Lot’s of hws lately. I think Paul Jensen, Grain and others have inspired a bunch of us who hang out here. Here’s my entry in the hws category, still under construction:
Redwood and cedar hollow wood board built using the strip canoe building method.
9’-0", 4" nose rocker, 3.5" tail rocker, rounded pintail noserider.
Male mold for framing only; final construction will have only a center stringer without cross frames.
1/4" thick strips, varying width.
Will be glassed on both outside and inside surfaces.
I finished stripping the frame and rough sanded the deck and hull. The moment of truth arrived when I pulled all the staples and attempted to pull the deck and hull from the frame. They popped off like champagne corks - wheewww. The shells held their form and are actually quite rigid with wood glue alone. The next step is to start glassing and attaching the accessories.
Progress pics:
Side view, unsanded (nose and tail blocks to be added later)
You are too kind. I was heading to Fiberglass Hawaii Santa Cruz next weekend to pick up some 4 oz and epoxy. Thanks for the offer though.
Yeah, was planning on glassing the inside first, then attaching the center stringer (deck side only), followed by the fin box and vent reinforcings, before bonding the shells together. I will need your help in picking out a fin though. It’s a shallow rocker, noserider - what fin should I go with???
With low rocker, something like a 9.5’ Miss Lucy would be fun, sort of depends on how heavy it comes out. If its really heavy & flat and pretty parallel too, you’ll need something loose & turnable like the Velzy Classic.
I don’t know, though… I think I hear it crying out for a glassed on D-fin.
Can I come see it before you put the 2 halves together? I’m curious about the stringer & what’s right inside the rails…PM or call if you get a chance.
I don’t know, though… I think I hear it crying out for a glassed on D-fin.
Can I come see it before you put the 2 halves together? I’m curious about the stringer & what’s right inside the rails…PM or call if you get a chance.
B
Benny - I’m an amateur. I’d screw up any glass on D-fin :). The rails are made up of 3/8" wide bead and coved strips, following the template sections. The narrow strips and bead and coved make them able to follow the radii of the sections. So, there is nothing on the inside of the rails, except the 4oz S-2 I will laminate on the inside right before I bond the clamshells together. That was one consideration to keep the board light - I figured it was about an additional 5 to 7 pounds for laminated solid rails.
Here’s a photo of the rails before final sanding:
Sure, come by and visit me. I’m out this weekend but will PM you when I get back.
My pitiful attempt at building a wood stripper came to a horrible ending when my girlfriend’s dog, Boz, had an anxiety attack, pulled the ready to glass canoe off the stands and shredded it beyond recognition. I named the project “Broken Dreams” - it made it to the Wooden Boat Magazine project page online.
Man that looks fantastic, please post some more pics of the build, and especially the rails being done if you have any. Utterly lovely work. The nose and tail blocks look the business.
I’ve been taking pictures as I build and don’t really have anything more revealing on the rails except what you see there. The rails are basically 3/8" bead and grove strips that are glued together and stapled onto a male mold. You can see some of the stripping work in the photos at the beginning of the thread. The trick is to keep the strips tightly bound together before stapling to the mold. That keeps the shape of the board intact.
After the deck and hull stripping is complete, the staples are removed and the two shells are separated from the mold. The shells are then glassed on the inside with 4 oz. glass and epoxy. Following inside glassing, the center stringer is bonded to the deck shell and additional 4 oz. glassing is bonded to the inside deck for reinforcing - the pictures I just added.
Couple of hints I learned:
Use epoxy to bond the two shells together. I used gorilla glue and had the misfortune of the center stringer delaminating from the bottom hull after I released the clamps. I might have used too little gorilla glue at the joint. I think epoxy would have been a better adhesive.
Use lots of cargo straps to clamp the two shells together. The cargo straps (or similar strap clamp) can provide radial forces keeping the vertical and horizontal shape of the shells intact. Where I used regular clamps, the clamping held the vertical shape but tended to squeeze the rails outward so that the bead and cove joint became misaligned. This was not a problem where I used the cargo straps to clamp the shells.
If you have any specific question, feel free to shoot me a PM.
Deck and hull sanded, fin box installation in progress. My stupid router bit was not long enough to cut the fin box slot so I had to chisel the damn slot out with a forstner bit and chisel. So, it’s a little rough along the edges - but sanded out OK.
