Reconditioned HMR S66

I have finally finished repairing the last board I made, a 66cm slalom board in timber veneer with CF tail cutouts. There was some water in the board from heel cracks caused by sailing 1000's of km in Boggy Lake chop. I wanted the core to dry out as much as possible and have had it sitting in the roof of my shed for a year ( I also had a JP68 to sail as well...). Here is the finished result.

I wanted to hide a bit more of the timber veneer on the deck and went for the primer with the timber just peeking through. Non skid is always a problem to source, I can't get hold of the re-dek system that I have used in the past. I tried a spray on non-skid product that some guys are using on SUP boards but is just too fine and is really meant for tiles on steps and slippery areas. In the end I went for the old sugar deck on epoxy which will yellow a bit with age but provides extreme non skid grip.

DIY Enclosed Trailer

After years of loading and unloading station wagons enough was enough. I needed an enclosed trailer so that I could simply hitch up and head of for some TOW. I looked at what was available on the market and nothing really suited my needs which were...

• Take all of my gear each time I go sailing.
• Fit everything inside rather than the boards being on top racks.
• Allow the possibility to sleep inside.
• Have a low drag body for minimal fuel consumption.
• Have the same track as my sedan.
• Not sit too high above the roof line of my sedan.
• Have a long drawbar for towing stability and ease of reversing.
• Transport building materials when doing jobs around the house.

Here are some shots of construction and the finished product.

I have a lot of experience in composites and have made 10 or so boards so building a trailer was the way to go. After looking at several different fabrication type construction methods such as steel and aluminium I decided I would use a similar contruction to that used in wooden boats. This method was also different to anything I have seen(in trailers) so I wanted to give it a try. An outer shell would be glued to a wooden framework that was to form a self supporting structure that would be bolted to a welded steel chassis. This was going to be more labour intensive but would give me the seamless result I was after.

I started sketching and modelling forms that were aerodynamic, utilised the materials strong points and maximised internal storage volume. I also added a few features such as "frenching" the tail lights and pumping the guards. I will post each stage of the build process seperately. The stages are...

1. Design
2. Chassis
3. Body Frame
4. Skin
5. Finishing