Redoing the ribs.

After seeing several mini's with spooned out noses, I thought, that's a good idea.  I tore out the old ribs and put in some new ones.  I also added a rib in the tail section. 

decking

I've been adding bracing and blocking to the nose and tail sections.  Next time, I'll add a few more ribs.

 

havin' fun with rail strips

I finished up the rail strips. 

Bones and Bottom

I finished the all cedar bottom panel and set-up the bones.  The spar, ribs and bottom stringers have been glued.  The mold is complete and the chines been added.  The nose is going to be a more like a boogie board.  It's good to get this one lofted.

mini simmons bones

I got my spar, ribs, nose and tail pieces cut out.  The ribs are spaced 8" apart.  It feels light.  Next I'm making my bottom panel.

Got plans

I just finished drawing the plans for my mini simmons.  It's 5' 6", 22" wide, about 3" thick.  The tail is very wide and it'll have 7" fish keels for fins.  Rails will start soft and become harder toward the tail.  It's going to be mostly cedar except for the rails.  I'll probably do those out of spruce.  The vent plug and leash plug will be in the tail.

I'm excited about it because it'll be good for the waves here and it doesn't require a lot of materials.   I figure it's a prototype so, we'll see how it goes.  I hope I can keep the weight down so it's fun to surf.

Might have this one.

Since my last post I've been surfing.  I tried out my new to me surfboard.  It worked well and I was reminded how much more I have to paddle on a shorter board.  The good thing was catching waves goes a lot better when there is more rocker in the board.  The board went exactly where it was pointed and it didn't have any weird tracking.

I was talking to some surf friends about their mini simmons.  Lots of guys are riding these things and I was asked to modify my Keiki board bones to make it a mini.  Basically, I'd be making the nose hips and tail wider.  It'd be any easy project and might be fun.  I think that's the direction I'm headed in now.