Good day all,

I am sharing the latest on the Bullet racing SUP that I designed for Wood Surfboard Supply. I am trying not to be too off-topic with my posts as of late since I'm mostly building wood surfboards, but I feel like this will interest all. It was designed with Ross Leidy's Kayak Foundry and parts of the design elements of the hull are inspired by a baidarka. Note here that I am not saying it looks like a baidarka, but I very much studied baidarka sterns when trying to create a stern that would not allow other racers to draft behind the board. (common practice in SUP racing) I also like the way the stern flattens out on bottom on a baidarka which lends well to this design. It does not have the concave stern piece, but it does have some flatness and rather abrupt end. Again, it is "inspired" by a baidarka in function, but not going to look the same. If you want to know more about the design, read on, if you just came here to see what it looks like, scroll down to the link to a (admittedly crappy) video of the hull.

There's nothing like designing something in 2D and then seeing it in 3D exactly the way you envisioned it. With other SUP designs I use a program with a 3D view so I pretty much already have seen the shape in 3D before I build. With Kayak Foundry you don't have the 3D view, but the hydrostatics were important here and for the stability I wanted to compare to the kayaks I am familiar with even though this is a SUP. I am pushing the limits of stability for this board. It is going to be tippy, but extremely fast.

The deck will have a raised front like a kayak, which will end in a curved portion with vertical strips connecting to a flat aft deck. This is an offshore racer made for long offshore paddles. I wanted the added buoyancy of a raised foredeck for punching waves or when you unexpectedly bury the nose coming down a swell. There is some rocker to the sheer but the keel is very straight. Note in the video which I will link to below, I have shaved off the nose in order to install a solid strip there, so the nose is not yet to final shape. You can see the flat spot where that piece will be glued. I will also whack off about 3" at the nose and glue up a solid block for the nosepiece.

What I am most pleased with so far is the transition from the very pointy bow to the flat aft. If you look at that transition, there is a lot of curvature (hard to explain here) where the bow transitions to the bottom shape. The idea here is this will give the bow some lift when surfing swells. If you see it in person, it almost looks like you took a narrow kayak and put some fat sides on it, and the sides were shaped with lots of rocker to them. Again, hard to explain here. Look at the video. Keep in mind this is a SUP so you need a lot more stability, and it is a challenge to get the right mix of stability and sleek lines.

This will be the first SUP that I know of to use a vee hull all the way front to back. A lot of the consideration here was to prevent that low pressure behind the board so other people can't draft you during a race. I also personally feel that these flat SUP's are not optimum for offshore paddling and even if I sacrifice some stability with the vee shape, I believe the gain will be that waves will tend more to roll under the board rather than to rock the board when hit from the quarter or side. The vee in the center to aft is very shallow, so I don't think it's going to make it too tippy, but definately not going to behave the same as these flat SUP's. Even the racing SUP's are very flat on the bottom.

The hull is made from the Fir that I salvaged from two sailboat masts, and the deck will be paulownia with walnut accents. There may be a bubinga racing stripe. Not decided yet. There will be "USVI" on either side of the bow inlaid in abalone, and likely a VI flag on the deck, as well as the "Bullet" logo that I designed which I intend to inlay in Wenge.

All the above is why we build prototypes, and this is the prototype. I am confident it is going to be very fast and not too tippy, but it is not a beginner board for sure. I am just anxious to get it out on the open water in some good swells. Oh by the way, Brad cut the forms in 1/8" plywood, which is what we usually use for surfboards. I threw a fit and said 1/4" would be thin, but with the building method we use actually it worked with 1/8", although I am recommending 1/4" for the kits. The way we do it is we build a building table that is flat, and we use hot melt glue to glue support "sticks" of scrap wood to hold the forms straight. The strongback is not centered on the forms, but rather it is mounted to the table with drywall screws, and the forms are notched at the top to fit over it. That way when you finish the hull you can just lift it off the strongback (after breaking away the hot-melt glued sticks holding the outer edges of the forms to the table) and start stripping the deck. I traced three of the forms so I could build a cradle to fit the hull for when I flip it over.

Another note of interest, this will be glassed inside and out, but the forms will be left in the aft to support the deck. I believe this could be optional if you put some beams under the deck instead of the whole form. More on that later as I get to that point, as I intend to do a few tests.

Enough talkin'. Here is the video. Sorry, the video camera got dunked so this was shot with an iPhone. Poor quality but you'll get the idea.

First Video. After taking it I realize that there is an optical illusion with the darker strips on the keel that makes the keel look much more angular across the board. It does have more angle bow and stern but the middle forms are just a clean "V". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi2AIsf5Ohk

Second Video. Shot at night, the lighting allows you to better see the hull shape. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2gxJxH9p28&feature=plcp