GB70 course board build

[gbleck]

Waiting for the water to warm up and Zion south unit to open again. Decided to keep my self buisy with a new board. The big black racing twintip points up wind good but the fin gets a bit squirly if I push it hard upwind and it's just not fast enough down wind. Easy to ride but #%(^ that. Suck it up and learn how to tack a directional. I'm shooting a video build blog as I build. If nothing else I can find out if I botched it and how. Hope this provides some inspiration.


So far I'v got the 2# EPS slab rockerd with the hotwire bow, the outline cut and 3/4 of the top rail shaped. I'v got 3 tuttle boxes wraped in 1/4" divinycell and a bunch of 5 hole strap inserts from chinook. Haven't decided if I'm going to wrap them in foam. Going to put a bit of the divinycell on the nose as it will add impact resistance and I borked up that part a bit when I hot wired the rocker in. Layup might be 6, 6 bottom with 6, 6 top and an extra layer of 6 on the deck with two more around the heal areas 4" and 6" past the heal areas. Rounded edges on all the glass patches. Burt Rutan has a fetish for circles for a reason. The first four videos of the build are up on my YouTube chanel.






Finished off the bottom rails. Did them with less emphasis on the paterns and more on making it smooth balanced and flowing. Turned out nice. Gave the board a nice sand with some 180 grit. Light spackle mixed with the denautred ethanol. I mixed it a little thiner than mayo. Leaving it unsanded untill I glass it. Don't want any water or oil contamination. No touching the board without gloves from now on. The finboxes are wrapped in 1/4" H80 Divinycell epoxied with 8 oz coloidal cilica and 6 oz slow resign reasurch epoxy.

[adseguy]

I skimmed through them. Good instruction and sweet setup you got there. I've never been on a race board. hopefully you'll let me give a whirl when I come up to Waukegan one of these days.

[gbleck]

Hell yea. More race board converts the better. Just don't ride the 40 cm fins into anything and it's all good.

[skysurfr]

NO NO NO... I'm not buying a Pannel Van! :-P

I got into this sport because I was sick of toting around a windsurfer!

Twin-Tips forever! (Joking!)

....I'd like to give it a ride....after I fuggure out my little surfboard.

Mike

[gbleck]

With the right car you can in fact transport a 6'3" 70 cm wide board in side. Brian Lake fit one into a little hatch back.

[sailfish]

This is interesting, thanks for sharing! I used to drive to windsurfing sessions years ago with my full size floater board and mast sticking out the back of my geo storm in the manistee michigan area. It must have been a sight to see! One time the lightening was rolling in off the big lake and I threw my stuff in and just barely outran the storm home just avoiding a hatchback full of rain water. Good times!

How does the materials cost compare with the cost of buying a board?
Roughly how much are the specialized tools? Maybe you mentioned it in the videos, but I have trouble with videos on my phone.
I realize its probably not about saving money so much as the fact that it takes it to a whole new level to build and ride a board! I'm just curious about the cost.

[gbleck]

Finished the fin boxes.

[gbleck]

Fin boxes routed with a 2.5 inch cutting length double fluted 1/2 inch bit. For the jig I stapled some 1/4 inch strips of birch to Masonite at a 90 deg angle. Cut into some scratch foam to rout out the Masonite pattern. The bit wasn't quite long enough to go all the way through the board so I drilled a pilot hole through then flipped the board and routed to the edge of the cutout from the top and aligned the jig on those spots. For the side fins that wouldn't work as the top is domed out. I used a hand file to cut out the remaining bit on the tops. I'll update with the finbox install next. The boxes fit nice, tight and square.

[Jimbo]

This one I got to see in action! All that hard work will be worth it when you buzz by everyone at mach 1 speeds!

[FSP]

will you do repairs or possibly make me one when finished?

[gbleck]

After the slots are routed nice and tight. Fit the finboxes dry to check the aligmnet. Set them flush on the bottom then marked the deck side with a pencil. Used my band saw to cut off the top of the boxes. Consistant rail profile with a nice flat contour over the spots the side fins are at so it was easy to just set the bandsaw table to the correct angle and cut. I masked off the deck areas. Mixed the slow RR slow epoxy with the coloidal cilica filler mixed roughly 3oz epoxy and 4 oz cilica. Thin layer on the board and the boxes and slid them into place. Set them flush with the bottom of the board and checked the alligment. The center fin needed a little bit of adjustment. Used little wedges to get it line up just right. Scraped off the extra epoxy and bobs your uncle. It looks like a board now.

[gbleck]

Set the locations on the Chinook 5 whole strap inserts and filled the tops of the tuttle finboxes with eps and divinycell foam. Also have the vent in and the GoPro ready FCS insert in. Put a fixed leash plug in next to it to safty the GoPro and my GPS to. Why use a little adhesive disk when you can use a real leash plug?

[gbleck]

The wait is over!

Sorry for the delay in posting. The board is at this point almost done. Just need to do the final post paint sand and glue the pads on. On the plus side I have started editing the vids for length. The long boring parts are now at supper fast speed.

The next video shows cutting the glass on the bottom. I did two layers of 6 oz glass on the bottom with 6 oz patches around the fins. The deck is two layers of 6 oz e-glass with a full size deck patch and a patch of 6 under the feet at a 45/45 angle. The board is a bit to heavy with this much glass on a 2# eps blank. It will however be hard to break. The next one I build is going to be lighter.

[gbleck]

Glassing the bottom.

[gbleck]

This is the deck glassing stage of the build. At this point I put the full width deck patch and diagonally oriented heal area patches on. Combined with the 2 6oz E glass layers I put on over the hole deck that is 24 oz on the rails and feet. Should hold up to my limited skill at riding and massive skills at crashing. The target for this board is bombproof with a fast and easy build and semi inexpensive. If the shape rides ok I'll make a sandwich bagged carbon version latter.

[gbleck]

Ride shots from Sunday! Building the board was easy. Now the tough part. Riding!

[Dutchkiteboarder]

Looks like an interesting board! How's the jibing on the board?

[gbleck]

It has float and a huge plaining area so it dosn't need as much speed like my old north race LTD 2008 race board. I'll be able to tell you better when I can ride it without boots.