JEM Watercraft

Matt,

After building a boat I was thinking about a paddle board and how it might be really easily done.
What if you had a laminated layers of foam board insulation and okume horizontally with the wood cut to dimension beforehand. The foam could be cut to match the wood shapes as theywould already provide a template. Then to shape you just nock down the foam edges to the wood and you've got your 3d shape. Fiberglass over top and paint. What are your thoughts? Figuring out the foam to wood ratio might need some testing but I think this would be really fast. Might be a really good first project.

Grant

It all depends on the type of foam. The blue or pink foam at a big box store will fall apart after a few months of use.

Matt that sounds about right. It might work with foam like they make surf boards out of.

so you mean using the surf board foam as the core?

That was what I was thinking. I don't know what it is or where to get it but I think it might have merit.

It would end up being a heavy craft. Two layers of ply to start with makes it twice as heavy for the same dimensions, and the foam has some weight although not much.