Wake Maker Mono Build

[T Nissen]

A little background on the Wake Maker mono. This is a hull I designed about 5 years ago to run in N1/N2 mono and 19T spec classes. The prototype measured 21 1/4" long by 7 1/4" wide. At that time this seemed to be the standard size for many existing hulls on the market. I built the first prototype and ran it for 3 years in N1 and 19T spec with good results. During this time brushless motors were getting more popular and I realized this hull probably would be too small for the "modified" classes so I made some changes to the design and increased the dimensions of the hull to 23" long by 7 3/4" wide. I had 3 prototypes cut with the intentions at the time of selling this hull in kit form if it proved to be a good runner. So I built one of the kits and sent it to Paul Pachmayer for testing. Reports came back good. With a few adjustments to the patterns I was ready to have kits cut for sale. However by this time Lipos started getting a lot of attention and it was soon evident that the smaller hulls of that time were going to be getting replaced with larger hulls. I decided to hold off on production of the kit and actually ended up taking a couple years off from boating altogether. I have had the other two prototype kits sitting around collecting dust for the last 3 years and finally decided to blow the dust off and build one of them. So I figured I would post the build here for others to see.

These first pictures are of the smaller original prototype that I use to race. As you can see from the inside layout there was enough room for all the gear with just enough room for moving things around. There is a turn fin on the boat but you can't see it in these pictures. It was mounted flush to the right side freeboard at 90 degrees to the deadrise. I took inspiration from Ed Hugheys monos, this is how he did it.

[T Nissen]

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished prototype that got sent to Paul P for testing. I didn't bother to make a detailed hatch for it since it was just for testing so it looks kind of plain.

[T Nissen]

Now for the building of the new boat.

The building jig for the original hull was made up of two dowel rods inserted between two 2x4 boards. All the framing pieces of the hull from the transom to the main bulkhead had holes in them that accepted these dowel rods (you can see this in the second picture of the above post). Although it was a simple way to keep all the parts lined up it proved to be a less than desirable or reliable method so that was one of the changes I made to the design, do away with that jig design. Below is the Jig I built for this build and it is much more effective at keeping the parts lined up and square. Took a little while to prep it but it was well worth it. It is made up of 3/4" MDF. I glued and nailed pine spacers to the board for the framing to stand against. I ran an aluminum L bracket perpendicular to the spacers so all of my framing lined up side to side. I then built some simple tension clamps using 5/32" dowel rod and springs. This worked out great for holding the parts flat against the wood spacers.

[T Nissen]

Once I got all the main framing installed on the jig and squared up I started with installing the stringers. Once that was done I tacked some basswood strips across the bottom of the hull to help prevent hull twisting during the rest of the build. After removing it from the jig I installed the chine rails and the remainder of the bulkheads. For every step I dry fitted the parts and made sure that everything was still square. At this point everything is glued in place and is awaiting the next step of sealing all the wood.

[ace028]

Looks sweet! I love these sort of builds!!!

[T Nissen]

Thanks! I forgot how quick this kit goes together which is good because it keeps my attention. I have one more 23" kit that can be built and I am going to actually turn that into a 26 or 27" hull with a little work. But for now I'm just concentrating on doing this one and getting it running.

[Karfrik]

Nice!!!I love watching all this build threads as i still need to get me and build my fist wood hull.Soon,...very soon,...Al

[T Nissen]

I started sealing the hull with a 50/50 mix of epoxy and denatured alcohal. Had to stop before I got too far since I am leaving town. Actually getting ready to board a plane to Houston right now so I will post pictures after I return next week.

[T Nissen]

My wife and I went on vacation at the end of March right after I started posting on this build and then hadn't been able to do much of anything else on it until this last week.

I finished sealing the rest of the hull that won't be accessible after its sheeted. Next I doubled up the transom for support. The original design only had an 1/8" ply transom but with more power in the systems these days I reinforced it with another 1/4" ply doubler as you can see in the first picture. Before I started this build I had to "flatten" the transom ply piece since it had warped a little while sitting in the box in my basement for the past 3 years. I thought I had fixed it but apparently my method was less than adequate. After all the framing was assembled I removed it from the building jig and noticed there was about a 1/16" bow in the transom running top to bottom. This deflection would certainly go away after being glued to the 1/4" doubler but I was concerned that the hull might twist slightly. So to ensure there would be no added stress or pressure to the existing framing I made a relief cut in the transom about 75% of the length from top to bottom and then glued the doubler to the hull. As far as I can tell it worked great, hull is square and true with no twisting.

I will be going on vacation again in a couple of days and have things to do to get ready for that trip so I don't know how much will get done on this hull till after I get back. I will probably start installing the decking and sheeting after the flotation is installed. Stay tuned!

[tth]

Looking good Terrance.