single wraping the nose and rails with 1 4oz s glass over the top.
I’ve applied a skim coat of Qcell for a skim coat and damed up the tail for shaping a hard edge.
This will all get blocking
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Your sanding tool may know he will have to work hard, and you too LOL.
I’m surprised you would go to the trouble of adding the hard edge in the tail since the board spends very little time on the wave face, its the foil that is actually in contact with water. I assume that’s why so little rocker?
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I like the way the “Swamp Monster Green” came out. Looks kind of Camo. You should bottle and sell that one. I have a shaper who buys Marko EPS from out of which he builds the small Hydro-foil boards. They are in the 4–5’ range. Most are three inches thick. I haven’t seen anyone surf one other than on YouTube. I think they use kites and/or wings to get them moving. He uses the Marko 5’3” Wake and the 5’3 Foil blanks. The Foil blank is used for bigger guys that need more foam under them. Once in awhile a 6’0 thick for really big guys. Yeah I was wondering about the hard edge too.
Yes lol.
Ive over filled the hard edge, ive got a great sander and plenty of time.
At least i won’t have sections that will need more fairing compound, better to much than not enough i purpose.
Kind regards
Good question huck.
The hard edge is fairly common on most foil boards it reduces suction on the back of the board.
The foils them selves need to achieve a minimum amount of speed to break throug stall ( at lower speeds a foil generally makes opposit lift ).
The lift speed of the foil is dependant on the shape and the total surface area of its top and bottom surface.
It is possible to get to foil lift at a very low speed but the foil would be very big and not very manoeuvrable .
We still need a point of release in the tail of the board to achieve planing speed to achieve foil lift speed .
Kind regards
Glad you loved the colour its a very nerve racking job getting it green.
The board will end up looking patina like an old school belly tank hot rod when i sand through all the different layers.
The hard edge in the tail is to help achieve foil lift speed as early as possible.
I know companies that supply eps blanks for foil boards but ive always used insulation grade eps and cut it out with a home made hot wire cutter guided over templates for the bulk of the rough shape. The cost difference would be a factor.
Kind regars.