Video from the Newquay Padstow paddle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgZ1w1gTuHc&feature=youtu.be

The 16 mile paddle

We completed the Newquay to Padstow paddle in 4hours and 22minutes.

Real good day, flat and little wind but not to say it wasnt hard!

Along the way we had the pretty spectacular north Cornish coast as well as  spoting sunfish and dolphin which swan in the bow wave for a bit! all in all  another  good outing for the board, coming in to its own with stability and handling through chop (the ax bow cutting through rather than slammin!)

Newquay Padstow

About to embark on a 15 mile paddle for Newquay to Padstow on the North Cornish coast,  weather, tide and swell look favorable, let see how the board hold out as it will be the longest open water paddle the board been on!

Racing

I did my first race on the board today, 15km from Darmouth to Totnes (Devon), was hard going alot was into the wind but me and the board made it up there, and back. 15th overall 6th in the 12'6'' class, pretty stoked with that!

(you can see me and the board 4 board back at the start)

http://standuppaddlesurf.co.uk/component/content/article/703-head-of-the-dart-results

 a real sea trial at the begin of febuary, real still everning but a slight bit of ground swell, the board was flying, kicks slightly to the right and stalls very slighty when in the troths, still got a little hole somewhere, think it is in the same place. 

A hole

Found a, and hopefully the only hole where water was coming in, using a vacuum and some tissue paper, sealing of the inspection hatch and sucking the air out found the hole to be in the handle, so any water coming over the bow/ nose was draining out of the handle and into the board/ not down the drainage pipe.
Hindsight probably should have tested the pressure before going on the water?

Testing

Well it works, paddle real smooth and fast, cuts through chop effortlessly with a elegant bow wave. Stability, transverse and longitudinal is good, a lot of reserve buoyancy so possibility to carry a 'luggage'. 

A slight leak somewhere which is a bit of a mare? might be through the inspection hatches, pressure test it with a vacuum ?

All in all pretty pleased

Fini

past a few deadline but  the board is know finished, only have 10mins of light sanding tomorow and then it on to testing, quite exciting slightly nervous it float right and stable, going to find a nice flat bit of water.

Will have some photo of it in operation tomorrow some time

Pretty much done

Getting very close to being completed , sanding/ smoothing the railed and finishing the board. Fins, inspection hatches and leashloops are in.

One thing which is a bit of an issue is the dust which is being produced is real itchy

Very Nearly Completed

All glassed, just the bottom to hot coat and install fin boxes, leash loops, and inspection hatches so potentially be finished on Monday, with no major hitches.

Glass the bottom today with some pretty heavy fiber and hopeful get the deck done tomorrow if i have enough resin. Pretty pleased with the glass look, all that fairing payed off.

Started Glassing

That last little bit of fairing, getting to the degree of negligible change with more filler added and with that the time required to cure....

So finally this afternoon put a few glass patches on the nose and tail where there going to be a bit more where, then hopefully tomorrow start with glassing the rest of the board (starting on the bottom)

Put tissue paper through a printer to give logo to put under the glass at the nose to give it a little bit of a pro edge, maybe?

Fairing

All the veneer is on,  a little issue with the material choose is that it warps and slight definition of the grain of the wood give a ripple effect. To account for these defect a filler is being used to bridge the gap in the joins and to smooth the board as best as possible.  So far the bottom has had filler applied (waiting to set before sanding back) and the deck is filled.

It is a bit of a micro scale aesthetic sacrifice loosing some of the wood/ grain finish but on a larger scale and overall fairness it is essential.