I second that - I use a foam sanding block but ONLY for the last phases of wetsanding.
For shaping, fairing, and filling, I use a home-made long board that has served me very well.



The hull on the right had not yet been polished.


I made a smaller version of the long board for this project:

I stand corrected, you are right Mike about longer board and problems of block if not used with caution.

Rather than starting a new post I will ask on a little further about my Taipan.
I have successfully dealt with the ugly join line from bow to main beam but turning my eye to the rest of the boat when I set the boat up against a hard light I can see what look like seams and slightly popped tack rises. I am sure these rises are symtimatic of the construction of the boat. I am contemplating the fairing of these marks and feel I can do that well but want to know if anyone knows what the "popped tack' rises are?

I'm debating over four possible color schemes:

(1) John Deere Green hulls with Yellow stripe
Deere logo on Yellow spinnaker

(2) Candy apple red gloss (no idea on spin color)

(3) Electric (think "day-glo") purple with yellow spin

(4) Desert camoflage hulls with Black spin

But that image of gun metal gray and Orange daggarboards does sound sexy....

The primary reason for these schemes is that there would be NO OTHER boat like it. Yes, white is common and practical, but there is something to be said about "Visual Assault" on the racecourse.

If you can distract them long enough, you can defeat them

or, how about a boat with the port side of each hull one color and the stb side a different color..I have seen a couple boats this way..

Thats 'cause someone crashed the other hull and they swiped another off some one elses boat!!! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Its harder for your competitors to keep track of you then as you look diffenrent on each tack. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Clayton

Only if your getting paid <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

If they blow tons of cash on stinkin' NASCAR, they could spare a few bucks for some gelcoat.

Jeeze, their tractors are expensive enough... A client of mine just bought five 9620 tractors at about $175,000 each.

But I guess farmers don't sail much ...... or do they!?

They sail the Sea of Corn.

We have a John Deere Green at our club Hot hot hot to put your hands on probably want the yellow on the decks much safer to see then as well

Yes, I have had a darker green cat and it was too hot to sit on until in the water.

Name of boat "Git 'er done"???

So I'm thinking that deep "candy-apple" red would be pretty hot (both in thermal and appearance sake), too...

Jay, call me. (919)-302-0880

Jake,

Could you give us an idea of how flexible the long board is?

Thanks,

Matt

I'm not sure how to describe it without doing some loading and measuring - but it's fairly stiff. The center is a piece of 1/8" aluminum plate surrounded by a piece of large "C" shape UHMW plastic that is probably 1/8 to 3/16" thick. The plastic is typically used as side rails for conveyor systems. It only takes a little pressure to bend to match the fore/aft contour bottom of the I20 hull but it would never match the side to side contour without permanent deformation. The whole thing is about 4" wide by about 12" long and I use adhesive backed sandpaper (on a roll) which I found at Lowe's in three different grits (120, 220, and 320). The tall handles allow me to give the board incentive to put more pressure in one area over the other - but I only did that when I was initially taking down a high spot in some filler and wanted to use up a spot of sandpaper on the board that wasn't yet clogged. For finishing I would simply grasp the outer 2/3 end / sides of the board just inside the handles and let the center and ends find the contour of the hull.

The board used for the r/c plug was a piece of 1/4" corrogated plastic backed with a 1/8" piece of PVC plastic sheet and it had no handles. I had to play with some different combinations until it "felt" right.

The boards need to be stiff enough that they don't dip into any concave points as you sand on a hull. They need to be able to 'bridge' those concavities and be able to translate the curvature behind and in front of the board as it moves. On the other hand, it needs to be flexible enough to easily bend to match the contour of the hull fore and aft (the axis with the least curvature) and when you use it, you always keep it oriented in that axis. As you sand on the hull with the long board, you'll quickly be able to see where the low spots are and you can mark them and fill them. Then shave down the filler to get it close to the hull contour and start with the board until you have a very smooth and uniterupted contour. I've always been pretty intimidated by this kind of work but with a little practice, I now feel pretty confident about achieving something pretty refined.