Trayson's DIY "Supra Surf System" (SSS) modeled after the NSS

[trayson]

Here's a pic of the inside of my trunk from when I re-did my rudder packing. The stern is at the bottom of this pic.


So, I went to my local TAP plastics and bought 6 pieces of 13x17" HDPE in 1/2" thickness. Turns out that I could have gotten away with 1 piece less as I was able to make my bottom baseplate for both Port and Starboard out of a single piece. But it's better to have too much than not enough. All the HDPE was a total of $78. I played around with taping up a template on the HDPE the other night...



Then I made a run to my local industrial bolt supply company. I chose to go with 1/4-20 bolts because it's such a common thread pattern. I mapped out where I'd have all my bolts and holes. My plan was to have the bolts for the posts going through all of the hull, baseplate(s), and blade. I would have a thin nut on top of the baseplates and then have the remainder of the bolt go through the blade with a nylock nut on top. That way the blade would actually be sliding on the bolts of the posts (or maybe washers) instead of having the whole of the blade sliding on the whole of the upper baseplate. I figure less friction and a small gap would work well.

After my first run to the bolt store, I was into hardware $20. I made another run to a local ACE hardware store and got my wing knobs. ($5). I got some plastic handles that you'd use on a kitchen cabinet or drawer for $5 from Home Depot. I also got a tube of 3m 4200 fast cure from West marine ($15)


Last night I made yet another cardboard template for the lower baseplate (that covered the white). I also drilled all of my holes for the starboard side (Regular wave is more important to me so it made sense to start with the blade that would affect goofy and learn from that to make any slight improvements to the Port side). I had my wife hold the smaller lower baseplate to the hull and I drilled the holes in the baseplate from the inside of the boat out using the holes in the hull as my pilot holes. Sadly, I knicked my wife's finger with the drillbit when I THOUGHT I was drilling out one hole and turned out to be drilling out another that her hand was covering! A little blood, but she wasn't hurt.

So, by the end of last night I had all the holes drilled in both baseplates. I then took all my bolts and verified that I had my lengths right. Turns out that almost universally I needed longer bolts because I was going through thicker stuff on the hull than anticipated. So I got down all the actual bolt sizes I needed and went back to Vancouver Bolt and got more hardware. (another $15 in hardware for longer bolts, even more washers, and a few bolts I missed getting the first trip.)

By this time is was getting really late and I'd imagine my neighbors already hate me for my late night boat projects involving drills and impact guns and the like that are outside their bedroom window. So that's where I am so far.

Unfortunately tonight's forecast is for showers and I might be doing some of this in the wet. I'd like to get this buttoned up so I can get the 24 hours of fast cure with the 4200 and not miss any boating time this weekend. It's possible, we'll have to see!