When Paul asked me to make him a speed board to go after the speed record, there were a few design elements I needed to address...

• Stiff!: it has to be super stiff to not absorb any energy. I wanted all the energy to transfer from the kite through the board and exit the water in the form as speed. FOr this the only way was a high density core with 100% carbon fiber glass.
  
• Low aerodynamic drag. At 30MPH +..the drag from the apparent wind is significant. Significant enough to push against the board which effects the trim angle and also just adds drag into the overall equates what has to be over come from the wind energy reducing efficiency. To overcome this, I wanted to get rid of any board surface area that was not interacting with the water. So I came up with the 'Taco' shape. So basically it is an edge with just enough surface area to put foot straps.
• Control. This is the challenge. TO be able to go fast you have to be able to control the board at high speeds. TO do so, I used a very slight rocker line. A rocker line I have tested for speed. It has just a little but of rise, just enough to keep the nose out the drink.
  I set it up with a single 1 inch fin on each end to help keep the edge.
  Also, I added a system where weight can be added both to the middle of the board to add overall weight to settle the board down and also on provisions to add weight to the tips of the board to keep the nose down.

With all the design elements in place, it was time to make a template and start construction.

The construction will have to be high tech seeing I am using 100%carbon fiber. It will entail using the vacuum bag method to optimize the resin to fiber ratio. Even thou weight was not an issue ( as we would be adding weight anyway ) , it is important to achieve the best strength and the vacuum bag technique is the best method for this. Below is the different stages.

After the board is shaped from the template, It is then surrounded with the scheduled wetted out carbon fiber glass , sandwiched with the peel ply material and breathing material and placed into a vacuum bag.

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It is then sucked down and heated for 6 hours. Once cured, the breathing material is then peeled away from the board and the board then removed from the bag

The board is then sanded carefully and tweaked to what I want. Great care must be taken when sanding carbon fiber. Apart from being very prickly, if you sand into the weave, you risk the chance of damaging the lay up. Carbon finer is very thin and you can even sand right through all the layers into the blank with out much effort.

This is the board being test fitted with the foot straps and foot plates. You can see the square indents where the added lead ballast goes.

One quick hot coat to seal the board and get back the great carbon fiber look and then final sanded to perfection.

Then it is off to Paul for testing in the Florida Keys.