A few of our favourite things

Three of our favourite things: Future Primitive 12, Makaha 12-9, Baron 12

The Baron 12 foot paulownia wooden surfboard

The exclusive Baron is one of the most expensive luxury surfboards on planet Earth at US$528,000

 

Distinctive military 'Art Brut' tangential lines of the Baron are a classic example of form and art  following function.  The board is wickedly efficient, experience the ride of a lifetime and a functional work of art which is a great investment and will appreciate in value for generations to come.





Builder: Roy Stewart

Length: 12 feet

Width: 27 inches

Thickness: 2.5 inches

Weight: 40 pounds

Volume: 150 litres ( approximately)

Construction: Parallel profile 4 layer paulownia



The Baron is a development of the very successful D 11-9.   The flex  fin shown here evolved from the bulb tipped flex fin used on the D 11-9  and is an extremely flexible  model with an exceptionally low chord ratio.  The fin is so flexible that it can be moved through a six  inch arc at the trailing edge with only moderate  finger pressure.



In the picture below some of  the oscillation can be seen :

#Baron_Surfboard project part 5: The tunnel fin

Here's the tunnel fin for the #Baron_surfboard taking shape.

Because this tunnel fin setup also has a planar fin in the form of a bulb tipped flex fin, it won't have to handle high angles of attack, so we are able to use a very thin fin for low drag, just as we did with the original D 11-9 prototype shown below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ6M9GY1XC0

The tunnel is only 6mm thick, and has a chord ratio of 6% which is very low.

Because the tunnel is so thin we are making it from 22 layers of thick brown paper and resin, it's the same paper which we use for drawing plans. Paper and resin is a sort of low tech carbon fibre laminate and is immensely strong.

The tunnel mould is a piece of plumbing pipe of 200mm diameter, we,e added some poster pint to tint the glue lines