Hi all. Been on sways for 3 years & been building for around 4. backyard guy but have built for friends and family, lots of ding repairs. I have started a number of threads, but feel i have gained so much more than i’ve gave (understatement!) Some background about me, 38 years old 5’8" 195lb’s good fitness, former RMC, been surfing for 23 years, but 2 shoulder surgery’s, left knee & i’m coming back from hip surgery 12 weeks ago. I’m like an old pro wrestler, everything’s broken! So i wanted a tanker for smaller days & getting back to surfing after 3 months off, i wanted a bigger board, but not an LB, don’t like that long of a board. my biggest board is 7’8" x 21" so i decided on 7’ 10" x 22 1/2"x 2 5/8" as i used e.p.s, some leftover 8’x4’ sheets from a friend. This will be board #29
I cut out rocker slices & glued with pva glue, i used sash clamps and an assortment of rachet straps, cling etc. The end result had my 2 daughters killing themselves laughing at poor old dad. Ok i messed it up, wonky stringers are us! Prob wont be the last time either. I then used my straight edge to get a centre line & dotted my nose WP and tail measurements & drew my outline with a flexible 10ft piece of hazel. cut out with japanese pull saw.
I made up a degassing chamber/reservoir for my vac and wanted to use some Eucalyptus skins for this, also never attempted wooden rails before, i should have used two 7mm thick planks insted of a single one for each rail though as the rails are not as sharp as i wanted them, lesson for next time! I really should do more homework, would save time & money but i prefer to learn as i go & lots of the old threads are now lacking pics. My Grandpa was a boat builder for 54 years and used larch planks on oak beams for building netting cobbles, the family still have his shed & there’s still plenty timber in there so i got some larch planks & glued them up again using pva glue with some 5min epoxy at the nose & tail.
I then started taking down the larch rails level with the deck, flipped it over and took down the rails level with bottom. Next step was adding in the tail & nose blocks, some nigerian walnut & more larch in tail. all larch in nose, i cut from the nose end back around 9" making a vee & real pointy nose replacing the cut away foam with short larch planks. Surprised how light the blank is at this point. I then got on with cutting out the shape of my nose again & taking it down with my polisher with hoop loop connector pad & 40 grit to begin with & planer from then on to get the majority of shaping process finished, flat entry to belly to flat to vee to flat out tail. Slight concave to deck, 50/50 rails in nose getting progressively lower through to sharp down in last 10"
I went with 2mm assorted skins for deck, put on over foam and tape & cut them together, i then cut them out to just wider than the rails with 4oz under plus 4oz deck patch & eucalyptus 2mm 8" x 8’ sheets on bottom 4oz under to edge of rail. i pulled 12 p.s.i in the vac on the deck but had to leave it running while i wasn’t there & came back to a bag with no vacuum.(another rookie move) The through bag connector had become clogged with epoxy at the open ball valve, so there’s a few imperfections and edges needed re glueing after fairing the skins back to the edge where foam & wood rails meet. i pulled the same vac for the bottom skins and it came out the bag looking nice. After fairing everything back tidying up rails i glassed the rails only with some 4oz 100mm glass tape, I then glassed the bottom with a layer of 4oz cutlapped. Planning on making a nice single fin for her. This is as far as it’s got as the fishing season has started on the river Spey & i’m back tae the auld clothes & porrige. Hoping to finish this soon & will update when done. Not telling anyone this is the way to do it, but it’s the way i did it. Happy to take any criticism/advice and apologies for rushing through this. late nights & early mornings!
Smile at strangers, show loved one’s their loved & use the force…
