9'9" Noserider

This Noserider was designed in France by Jerremy Farrar, one of the students in the 2009 Guethary Workshop...

(above) Jerremy shaping the rails - 2009 Guethary...

Comboyne Plateau, Australia 2010 Workshop

Half Moon Bay, USA 2010 Workshop


Building a 9.9…Progress Report #1

I have been commissioned to build a board…

While I’m at it I will build one for me too…

This series of progress reports are e-mails I sent to my client…Mr. T…No not that one…

Hi Mr. T…

Well, I’m moving forward with your board…

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(above) I had enough 1/8” poplar plywood on hand to cut the frame parts…As you can see, I use a couple of routers over patterns of the parts…Pretty simple stuff…

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(above) My stock of cedar was low so I went to Home Depot and sorted through hundreds of pieces of “bender board” and found 18 sets of matched western red cedar planks…More than I need right now, but when I see good stuff I stock up…

The cedar will be the darker wood and I placed a couple of orders for some lighter color woods…The basswood I get through my local lumber yard, and it’s supposed to be in on Tuesday…I called a guy in SoCal and ordered some Paulwonia and that should be here next week too…

I also ordered the glass and carbon fiber for the boards (I’m making one for myself too)…The CF came on Friday and the glass should be here mid-next week…

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(above) Back to the frame parts…I fine tuned the ribs with this mini table saw…

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(above) Then I super tune them with that mini plane…It uses an old fashioned double edge razor blade…

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(above) It’s kinda tricky to adjust, but once you dial t in it cuts perfectly…

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(above) Ready for assembly…

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(above) Ribs and stringer…Frame rail is next…

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(above) Frame rails on, nose and tail inserts are next…

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(above) Frames 96% ready…

Progress Report #2

Hi again Mr. T…

I’ve had a busy week work wise…Wanting to have a day in the shop to grind out some significant progress on your board…It all came together on Saturday with all the wood now on hand and a rainy day to keep me from distractions…

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(above) This week I got the Paulwonia I ordered from So. Cal and from my stock pile I pulled out a nice piece of Poplar that I picked up at Home Depot in San Diego when I did the class down there last summer…I ripped all the stuff to be 4” at the widest dimension so I can rip it with my 10” table saw by flipping it over after the first pass…

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(above) Same stuff as above laid flat…Over on the left is one of the frames…

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(above) This is my shop, a two car garage that never hosts cars…

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(above) From the opposite corner…

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(above) And another angle…You get a sense of the space, I’m sure…Well lit and heated…Most of the time I have pre-‘70’s surf DVD’s up loud and on repeat…

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(above) I spent a lot of time on a couple of accent pieces…Right now they are together forming arrows, but later I will rip them and have them as separate accent panels…I made one set for your board and one for mine…On the left is some Redwood I got at the lumber yard I used to work at in Santa Cruz…On the right is Sequoia that came from my father in-laws place up here on the shores of Puget Sound…Same wood as I used in that board I gave him for Christmas…These strips represent about three or four hours of shop time…Planning, cutting, arranging and taping together…In the end the time does not matter, the quality of the board does…

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(above) A closer look before epoxy and glass…These are taped solid on the other side and taped flat to the table…

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(above) 4 oz. glass over the wood

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(above) …And now with epoxy on the glass…I am expecting the stuff on the right to get a lot darker in the next day…

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(above) Looking straight down through the wet-out glass…

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(above) I also cut the Poplar…Insane grain…

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(above) More Poplar…

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(above) Got the fiberglass cloth this week…

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(above) …and the Carbon Fiber…I’ve not used it a lot lately, but since you said you will be using your board in the surf regularly and not just posing it as home decor, I thought I’d go for the best combo of strength and ride quality…

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(above) The other wood that was deliver this week was the Paulwonia…I’ve used it a lot in all of my Australian classes but have had a tough time sourcing it here…I found a guy who gave me a real good price on the wood and delivery…This stuff is nearly the weight of heavy Balsa but so much stronger and is compatible with the other woodswhen it comes time to shape and sand…Balsa is too soft to use with almost any other wood…Hard to get in decent lengths up here too….

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(above) I still have a few pieces of that Sequoia that are long and bookmatched…I might use ‘em, but not sure just yet…

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(above) Finally, I have a heap of some fairly clearcedar…Now I just need to put on my beret and get artsy artsy with the layout and patterns…I have a lot to work with…

 Progress Report # 3

I’ve been busy…

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(above) I decided first which panel would be the deck, then I put the frame on top of it and placed the stringer on the centerline with a dot of hot glue at each rib…

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(above) Starting with things straight is a good thing…

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(above) These boards have a lot of deck roll and bottom vee…This is from the tail looking forward…

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(above) With all that deck and bottom curve, there is a lot of tension in the deck which can break the ribs once the deck is clamped to the frame…So I notch out the stringer a bit, then….

