Carbon Hull from scratch

[Drkrieger]

I have a really good friend that does amazing work with carbon fiber. I am thinking about having him build a hull from scratch in 100% carbon fiber. It would cost me the material, and a few 6 packs.

Where would i get plans, or molds?

[Fluid]

What hull type - mono, hydro, catamaran? What size? What voltage? Carbon fiber is cool but used in a poor design it adds no real value.



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[NativePaul]

It is a great project, but don't expect it to be easy or cheap, buying a hull will be cheaper if there is one available in a design you like.

It will takes 100+ hours of work to make a plug then make a mold from it, and a lot of material cost too, for the plug you would need; wood, glue, filler, primer, paint, a lot of abrasives, polish, a parting board and wax putty, then you need hard tooling gel and enough glass and resin for the mould to make it 5-10 times as thick as you want the boat hulls to be, depending on how many pulls you want from it. Due to the time and financial investment that goes into making a mold and how easy it is to mess one up, don't expect anyone to lend one to you, or hire one out. Sometimes molds do get sold, but very infrequently, and when they do normally they are years behind the times, kept in a loft or a garage for a while after someone leaves the sport and sell everything else, in case they get back into it.

All the molds I know of have been own designs and carved from solid, but you could probably use a plan as a basis if it is built with MUCH thicker wood to make a plug.