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Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:36 pm
by hairybear
Great looking boards.
Thinking of attempting a board based on yours for light wind conditions here in Australia.
I will probably just varnish mine instead of epoxy.
Looks like u put a slight amount of rocker, most people seem to go with no rocker?
Do you have any diagrams for the design u could share? I don't want to mess around trying to guess measurements.
Pity your not in Aust. as I would as I would definitely buy one of these babies from u. :thumb:
Thanks.

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:33 am
by southflorida
Hi ONE
Nice boards, I may be inspired to make my own next time.

Question
I noticed you have placed the pads off center, that is, heels of pads are closer to the water on the side that is digging into the water as you move along.

I got into an argument with someone about this, and would like to hear your reasoning for placing them closer to the rail.

The argument went something like this - the friend bought a wide light wind board and wanted to maximize his up-wind ability. He noticed he could move the pads up or down, so he decided to move them down (heel closer to rail), similar to your placement. I said 'no, if you want more of your board to dig in and get better up-wind ability, move the pads in the other direction, that is, toes closer to the upper rail'.

My reasoning was that having more board below the heel will dig in more and get you better up-wind ability. His reasoning was opposite - having his body weight lower towards that rail gives him more power to dig that edge of the board in.

We never settled the argument, and haven't had conditions to test both settings.

I'd like to know your reasoning to place them closer to the rail.

PS - I'm new to this forum, so if this has been discussed already, sorry

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:22 am
by Kamikuza
Lovely boards! :thumb:

I think the idea is to make it easier to weight the heelside edge on the wider longer Door setup ...

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:00 am
by edt
hairybear wrote: Looks like u put a slight amount of rocker, most people seem to go with no rocker?
You want a little rocker the reason for it on a light wind board is if you have a completely flat board when you kite while it is perfectly ridable you need to keep the board at more of an angle than usual to prevent porpoising (where the board dives under the water), and this greater angle than usual means you are plowing water out of the way which slows you down.

With a little bit of rocker you can ride the board a lot flatter, and it gives you more speed and works better in light wind.

Now if you put too much rocker in your board that curve plows the water out of the way, and you already know that is inefficient.

Try to build it with 3cm of rocker.

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:14 am
by edt
lawnmower wrote:The argument went something like this - the friend bought a wide light wind board and wanted to maximize his up-wind ability. He noticed he could move the pads up or down, so he decided to move them down (heel closer to rail), similar to your placement. I said 'no, if you want more of your board to dig in and get better up-wind ability, move the pads in the other direction, that is, toes closer to the upper rail'.
dont you want your pads exactly in the center because you'll get best upwind capability with your board as flat as possible without losing your edge? When you dig into the water, the board becomes rinefficient and you waste the power of the kite. With the board riding as flat and slow as possible, all the power in the kite can get converted into upwind speed.

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 12:50 am
by ONE
Lawnmower

Kami is correct, the offset pads makes it a lot easier to edge such a large board. I'm 165lbs and can hold these Doors down in quite high winds, more that I ever thought I could!

Bellow is my latest board, a smaller one for my 13 year old son. Utilizes the same type of construction as the larger Doors, it came out really nice! I let my son do the "graphics" on it!
Will be trying this one out in Hatteras next week!

One

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 12:56 am
by ONE
Another view of my son's new board.
Because this is a "normal" sized board, the pads are located on the centre-line of the board, permitting easy toeside riding as well.

One

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 7:52 am
by Chris1973
Very nice boards :thumb: Love the simplicity.
I'm guessing you didn't make any type of abs rails on them right??? just the wood core with glass overlaping them.

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 12:36 pm
by ONE
Chris

Actually, I wrap a strand of carbon tow around the perimeter of the boards, then glass over them in a bag, works great!
You do have to be more careful with them over a production board that has proper rails, but my first board that I made three years ago is still going strong.

One

Re: Some boards I made

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:43 pm
by daspi
Guys, do you think the glass really helped in any way for the performance of the board? I made my door style board with just spar urethane as finish and it has been working well the last two seasons. What do you feel you gained by adding glass (except adding weight and more durable surface)? Also, if you have an opinion, did you try both and what was the conclusion?Planning on building more plywood boards but not sure if I should bother with glassing them.