Mini Simmons experiment

Sister craft. After a year of on and off work I finally finished my two Mini Simmons twin fins. These boards are both 5'3" by 23 and around 2 7/8 thick. The swallow tail with the marine ply skins was made for the Slinn family and the paulownia board with the athwartship planks and redwood bat tail was made for Eric Rindal. Both of these boards are hollow, all wood and have no outer fiberglass reinforcement - just an oiled finish. The swallow has no glass at all due to the strength of the plywood.   It is also a bit heavier and flatter due to the plywood's weight and desire to stay flat rather than bend in two directions. The bat tail is lighter and curvier. The ship lap planking technique proved super functional in forming compound curves but was insanely labor intensive. Each deck  plank was rabbeted with the router and each lap joint was lined up with a curved rib for addition support and joint water tightness. The bottom planks have no ribs but I did put one layer of 4 oz glass on the inside after planking. Both boards are vented with brass plugs and, despite my best joinery efforts, will likely leak a little. I getting closer but still haven't quite cracked the code for the ultimate wood board - lightweight enough where you'd want to ride it, strong without glass and water tight. Here's a full set of photos.

wing pin single!

Here's board number three. This was supposed to be a 6'7 wingpin single but somehow it grew to 6.9". I experimented with no-glass construction by using marine grade ply for the skins and a bunch of corks to strengthen the inside structure. I almost crushed it vac bagging the top skin on and had to perform some speedy repairs as my glue was setting up. In the end I put in three corks per crossbeam. Its a bit heavier but a lot stronger. The board turned out nearly as light as a fiberglass equivalent. We'll see if it's strong enough. I hand shaped the cedar fin and glued it directly into the board. Still contemplating what oil to use for finishing and my traction options. Here's a link to few more photos.

Ocean Beach short board

Here's board number two. I used a different construction method for this one in hopes of further bringing down the weight. This board is 6'1, 19 1/2, 2 3/8. It should come in around six pounds after a very light glass job. I used 3mm paulownia ply for the skins rather than resawn planks and I hollowed out the rails. Instead of building the inside first and then warping on the rails, this time, I laminated the rails and fit the inside second. Better but not perfect. Here's a link to a photo set.

Hollow Wood Surfboard

Here's a photo set of my latest project - a hollow Paulownia wood surfboard. Its 5.'9" by 20" wide and 2.25" thick. I took initial lines off of a Hayden Shapes Hypto Crypto but ultimately made some changes to the dimensions (some on purpose and some by mistake!) The board is unique in that I used light weight bent struts to support the deck rather than the typical plywood fishbone approach. I also slipped in a light layer of fiberglass under the deck for additional strength and fiberglass tape on the inside seems of the bottom skin. Both top and bottom skins are 1/4 inch so I would have enough material to shape bottom contours. Once glassed this board should still be relatively light. Check out a full photo set here

Fun in Catalina

The Otter is for sale!

After all of the restoration work and new paint job, I'm putting the Otter up for sale. My boat storage plan fell through and the boat is a little too hard to get on top of the car. So I'm looking for a good home for this sweet little boat. Here are some recent photos of the Otter.

Fairy Housing

Maybe someday I'll get back to boat building with kids, but for now its fairy houses! Six fairies will be sleeping in style tonight. I must say that the re-sawn almond firewood made for good roofing material.