While out and about today, i picked this up for 10 bucks. It’s about 4 inches thick, and i think it used to be a windsurfer?. Anyway, i cut it just to fit into my little corolla, and i roughly measured i might get a stubbie or a fish out of it. Got it home and it measures as follows.
6ft 0 inches 3 1/4 inches nose rocker
5ft 15 inches ( Nose width )
4ft 18 1/2 inches
3ft 20 inches
2ft 20 inches
1ft 18 inches
0ft o inches 1 3/8 tail rocker.
Anyway, this thing is asymetrical, and i was wondering ( among about a thousand other things!! ), would it lose much strength if the stringer was offset an inch or so??. I ask because the above measruements were taken off the narrowest side of the stringer. On the other side, it is much wider, and i thought if i could move the centre over, i’d get a bit more width. Anyway, i thought i’d post it here, and get some ideas about what to do with this board. I’m calling it beerfansteins monster
Here’s the “board” stripped!. The “finboxes” you can see along the stringer are glued to the stringer, so, unfortunately they will have to stay, although, the planer cuts them o.k, even with blades that aren’t the sharpest. Cant believe how easy the glass came off!, i just hit the rails with the planer, ran a stanley knife blade under the foam, and then just peeled it off!!, i didn’t even lose too much foam. The thickness at the middle is 3 and 3/4 inches!!, so i think i’ve got plenty of foam so that the holes in the deck will disappear, or at least be minor by the time i get down to thickness, although, as im not used to short boards, and it will only be 19 1/2 inches wide, i’ll probably keep it close to 3 inches thick. Will keep updating
Hi Beerfan! I did a board in a very similar way also from an old sailboard (not asymmetrical though.) I knocked out the boxes with a hammer and screwdriver by giving the box hard blows from underneath. Find the bottom of the box and hammer away, it might work.
The board i worked the box out of was symmetrical and the box was fit in between the two double stringers so it might be different taking out Your box.
After I got the box out I cut a plug of leftover foam glued it in with polyurethane insulation sprayfoam (the brown stuff)
Erik, thanks for the advice. Im not game to do that, as i think they are stuck to the stringer, and its only 1/8 of an inch!!. I dont mind, it means planing them down will take some time, but, hey, who cares, i dont!!. Bizgravy, that’s a sweet idea!, but i dont think im ready for that just yet!!, how would you seperate the foam??, i guess a stanley knife would do it. And what would you use to glue the foam to the balsa??. Anyone in oz know where to get a 6 foot long, 4 inch think, 4 inch wide strip of balsa, and how much would it be worth?? hahaha, ahh the possibilities!. Thanks for the advice guys, keep it coming!
Beerfan 2, fin( mast ) boxes 1.Two of the finboxes ( the ones near the stringer ) planed out!!. Took an hour, and some effort, bit they planed out o.k. Havent measured it but still looks like i have half an inch at least of thickness to play with, so there will be no scars. But, one of the boxes near the tail ripped out, so im gunna have to glue a small section near the tail. Will do a search and see what i can find on glueing foam. Will post pics soon.
I did the same thing with an old assymetrical windsurfer after it was given to me and sat under the house for five years or so. I got bored one afternoon and remembered that it was there… and thought “why not? nothing to lose, if it looks like crap I can always junk it for no loss”
I set it in the shaping rack and ran around the rails with the circular saw at minimum depth, then peeled the well-adhered glass job off. The mast box I dug out with a screwdriver and plenty elbow grease; the fin box, which was set on the side of the stringer, I simply cut off. I ended up at seven foot long, plenty width.
The board had a concave bottom with two fist sized air vents through the deck. These were routed rectangular and patched with some foam I had laying around.
Caution… you probably have no idea what kind of foam is in there. I was relatively lucky in that the foam, all the way through, was quite hard. Obviously not a Clark blank, it has the smell of an old Walker or Pacific blank, if I remember from many many years ago. Point is, your foam may get softer as you clean up the outer layers. A somewhat stronger than ordinary glass job may or may not compensate for this.
Hint: an acid stain glass job will cover a multitude of evils.
Here are some pics. Having some trouble marking the template because the 20 inch widepoint is on the partly shaped rail. Most of the plug holes have planed out and the mast box hole has almost gone. I’'ll probably sand down the bottom, to get rid of the template marks, and get some full length cardboard. I’ll also have to glue a piece down near the tail as you can see.
Putting in a new wider stringer will be the way to go. Just use the hand saw you use for cutting your outline to remove the foam from the old stringer, use the old stringer as your guide. You can brobably find some balsa at your nearest craft store, if not ebay always works. You can glue up a stringer pretty easily with some lam resin and some wood clamps using strips of balsa. Then you can trace out your rocker and foil shape right on the stringer and cut that out and sand it down to your final specs. From here you can glue the foam back to the stringer matching your rocker and foil then plane your foam down to your already shaped stringer. This will be MUCH easier than trying to shape your rocker out of a chunk of foam. Also when gluing the foam back up you can bend it a bit so you can have whatever rocker you want. Re-shaping rocker is not the funnest thing for a novice shaper, but you have a chance at a pretty foolproof method right here.
If you’re not sure of the foam epoxy’s a good idea, better safe than sorry.
Thanks mate, sounds good. I’m definately a novice, so it wont be easy, but i guess as long as i glue everything up fairly close together, i should be o.k. Iim not really trying to change the rocker, just a little more width would be great. Hmmmm, maybe this will be a long term project, instead of a quick cheap board. Thanks to all for the ideas. Swaylocks is the best!
Been a while since i posted. Anyway, here’s a few pics. Glued the piece in using lam resin. Worked o.k, just a bit funny when i sanded it, it’s a bit uneven where the resin is, but it’s not too bad. Finished dims, 6ft. 15 inch nose and tail. Just under 20 inch widepoint at halfway. 2 1/2 thick, with a fairly thick foil all the way through. Rails, are, well rails haha i had to keep them the same as they were, coz i didn’t wanna lose any width.
Ok, an update. The board has been sitting in the shed for ages, i started to think it was too small/not enough volume for me. But now, after seeing some of the “non thruster video clips”, i think bugger it, 15x20x15x 2 1/2, with plenty of meat in the nose and tail, and almost round rails, should be alright. Anyway, should be able to scrap up the cash in the next few weeks for the glass, and i have a fibreglass fin 4’‘x6’’ that is nearly done, and an 8’’ box to go with it, so i’m hoping to have this done by the end of next month ( im on holidays down the coast , and yes, im taking my fish! ). I may try the cutlap method too. i measured the rocker just now, 3’’ nose, and just under 1 1/2 tail. Will be interesting to ride i think.
