Well I’ve decided to go for it and have started a build. I opted to reshape a board instead of starting from scratch since I picked up a damaged board for some beer
The board is going to be used for kitting, so volume/thickness isn’t as much of a concern. I was originally going to semi-mimic a slingshot arcane but there wasn’t enough meat in the donor board, nor did I want to tackle glassing aroud the wings or tail, so I opted for something simpler.
The board will be getitng footstrap inserts, and I’ve got a quad set of probox fins en route. I haven’t full decided on the the bottom contours, but whatever I do will be fairly subtle, as I want something that gets up planing easy.
Here’s the desing I’ve come up with,
And the victim: A 6’1 Fineline with scattered damage (was suprised at how good of shape the foam was in once the glass was stripped)
This is a slow work in progress, as I have alot going on, but I would like to get it done within the next couple weeks (providing the finboxes and threaded inserts get here in that time frame)
Outline roughed out (cut well outside the lines, going to square up all the edges and get a good starting point with a block and some 50 grit)
What sort of rail layout would be the most effective for kiting/upwind? I’m thinking I’d want harder rails carried further forward, but how much is too much (and too far)?
Being that it is a wind driven board the location will be different than for a regular surfboard. Your question is not so simple as your bottom contours & fin configuration will also affect performance.I’m also shaping a kiteboard currently, but mine will be a thruster set-up with future fins. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet had an opportunity to try a quad fin set-up so I can’t give you a known location for the hardrail. For my current board, my hard rail will go from the tail to around the front of the thrusters.
The person that you need to speak with is Kiterider. He is very knowledgable and has been giving me advice on my current board. Try & get in touch with him if possible.
Any board over 1.5" thick, use soft rails to hold, not hard. Look at all the current surf/kite boards. Conventional surfboard rails, a little softer at the tail than for surfboards. You want water wrapping around the tail edges for holding power.
Thinner board can be harder railed, as it's lower to the water and can stay banked over much easier. Current trend seems to be square with both edges, maybe 3/16 thick.
I don’t have much access to kite specific boards locally, so I’m kind of flying blind aside from what I can find online.
I guess my edit didn’t take. For bottom contours I’m planning on a quite light double concave. For the fin configuration I cant remember what method it’s called, but the rear fins tighter in behind the front, little or no toe-in.
Well I did a whole lot of sanding today. Apparently my block plane isn’t sharp enough to cut foam (it was my great grandfathers, and my grandfather was the last person to sharpen it :p)
Narrowed the board up a bit (its around 18.5ish wide now) also thinned the board out more (its about 1.6" thick).
Here’s what I’ve ended up with after 4 or 5 hours (was interrupted a few times)
I learned a few things today:
Symmetry is a pain. I’ve gained so much more respect for you guys who can shape a board thats symmetrical than i had before.
If you’re planning on taking off a lot of material a sharp block plane would be very helpful.
If you don’t have a large block plane, taking a blank down from 2.5"
thick down to 1.5" thick with 60 grit sandpaper takes a while, and makes
a lot of dust.
^I was gonna get a new hand plane (or sharpen the current one) but everything was closed yesterday and I would like to get the board done ASAP (every day it sits in the garage is another days worth of dings or potential breakage from the family I need to contend with)
All the ocean rodeo, slingshot, f-one and cabrinha boards I looked at were in the 18.5 ish range, but they were all also ~4-8 inches longer, so i figured the fuller frame should kinda-sorta balance out, if not, oh well, its a good learning experience
Got her glassed after a little whoopsie daisy grabbing the wrong (stale) bottle of catalyst after doing a test batch with the correct bottle.
The reisn here is still wet/levelling.
Went with Probox fins, SUPER easy to install (once you decide on where you’re fitting the fins).
Big thanks to Mitch @ probox hawaii, he was a big help in giving me some ideas for reinforcing the install so that it will (hopefully) be bulllet proof (due to the extra forces involved with kiting). I have some more pics on my phone I’ll post later on showing the ricepaper inlay and finbox install!
All Done! The board weighs just shy of 9lbs fully dressed (including deck pads & fins) thats with 14oz bottom, and 18oz top for glass. For reference my Ocean Rodeo 132 Zen is a touch over 8.5lbs fully dressed
