My vertical foil has now been fully bonded together, and is ready for trimming to shape (hence the holes you can see in the photos). My target weight for the vertical has been achieved with it coming in at 1.524 kg, before trimming.

Assuming the material that is yet be removed will equal the weight of the glue and carbon that is to be added when bonding the horizontal to the vertical, I have achieved my 2.5 kg target weight, and I think that I have increased my foil stiffness by 4-5 times my current one.

The difference between this foil and my current one should be the moth equivalent of bolting on twin turbos.

The vertical spars went in like a treat.

There was an absolute minimum of wasted glue, and the resulting single skin is now very, very stiff. The next task is to work out where the extra reinforcements will go, that are designed to stop this type of failure, as well as the tube for the control rod then it is time to put it all together. The plan is to do all that tomorrow.

With a busy work schedule leading up to Christmas and christmas itself, there has been very little movement on the new centreboard.

Well I got back into it today with the pull-trusion being glued onto one side of the vertical.

With this foil I am making a conscious effort to take things slow and steady, with a view to maximise strength per gram in the construction. When planning this foil, I thought that I would only be able to get a single length of pull-trusion in the foil and laying flat with a ton of glue to match the square shape into the angle of the foil.

Needless to say I am very happy that I managed to get two full lengths, on edge, essentially forming a box section right through the entire length of the foil, which will give a significant improvement on my current, “soft centre” main foil. (Before anyone mentions it, the screw through the mould and the pull-trusion that looks like it was not straight were adjusted after this photo was taken. Also if you are wondering you are looking at the end of the mould which used to be attached to the square horizontals.)

This new construction method is working out as a much better way for part timers like myself. It removes the need to perform a single, huge one day effort, and makes it a series of nice, simple 1-2 hour jobs, and if you were making multiple foils, you could build several in parallel.

977 grams, that’s how much the completed horizontal weighs, and try as I might I cannot bend it. So to say that I am happy would be understatement of the year.

So I am still on track for my target weight of 2.5KG for the completed foil, which is a nice 2kg weight saving compared to my current one.

The section looks awesome (compared to my current POS foil), and even though it is still the same NACA section as my old one, the new construction method has resulted in a much more accurate shape, with much, much finer leading edges.