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(above) …add paulwonia strips to the ribs with wood glue…Makes it super strong…

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(above) Now the deck can be clamped to the frame without concern for breaking a rib…

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(above) Next step, glassing the frame to the deck…

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(above) Fiberglass cloth un-woven to create these glass strands…

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(above) I need 42of ‘em…

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(above) After an hour or so of brush and epoxy time, I have the glass at the frame/ deck junctures…Solid…

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(above) A pulled back shot…

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(above) Next, I cut carbon fiber cloth to fit between the ribs…Each space get three pieces…Widths of 2”, 4” and 6”…This gets epoxied too…This creates a stiffer deck than fiberglass alone…

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(above) To get the frame rails in a smooth curve, I clamp a flexible strip of wood to the frame and on the inside where the deck and frame touch, I “spot weld” the frame to the deck with hot glue…

I also added ¼” x ¼” paulwonia strips along both sides of the stringer at the bottom edge… Also the same wood strips go along the bottom rails…It all adds a healthy measure of extra gluing surface for when the bottom gets attached…

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(above) Flipped over, here’s how she looks tonight…I pre-glassed the deck before working it to the frame…

LiProgress Report #4

Progress on the board continues…

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(above) Before I put the bottom skin on, I added some paulwonia strips along the stringer for stiffness and additional gluing surface…

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(above) I also added some stiffness to the rib columns…

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(above) The fin box set-up on these boards involves building a support box inside of the board…On flatter bottom boards, I typically glass the box onto the bottom skin before I put the skin on the frame…But these boards have so much bottom roll that if I did it that way, the bottom skin would be too stiff after the glass set up that there would be cracking and damage done to the skin once the skin is clamped to the frame…So I do it differently here…

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(above) The support box is balsa and gets glassed to the deck skin…

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(above) The black cutout is where the leash cord will go through the deck…There is carbon fiber in there…I also wrap the stress points with carbon fiber…Can’t hurt…

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(above) At the tail I added some balsa to give support to the tail block…

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(above) On the nose, where the vent will go, I pre-drill it from the inside…

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(above) Pretty much ready for closure…I use the best polyurethane adhesives to glue the bottom to the frame…

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(above) Glued, clamped and weighed to insure no loss of rocker…

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(above) Un-clamped and on the lawn for a few pictures…

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(above) Soooooooooo much hidden work…

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(above) Looking good, eh…???...

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(above) Oh, yeah….!!!...

Progress Report #5

As I said last, I got the rails on…

See…

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(above) Start with a plan…

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(above) Tools for the day…

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(above) Cork…

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(above) Plywood…

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(above) Two hours after starting…

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(above) Hour #4: v1

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(above) Hour #4: v2

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(above) Hung to dry…

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(above) Lookin’ as it should…

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(above) Eight hours after starting, spray adhesive clean out…

Progress Report #6

The last report ended with the rail being on the board…From there we move forward…

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(above) Still wrapped up from the day the rails were finished…

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(above) Peel to reveal…

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(above) You remember the fin box insert attached to the frame, well before I put the skin on frame I routered the fin box hole in the skin…Here I am cleaning up the hole so I can install the fin box…

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(above) Nice to have heated shop when its freezing outside…

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(above) Ready to install…

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(above) Saturated carbon fiber…

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(above) Position the box then push down hard…

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(above) Bubble check…

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(above) Now I’m ready to shape…My preferred tools…Left to right: a 10,000 rpm Porter Cable grinder, a solid DeWalt 3x21 variable speed belt sander, and a Black and Decker lightweight 3x21…

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(above) I run the Porter Cable through this speed control box I found at Harbor Freight…10,000 RPMs with a 24 grit 7”disc is wild…Better to tame that tiger down…

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(above) The dust on the floor shows progress…

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(above) On a good day I can get the rails shaped an about 20 minutes…

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(above) What came off…

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(above) Twins…

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(above) Before glassing I pre-coat all exposed wood and cork…I typically thin the epoxy with 25% denatured alcohol for a thinner, faster flow…The DNA evaporates fast and the epoxy sets off just fine…

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(above) Before I put the second coat of glass on the deck, I set the vent in place…I like to countersink it a touch…

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(above) Close enough…

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(above) Same thing with the brass grommet where the leash loop will go…

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(above) That’ll do…

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(above) Getting ready to glass…

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(above) Herb Spitzer turned me on to using vertical window blinds for squeegees…Trim with scissors and round the corners…The ridged blinds offer different flex pressures depending on how you pull them…

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(above) To baste the rail laps I use a brush after it’s been given a haircut…

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(above) Power shears for cutting the glass…

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(above) Ready for resin…

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(above) Skip ahead to after it’s hot coated…

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(above) Getting closer…

 

After all the sanding and polishing was finished, the boards were done…Yeah…Ready to ride…!!!...

9’8” for Marshall

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And then there is the 9’8” for Me…

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That’s all, folks…

 

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