Close up of the fin box and tail block.
Well, I glassed the board this last weekend and plan to apply filler coats this week. If time allows, I’ll also apply the finishing varnish. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get it in the water by next week.
One concern I had was that the board, after glassing and before filler coats, came out to 27 pounds. I figure by the time the fill coats and varnish go on, I’ll be adding another pound to pound and a half. That will bring the board to 28-1/2 pounds…Yikes. My original plan was for a 23 to 25 pound board.
Lessons learned for the next board: use 2 oz. glass on the inside and drill the hell out of the center stringer. I would have saved 3 pounds or more if I did that. I could have used smaller nose and tail blocks too.
Any suggestions on a fin for this shape and weight would be much appreciated. I got a Greenough 4A 9-inch for this board but looking at it on the board and I’m not sure it would be appropriate.
First, just want to say the board is looking awesome!
Second, I’d say it doesn’t matter that it’s going to be ~28 lbs, heavy boards have their advantages once they’re in the water. The make it easier crashing through waves on the paddle out, smooth ride, nice momentum, and resistance to getting bumped by wind chop.
Third, the Greenough 4a is a nice fin, and might work nicely with this board, especially if you surf through kelp much. They also are pretty stiff, so even if the board and you are >200lbs total you should be fine. If you like that shape, the wingnut sweep by rainbow is similar, and maybe a little stiffer. Or if you want something in keeping with your wood board, make your own fin, or go for something like this fin from True Ames…might look nice.
My concern was that the weight would make it harder to turn. You know, changing momentum for heavier objects would require more force. With the Greenough 4A, there is not that much surface area and it is much more flexible than the fin I use now for my performance longboard (but that is a 2+1 setup). I’m not sure it will generate the turning force required to move the board at speed. I was thinking maybe a Model T or a Nuuwiha lightweight might work better.
What the heck, I’ll try and let ya know. That True Ames is pretty cool though =) Would be a nice match to the wood stripes on the deck.
Great looking board, and neat to see a different method of going hollow. I’m anxious to hear how it rides. I think that in the end, the only time you’ll regret the weight is when you are carrying it to the beach. Once it’s floating you will enjoy a bit of extra mass.
I started at the beginning of the thread and saw your internal framework and thought “$h*t, that’s going to be real heavy” so to find out that wasn’t going to stay there was a huge relief.
Keep up the great work, fantastic to see different construction of HWS practice makes perfect…
And as PJ once said to me, “Never point out your mistakes, it’ll just make people think you’re a perfectionist”
OK - finally done. I can’t seem to get that high gloss showroom finish, but it’s OK to me.
Final weight: 28 lbs. A bit heavier than I had hoped, but it paddles fine. Unfortunately, there is a leak in it that I have to track down. I have some good ideas where I screwed up and will get on it soon.
“It looks like you might have one of CJ’s fins off of ebay / SanJuanico” - Naw, I don’t sponsor terrorist activities, even if they are directed at pampered, misbehaving, surf pros…
“I bet you’ve learned a lot on this project.” - Yeah, I sure did. It’s a lot harder to build one of these hollow wood boards than it looks. You can’t just grab a block of foam and hack away. There’s a lot of planning, adjustments during construction, and finishing work that you would not do for a foam board. Here’s a brief list of things I learned:
The interior can be glassed with lighter (say 2 oz.) instead of 4 oz. cloth. This just added unnecessary weight to the board - should have taken up Benny’s offer to use his 2 oz. cloth.
Don’t get too fancy with the details. I tried to incorporate the leash loop, vent hole, and fin box all within a 6 inch location. I bet that is the source of my leak. I would separate these details in the next board so that there is less chance to create a source for leaks.
The center stringer is really not needed. I have a plan to build the next one completely hollow - can’t reveal the trick yet until I try it out. But, the structural calculations show your strength is in the skin not the internal framing. The hard part is to build it so that it can be assembled easily without any supporting frame. Without internal framing, the weight will go down too.
Great looking board, with nice details and finish. It’s cool to see yet another interpretation of the HWS out there. As far as fins go, ride what you’ve got, then make the refinements yourself. Lots of great info on fin building from the experts are found in this forum, so even a rank amateur like me can get a decent result. Here’s a link with a few photos of my fin project, before laminating:
