Catch

Hi guys and girls.
On the subject of ski's and there width at the catch phase of the stroke I found this to be a real problem i'm 5ft 7 or 170 cm.
I had purchased an epic v10 sport this was an is my only ski to date this december will have been paddleing it for two years eleven months.
Twelve months after purchasing the ski lets just say there were some issues that left me in the possistion of having to buy a new ski.
So i started the search knowing how much the width of the catch annoyed me on the sport I was going to be sure the next ski wouldn't be like this, but after looking at what was about I found it harder than I thought to find a ski as capable and stable as the sport,even some of the more advanced levell skis were not much if any narrower at the catch and where out of my ability level any way.
So the decission was made to see if i could rebuild the sport to suit my needs and these where the results.
I also find the hump in skis to high including the sport so the grinder will probably come out again soon.

Jeez ! that's a helluva remodel !

Wow nice job! So this is a fibreglass model?

Very nice modification! This can't be the first time you work with fibreglass?

Thats awesome. A huge leap of faith with the first cut. I did the same thing on my timber surfski but wouldn't have the guts (or knowledge) to do it on a glass ski.
Cheers

Thanks kayaker greg and cell for the comments.
yes kayaker greg it is the fiberglass modell club layup the new layup was a mixture of chop strand glass matt and woven carbon fibre and epoxy resin.
And Cell far as working with fibreglass before no not a lot really this would be the biggest thing undertaken so far though I do have a reasonable understanding on the process.

Hi all
i found a couple of other photos I thought you might find of intrest one is of the fittment of countersunk screws to the slides on the push board incase you ever have problems in that area through corrosion or over tightening,
the other is the fitting of the bracing to the front of the ski and also showing the cut outs tapped ready for glassing

I'm sorry, why did you have to cut the front open? You mention bracing? What did you do and why?

The reason for cutting the deck off was it was the only way of fixing the problem I was having with the ski with out this problem being fixed the ski was no longer useable.
This made it alot easier to cut it as it would have only ended up on the rubbish tip.
To have a professional fix it the cost would have been more than the ski was worth.
So with the deck of I set to and put a layer of carbon fibre on the inside of the hull to stiffen and strengthen it as I had read that stiffer skis perform better in the ocean than ones that flex.
I then joined a full hull to deck centre rib onto the existing rib and ran it through to the front of the ski and ran a horizontal rib from seam to seam this was all just to stiffen and stop flex and also while the deck was off I also thickened up the top of the deck right at the front so I could fit a eye bolt to it to run a travelling leg leash the reason I went for the travelling leg leash was I had an epic leash hooked on the foot strap I was tipped off in the ocean and had leash break.
While doing the above I also rectified the problem I had.I hope this answers your questions I dont really want to go into the finer details of the problems of which I do have photos.
This may have just been a one of.I do like the v10 sport and feel it is an under estimated ski so much so I have seriously considered doing the same alterations to an ultra version not the internals just the paddle cut outs.

Amazing, well done!

jamo wrote:

The reason for cutting the deck off was it was the only way of fixing the problem I was having with the ski with out this problem being fixed the ski was no longer useable.
This made it alot easier to cut it as it would have only ended up on the rubbish tip.
To have a professional fix it the cost would have been more than the ski was worth.

Why didnt you get Epic to fix/ or replace if it was structural or a seam splitting.

Nice work anyway, wanna do a hump reduction mod on a Fenn Elite?