Toby asked me to post some pictures of my new twintip board build with a cedar strip top surface and a mahogony door skin bottom. I owe Nop at stuntkites.nl full credit for both the idea and the design. I have always wanted to build a stripper kayak, but the project always seemed too large and expensive. The kiteboard was cheap! Sorry the pictures are so large...
<img src="http://members.core.com/~flyboy/brd2.JPG">
This is the board; the top consists of alternating strips of wood from the darkest and the lightest colored cedar boards I could find in the lumberyard stack. I got the Gooch bindings from Ebay for $50 new.
<img src="http://members.core.com/~flyboy/brd3.JPG">
Here is the bottom of the board; you can see where the cardboard spacers in the door were glued in a diamond pattern. I thought I sanded enough off to get rid of this, but after glassing, it became visible again.
<img src="http://members.core.com/~flyboy/brd4.JPG">
I even made the fins from ply; they are laminated from 2 layers of 1/4 aircraft ply with a couple layers of 6 oz glass between to give the sharp outline some strength. The layers look great after shaping with the 'isobars'.
<img src="http://members.core.com/~flyboy/brd6.JPG">
It sails real nice; it's my first bidirectional board and I like not having to gybe the Mutant. It still feels a little skaty but that's just practice sailing on the edge.
Scott