May of ’05…
In the far North, in the rain. on a private island off of the West Coast of Vancouver Island…
A 45’ old growth Sitka Spruce log is first cut in the process of creating two 6”x16” beams for boat ramp repairs…
Each pass takes a half hour…
These trees are special, not sacrificed just ‘cause it’s easy…
They’re taken out of need…Dan needed some 43’ers…
That’s not something you can just order at a lumberyard, even if there was one…
Boat or floatplane access only…
In the thirty or so years he’s lived there it’s one of the few trees he’s taken down…
I was able to salvage an off-cut from this milling process and bring it home for use in a hollow surfboard…
Good resource management…
The frame is now done…
The stinger is clear Cedar with a couple Basswood reinforcements sandwiched to the outside…
The cross ribs are simply 1/8” plywood…
I added some balsa reinforcements on the cross ribs on the deck side and along the inner rails…
The balsa will help spread out the deck load with a minimal weight increase…
Note there are no balsa reinforcements on the bottom ribs…
The frame weights only 2.5#…!!!..
On this board, I’m trying to retain strength, yet have this board be lighter than previous ones I’ve made in this size range…
A board for travel and hiking in with…
The bottom deck skin is laminated with epoxy resin and 0.5 oz. fiberglass…
Not a misprint, 0.5oz…
Like woven spider webs…Hard to work with…
The slightest breeze had it all over the place…
My theory on doing the deck and bottoms this way is that the epoxy resin seeps between the 1/8” wood strips and unifies them as one…
The cloth merely holds it all together, better…
These woods, Sitka Spruce, Yellow and Red Cedars are some of the highest strength to weight woods available…
Thin and strong…
!
