Making lemonade...

The last few weeks have been really busy with orders for new boards. And, I've been making almost daily trips to my supplier for blanks, S-glass and the odd fin box or fin. One of the orders was for customer Chad, who owns this spiffy 6-8 2+1 . Chad wanted the same basic design, but a little shorter, a little narrower and a little thinner. We worked together on the design using AKU and I picked up a blank that would accommodate the width, length and thickness. After cutting the outline, and shaping the rocker and bottom contours, I was shocked to find that the blank was still 3-1/2" thick! Chad had ordered 2-1/2" thickness, and cutting an inch of thickness out of this blank would make it highly susceptible to denting. Not cool. So this blank became a "lemon" and I stuck it in the corner of my shaping bay. I picked-up another blank for Chad's single-fin 6-4 and finished it (being glassed now) and then shaped customer Rick's 9-4 pintail Nova. All the while the "lemon" was standing in the corner reminding me that "haste makes waste".

While cleaning up the bay after finishing the Nova, it occurred to me that the "Lemon" might make a good Stubby, with CI Biscuit dimension, i.e. short, wide, thick and flat. I set the broom aside and picked-up my trusty Clark Hitachi, and when the dust settled, here's what I had.

Final dimensions are 6-4, 14-1/2"x21-1/2"x16" 3". I added the wing in the tail to step-down all that width, kept the rocker very low throughout, ran a shallow single concave down the bottom and added a little V out the tail. I'm going to go with a 2+1 fin set-up, and have Ray finish with an abstract, resin-tint bottom and rails, with clear deck inlay. Board will function as a fish alternative.