I really want to start building but I have 0 cash, I guess I need to spend some more time on the plans, but I think I'll go with a little longer 8' or so boat.

okay, will do. currently I'm working on test corrections for my honors bio class, I have to write 6 pages by tuesday, and it is just a blast.

One more thing...try and get your bum into a couple of boats which may be a little difficult with your size. SurferDave down at Westport http://www.surferdave.net/index.html runs a couple of demo Mega kayaks. OlallaDave is a big fella on the peninsula who has a  Megatron and if you can get hold of a fellow called Rob Casey, he has a Dick Wold Bigmachine.

Getting the foam out of the Gecko <http://www.ptone.com/Kayak/surfboat/building/> boat was done using a drill with a wire brush. While that is faster than using the spoon on my Swiss Army knock-off, it still seems like a lot of work. Also, I'd have to shape a new blank and go through the hollowing out process again for each additional boat.

I don't need to make a bunch of boats, but I have a bunch of friends who would likely be interested to get into WW if the cost of entry were lower.

So, I'm interested to hear whether anyone has had luck, or thinks I might have some, buy first shaping a boat and putting on a single ply of glass and calling this my mold. Then spraying it with PVA (mold release) and making two "halves" (top and bottom) of a new boat, one at a time,  on the mold and joining them after they are both fully cured.

I see that I would have some potential for weakness along the seam, which would be around the widest part of the top of the boat, but I think this could be mitigated by just doing a few plies for each half, then some strong seam tape, inside and out,  and the rest of the external plies on top of that.

I'm actually thinking of a whitewater design and depending on the design, even half a boat may be hard to get off the mold, but I think I can design around that and even if I had to cut parts of the first two plies to get it off, those parts could be reinforced before putting on the remaining plies.

I'd use Jackson's outfitting on top of some closed cell foam build-ups for the seat and feet.

Anything I'm missing?


Thx,

D

Kiwi,

The graphpaper suggestion above is right on the mark. Once you have a design worked out the way you want I think scanning it and projecting it from your computer onto your foam block may be the easiest way to transfer it. Your school surely has some projectors you could get access to.

I'm thinking of starting with one of these two designs and may just do my first mold with no modifications other than a couple to make the mold easier to release. The pages have good top-down, front, back and side views that I can project onto each side of my block and trace out in magic marker. Of course, I couldn't sell any boats made with Fluid's designs, but that isn't really a goal anyhow.
http://www.fluidkayaks.co.za/Whitewater_M-Nemesis.htm
http://www.fluidkayaks.co.za/Whitewater_Element.htm

I'm leaning toward the Nemesis - has anyone paddled one?

Thx,

D

I was thinking that I could completely seal off the stern and not use float bags, but I'd miss being able stuff things back there and that led me to thinking of a hatch, but I'd want it water tight and easy to open and close with one hand.

Any ideas?

D

One caveat with using a single layer as yer mould is that fiberglass distorts slightly as it cures. If you are planning on making a mould I would use more than one layer.

One more thing:

Kiwi

You certainly can build a boat without fins but why not give yourself the option. Putting in finboxes really is pretty easy  and you will be surprised at the difference they make especially in down the line drive and a s a pivot point when turning.

well, after all of that, it turns out doing your cp as a sophomore is against the rules.

I know this is an old thread but a quick thought for anyone looking. What if you took your foam blank and cut it into sections then put it back together with short dowels so that you can disassemble it to pull it out in pieces after the glass cures. It would definatly be alot of work but might make it so that you can use it multiple times.

Any thoughts?

Also, besides home depot is there anywhere to get large blocks of foam around here? and is there a better type of foam to use? I'm guessing the less porous the better.