Just in case some of you thought this was a fantasy board I was talking about earlier in some other threads, here it is pre glassing.
Blank started out as Clark 12’8" super green ‘modern tandem’ spec, ie has the increased nose flip which is ideal for me as I don’t fancy pearling this in 1-4 foot of water on the Severn bore.
Dimensions are as follows: 12’6": 19"-26.5"-15" with max thickness of 5".
Glassed with 2x 4oz railbands, 2x6oz on the bottom, 3x 6oz on the top with a 4oz deck patch.
Fin setup is planned as 2+1, FCS 512’s on the side, 8" cutaway in centre for bore setup with option to go 10" single for sea.
Thanks to Ambrose, CarveNalu, Benny, Doc and others for the advice so far.
Nice one, should be cruiser with all that width. . . . when’s the Severn bore happening next, and can you go further on it with a bigger board or is the wave blocked by a pub or something ? Just wondering
>Glassed with 2x 4oz railbands, 2x6oz on the bottom, 3x 6oz on the top with a 4oz deck patch.
Thassalotta glass… must be one heavy bugga… how many stone be you?
Fin setup is planned as 2+1, FCS 512’s on the side, 8" cutaway in centre for bore setup with option to go 10" single for sea
Thassalotta fins for a knee-high bore. More fins won’t make a board that large (and with that much glass) turn any better. It will still be governed by its mass, and you gotta lotta that.
Tom, The next bore, depending on waterlevels , wind and tides should be at the end of this month, then end of February/beginning of March we should have a 4 star bore, with the same at the spring equinox at the beginning of April.
My 10"8’ “flag” is pretty good on the bore, but not good enough to hold on the wave when it eases off a bit into deeper water, tends to drop off.I have managed the Overbridge to Maisemore weir (furthest point upstream you ca go) stretch easily but not the lower section at WHI to Garden Cliff. Bruce Jones theory of volume/board size/ surfer weight is really relevant in fresh water. I have flattened the rocker slightly from 48"N through to 36" T to try and get as big a planing zone as possible, so I hope that this board won’t drop off in quite the same way. We shall see…
Best site for bore times is www.severn-bore.co.uk while www.boreriders.com is the site run by Donny and Tom Wright who have just released a fantastic film called Longwave, dedicated to bore surfing and which has some amazing footage, including the world record footage on the Amazon. See Silversurfer hacked a picture from them… :o)
Charlie, Haven’t weighed it yet, but no this won’t be a featherweight board. Going on all the advice to be found in the archives and here about building tandem boards (and there’s not too much) one thing that stands out is build them strong. Steve from Infinity Surf was also of the same opinion and they specialise in tandems.
My 10’8" only has 2x6oz on the deck and within a year it was cracked and dinged to hell. It should have had 3x6oz. This new board will have to be able to carry my weight of 110kgs, as well as my partner, 65kgs, so thats some all up weight.
Rail bands are there because the width at 26.5 inches and the thickness of the board combined with the size of cloth I had available (31.5") meant that the lap width from was very poor from 48N to 48T, just where max sheer forces would be exerted at max weight. Also from experience on the bore, as well as from other bore surfers, you always have to contend with debris on rivers, barrels, fridges,gas bottles, not to mention KAYAKERS! So having some reinforcing along the rails should provide a bit of protection.
Well here she is, glassed and just about ready to head to the water… This is my first all on my own, not perfect by any means, but I think it’s going to glide fairly well. Will try and get a rocker shot and some measurements up for anyone else out there who is mad enough to build one of these aircraft carriers. Be prepared to walk miles if you are hand shaping it, like I did, not with electric planers etc!
Carvenalu… I look forward to getting my paddle… your pictures inspire!
I hope these shots show some of the aspects of building a board this size, it ain’t easy… The original blank was a 12’8" Clarke modern tandem… has the increased nose flip. Can’t wait to get her in the water this week. All I need now is my paddle…! Hope these shots help anyone else contemplating building something this size, whether a paddle board or Tandem. Thanks to those who have helped me by sharing their knowledge, stoked that I have managed to finish is without any major disasters!!!
I am really happy with the performance of this board, it is soooooo easy to paddle, glides like a demon.
In the sea, when paddling out the added nose flip lifts the board up beautifully when going through white water, because of the bouyancy it paddles really quickly so you can get out through the sets with ease, especially where there is a rip. When caught inside by a cleanup set, I roll inverted and the white water going over the nose pushes the board down so you submarine under it without having your arms ripped off whilst holding onto the rails. I surfed one day when the outer clean-up sets where well overhead and found it so much easier to hook into these big waves, the board just did not pearl at all, it allowed me to get up much quicker and thereby get control quickly, drop down the wave and get into some really nice bottom turns which I have never been able to do properly with my old 10.8 ‘Flag’. Because the board is heavy, it has momentum big style and I found it easier to connect through sections, thereby getting much longer rides. It is also surprisingly nimble and agile, which has really pleased me as I worried it might be like a supertanker and not turn at all! It is interesting to note that Austin’s board has similar outline and rocker and thicknesses to mine which he shaped more recently.
On the Bore, this board glides like crazy. If you check the pics on the HIX SUP HWS thread, or on my site, you will see how low down on the wave it glides and rides. Very stable when the bore is ripping along(4*) and graceful manoevers are possible, although because of it’s length and weight I tend to not do too many if others are riding close by as you don’t want to wipe others out. The bigger the wave, the better it is generally. I too like you have tinkered with fins and found that I need a much bigger fin on the bore, well back, to give directional control as unlike a sea wave where you travel across the wave, on the bore wave you are going straight and when the wave slows down in deeper water, the back end can get pushed sideways a bit. The 10" performer I have works well, but am going to make a special fin for this river as in places it is only inches deep going over sandbars, something with a broad chord base and a semi squirrel tip.
So far haven’t needed my paddle as have found I can paddle just as fast using hands. The only downside is when you have to carry this mother back to the car at low tide, or after a couple of miles on the bore…or trying to climb up a 16 ft bank !! Very tiring!
