Shots from Nauset Beach

Here are a few shots I took of the Waterlog while at Nauset this past Sunday. I really like the amber Takayama fin looks on the board. It's pretty big but the board handles very well with it. I'll just have to be a bit careful at low low tide.

Waterlog Done

The Waterlog is done. Here are a few shots of the finished board. Not shown is the nice 10" Takayama (amber) fin I put in. I took the board out to Nauset on Friday in pretty small conditions and it caught waves like a champ. Very smooth and stable board. Great for typical Nauset beach conditions. I now have two 10' boards so the Gordon & Smith Noserider is up for sale.

Finbox cut

Just finished making a space for the 10" fin box. I placed wood blocking inside the board during the build so that I would have solid wood to place the box. A router would have made short work of this but I don't have one (yet.) The wood was carefully removed by drilling and a sharp chisel. I mixed up a batch of epoxy with wood dust and set the box in. Later, I sanded the box even with the deck.

Epoxy Yuck!

Sorry for the dealy in posting but I've been busy removing a bad batch of epoxy I laid down last week. It was totally my fault as I mixed a batch of epoxy but forgot to mix in hardener. It's a long boring story, but I essentially took a phone call and mixed additional resin instead of hardener. I compounded the mistake by laying down another coat of properly mixed epoxy. The next day I found to my horror partially cured epoxy and I instantly realized my mistake. Fortunately, I was able to remove it with a heat gun, stripper, sharp paint scraper, and sanding. I am purposely not posting a picture to save you all from the horror.

Clamp Down

Sorry its been a while since my last post. Don't worry, progress has been made. The deck has been glued down with 5200, titebond and a ton of clamps. This is a pretty big step and requires planning. I was short on clamps and made a run to my local Job Lot and picked up some nice 6" spring clamps for about $1.75 each. They were important to pull down the edges of the deck thus forming a crown. The deck really gets bent in 2 directions; the rocker from nose to tail, and the crown from rail to rail.

Rail Strips

The Waterlog is off the rocker table and now sits on a couple of saw horses while I build up the rails with long cedar strips running from nose to tail. Each strip has a bead on top and cove on bottom so they stack up like Lego blocks but also allow the stack to follow the rail shape built into the frames. It will take approx 12 rail strips on each side. Each strip requires a ton of clamps and Titebond III glue to hold the contour. The nose section is pretty tough as the strips get really bent.

Waterlog on the table

This is my second hollow wooden surfboard. First one was built using plans bought on eBay. This next board is from Rich Blundell's 10' Waterlog plan. Mike at Grain Surfboards did me a huge favor and sold me just the cedar planks and rail strips I needed. Frame and keel are cut from marine plywood. The clamps are off now the keel to frame glue (3m 5200) is cured. It took 1 week to fully dry as I should have bought the fast cure version.

Next step is lay out the chine strips. They will fit into the small notches of the frames and ultimately define the shape of the board.