Forums > Windsurfing Gear Reviews

Fat ass quad

Reply
Created by R1DER > 9 months ago, 13 Nov 2014
R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 12:03PM
Thumbs Up

This is kind of a very biased review and I no longer make boards for other people. I've enjoyed watching others post about their board making, so I thought I'd share I wanted to wait until after I tried the board out incase it didnt work but I was blown away by how well it went. I recently made a couple of big wave boards around the 90 litre and 100 litre mark but they were too close together and so I sold the bigger one l'm still getting rave review emails from the buyer a year later. My plan was to make a 110 litre super wide float and ride quad wave board. My concern was the width would limit the rail to rail turn or that I wouldnt be able to get my weight over the centreline to bury the rail I thought about offsetting the mast and straps to make it assymetrical but decided against this. I decided to make it 228 long by 64.5cm wide after I had cut out the plan shape the tail looked too wide to I took 1cm off each side at the tail and blended this into the mid section. I also reduced the thickness of the rails that I would normally shape by 5mm to help them bury into the wave face. The bottom shape is double concaves within a single changing into vee 60cm from the tail and a big flat area inside the concave from under mast track to under the gybe are. As for fin placement there has been lots of discussion on various forums re tow in on quads and thrusters, Im over thrusters with tow in and assym fins been there done that, so 80's. I disagree with the general consensus on quad fin toe in, last year I spent many painstaking hours trying out and testing various fin tow in and canter angles. Greater front fin tow in angles may work well on thrusters but on quads it creates more drag causes the front fins to stall in the turn giving an illusion of a loose board. Yes the fins are towed in on this board but the angle between front and rear are so different from what other international forum experts claim works. How did the board go? Well its a light wind wave board but I had recently finished it and was hanging out to try it out but the winds weren't light, Seabreeze graphs said they were 22 to 27 knts and waves were head high to just over half mast, I only had my 5.3m with me and another 90 litre quad. Before I went out I was thinking I'm going to be way out of control, bouncing around and doubting I would be able to turn it. First run it jumped onto the plane fully powed up, not bouncy at all! Did a huge jump but felt very out control in the air, nose went windward, I wasn't used to all the air the wide board caught, still didnt dial in to jumps properly at the end of the session. On the wave face it was absolute magic, loose, tight turns, rail to rail easily and just extra glide which I think is due to the width, I went out on my smaller quad with parrallel fins and thought the bigger board felt better and loooser on the wave so kept using it for he next 3 hours. I'm super stoked and can't believe such a wide board could sail so well in over powered conditions, cant wait to try it in light crap conditions, also got dragged over the rocks and hit my new fins on another submerged rock. The only negatives I could find was the nose did pearl under a couple of times off the top, maybe technique or the thinner rails I shaped. This board has some sentimental value to it, as Grant's (Bondy) Dad gave me a block of his polystyrene and a roll of glass after he died hang gliding, so I like to think this board has got a bit of Grant in it. I normally glass up with more carbon but wanted to use Grants glass instead. Here's some pics of it being made.

Outline cut bottom shaped
supportive fin box pvc blocks [/
img]

R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 12:04PM
Thumbs Up

R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 12:05PM
Thumbs Up



R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 12:05PM
Thumbs Up

www.seabreeze.com.au/Img/Photos/Other/8974603.jpghttps://www.seabreeze.com.au/Img/Photos/Other/8974607.jpghttps://www.seabreeze.com.au/Img/Photos/Other/8974609.jpghttps://www.seabreeze.com.au/Img/Photos/Other/8974611.jpghttps://www.seabreeze.com.au/Img/Photos/Other/8974613.jpg' />

R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 12:09PM
Thumbs Up

R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 3:18PM
Thumbs Up

I wanted to edit my posts and ad some commentry to the pics but unfortunately seabreeze wont let me

uweh
311 posts
13 Nov 2014 7:20PM
Thumbs Up

thanks for sharing !

R1DER
WA, 1455 posts
13 Nov 2014 9:39PM
Thumbs Up

The first 2 are outline cut and bottom shaped
Next 2 are pvc blocks to support fin boxes
5th pic is 1 layer of 4oz glass which is wet out with 160ml resin(no filler on the blank) Bottom pvc layer then vacuum bagged onto blank while resin sets
pic 6 is after vac bag has finished.
7 is checking the rocker has stayed true.
Pics 8 and 9 are deck getting shaped, a whole also gets routed out for supportive mast track pvc.
10 is pre bending the pvc with a heat gun
11 12 13 is after vac bagging the deck with 1 layer of 4 oz and 8 oz carbon fibre plus about 300ml resin.
14 is tying the pvc fin blocks to the deck with glass covered pvc resined into those holes
15 sometimes everything doesnt get bagged down :-( properly
The next few pics are bogging up any low spots and imperfections with a mix of resin and qcell, also resin impregnated core mat is put on the nose and sail this stuff is super strong if hit.
Pics 21 to 24 are resanding the filler and the blank Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of vac bagging the outer glass and carbon on I was too busy and under the pump
25 is the fin boxes being resined in with a jig to get correct tow and camber angles
27 and 28 is the filler coat which is 200ml of resin 200ml of qcell and white epoxy pigment per side spread on with a squeegee
Next 2 are the sanding of the filler coat I usually start with 80 grade then 120 then 240 then wet n dry 320
Then spray on a pattern, pads, deck grip, straps and fins



Subscribe
Reply

Forums > Windsurfing Gear Reviews


"Fat ass quad" started by R1DER