I need to fabricate a set of boards for my h17. (trying to save on new ones for other goodies). I have a damaged one as a pattern and was thinking of approching this in one of two ways. I would shape the new one from plywood and glass it or make a plaster mold of each half, lay them up, and then bond them together. If anyone has made their own boards or rudders and has any advice or ideas I would greatly appreciate it.



Thanks!!

ive made a few blades, your idea to make them of glassed ply should work. i usually use layers of marine ply epoxied together to get the right thickness. i suggest trying to find used ones on the net first, try classifieds at catsail.com or sailingproshop.com. fabricating your own may cost as much as buying used ones unless you happen to have some extra epoxy and suitable ply on hand. i made a decent centerboard for an albacore daysailor from 2 layers of 1/2" 5 ply wood glassed with epoxy that has lasted over 3 years so far- gluing, carving and glassing several foil sectioned boards could be a lot of work. good luck, hope you get your boat going soon!

If you want to make really strong light boards it's not too hard to make them out of uni carbon and foam.



I've made wooden blades before. You can make them from ply but ply does not like the rolling stresses experienced so you need to make sure the outer layers of glass take the load.



I've found making from foam and carbon much easier and if made the way I did, gives a very true board.

I personally consider the carbon boards a much better investment of my time than making from timber.



I have photos on my web site that show how it is done.

I used a vacuum pump however you may be able to get away without one. It cost me around $75 Aus per board and they are very very light and incredibley strong.



Regards,

Phill

Might be low tech, but I used to shape some nice boards and rudders out of a thing called wood. A nice piece of staight grained mahogany will produce a great blade that is good to look at and a piece of art....unlike glass.

I new a chap that made them from maple and just coated them in house enamel. They worked great on smaller boats.

I attached a pic of my wood boat with cedar blades I made for it. (Just click on "attachment" above pic on left)

hey phill nice boat! what is it, did you build it, do you have more pics?

Click on Phill's name above you will find a link to his site. Lots of great info.

Marsh Hawk-

Phill's probably asleep right now- I'm sure he'll respond and give you his web site address with LOTS of great photos of his Taipan 4.9 and Paper Tiger wooden ("timber" in Aus) boat building experiences- There's even a photo or two of my timber "A" cat :-)



Kirt

Marsh Hawk,

Thanks.



As mentioned by Kirt, he has kindly allowed me to post some pics of his timber A class, a great looking craft and a fine example of a timber A.



The boat in the pic above (T 4.9), I built back in 97. I've built another T4.9 since and a Paper Tiger for my son. I'm also building yet another T4.9 right now and will build another Paper Tiger straight after. I plan on videoing the building of the Paper Tiger in the hope of getting local school kids to do some building. There are pics of other things on my site like making carbon boards,carbon rudder stocks, A cedar strip 32ft cat plus a few other bits and pieces.



In addition to my work, Dennis Palin has also kindly allowed me to post some building pics of his beautiful Cat 1 18sq.



As mentioned if you click on my name you will see my homepage URL.

www.geocities.com/phillbrander