[Summer project] cruising SUP for flat mediterranean summer.

[Zourite]

Hi,

Summer’s here, and with it the 2 months flat period… so building a cruising SUP appeared to be a good idea and a way to test new technics as vacuum bagging and EPS/epoxy combo.

I’m not a fan of wave SUP… so the design is supposed to be a mix between “real” cruising SUP and allround SUP.

9’6" - 28" - 4.7" and ~ 150L. The size is limited by the car max load ^^, to 9’6" it is. The wide is not extreme too but it should be steady enough… I hope so. The shell will be 6 oz carbon + 5oz fiberglass bottom, 5 oz glass / 2mm cork / 5 oz glass top.

 

I get the blanks from a local building company who use 1.5 lb/ft3 as casing… way cheaper than online “surf” stores as u can imagine. Just had to glue (nice focus on the photo) the last 16" cause their max length was not enough…

First step: get the outline and the rocker done:

Then took it to the “shaping bay” where it barely fits to shape contours and rails:

Still need a bit of fine sanding so that everything is clean and straight but I’m quite happy with it. Shaping without stringer for reference is rly hard ! especially is the bottom concaves…

 

 

For the paddle, I wanted a wooden one: sexier, easier to build and cheaper. It is mostly build from scrap : cost me 5$ for a pine batten and an oak batten… the rest is bamboo scraps from my parents floor, unidentified redwood from my grandpa, and a stump of Juniper tree (Juniperus oxycedrus) that I picked up in the bush.

Get the bamboo down to 1/5" thick and 1.2" wide, same for oak and pine battens then glued everybody together on a large plank with holds every 5" to get the 10° angle at the end of the shaft. Because I used “regular” white glue, and I had top pull hard to get everything fit the holds, I was not sure it would hold well once dry but well, it worked perfectly fine ! Glued the redwood and bamboo to do the vane:

During the drying period, I made the handle from the Juniper stump:

I know, cones are not perfectly simetrycal but I got it right (or just a bit better) during the handle sanding.

Handplane, a power-sander and after 3-4 hours here’s my little paddle:

 

Here I am so far: nearly finished shape and paddle, found a little fridge pump as a vacuum pump… laminating prep’ is coming soon.

Z.

[jrandy]

Very cool Z!  The juniper knobs on the bent wood paddle are a nice touch. If you make yourself a matching fin then you’ll have the complete hat trick. -J

 

 

[artz]

Make the next flat water paddle board wider. Much easier to do long distance paddles and deal with wind chop.  i Know all the professionals are on skinny boards. I’m not a pro. My current flat water sup is 30" wide My next one will be 32’ now if I were to build a fishing sup it would be about 34 and most likly a Catamaran style board. I have a 10 foot started just need to find a place to finish it.
The paddle looks great.
 

[Zourite]

Hi,

Back with some news about the construction… I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted and did some mistakes so… work was delayed…

Next one (maybe for me ?) I’ll do it wider, 28" or 30"… but this one is for my little wife so I hope it’ll be stable enough !

Here the steps done so far:

Last shape with fine sanding (120 grit) before starting the lam’:

Did the 6 oz carbon + 5 oz glass bottom lam but no pics…

For the top, I originally thought about cork only, then I wanted to try and as some wood work to match the paddle. I used 2 mm sapelli, oak and samba veneer to make a wood doted line (sapelli/samba) and all the three to make a compass. Chose 2mm veneer to match the 2mm cork and make the mix easier…

Vac-bagged the first top lam: 5oz glass + 2 mm cork + the wood veneer:

It came out quite well for a first time… but there was some small bubbles and the glass laps on the bottom side were a bit crumbled… well, a wet-out table would have made the job definitivly easier. I had a really hard time to get all glass wet, much more than with the “regular” 4 or 6 oz I use for surfs…

Here are some pics of the unbagging:

Sanded down the cork edges, the crumbled glass… fixed some bubbles and irregularities but only the major ones. And did the last lam: 5 oz glass over the cork to get the final layer:

Resin pinline to cover the irregulatities and add some color, another mistake I used a bad quality masking tape and get leaks every 3"… Lots of mistakes made so far but, after some carefull sanding I think the pinline is quite OK. Just came back from the shack to untape the rails after the sanding coat:

Hope it’ll cure well during the night to install leash plug and the handle tomorrow. Mayber I’ll have enough time to hotcoat bottom as well…

Z.