Custom/Hybrid The "HAMMER" Hull at Lake Erie Freeride

[zimmy]

Looks like we have had a top secret project going on in one of our members garages! Just about everyone was asking and saying "What type of hull was that silver ski", "Never seen that ski before!"

I snapped a few pics and spoke with the builder (Scott) before heading home on Sunday. He worked this sweet build from a block of foam (true custom!!), shaping it to his preferred specs. From what I understand, the only part that isn't custom is the pump and midshaft section which are Yami based.

Engine compartment has a lot of space, Scott's detail work was impressive! Hopefully he will post up with some comments but it sounds like he pulled this first hull from a mold after he built the original plug.

Whats the deal Scott? Production ready?

 

[Joker]

That thing is dope.

Let's hear the story

 

[Proformance1]

We were all looking at that. Wish i had more time to spend cehcking it out. Looked cool.

 

[txsuperjetfreak96]

Sweet looking


Jeremy

 

[MADMAT]

He worked this sweet build from a block of foam (true custom!!), shaping it to his preferred specs. From what I understand, the only part that isn't custom is the pump and midshaft section which are Yami based.

Very cool! Missed it!

 

[hydrostyler]

Well thanks for everyone's interest. I am the man behind this machine. First off, I had a blast at the Erie Ride and finally got to meet a few X members. Being stuck in central Illinois makes it tough to feel like part of the sport. As far as my project goes, Zimmy told you the basic outline. Yes it is for a yami driveline, and yes I built it 95% from scratch. I had my 2 riding buddies Somedonniedude and fatboyktm, and a close friend "Jay" assist me in some of the mold making and hull laying. I debated doing a build thread, but chose to spend my time actually building and will now follow up for those of you that are interested. The few goals I had in mind were to go short, wide, rockered, roomy tray, fat pump tunnel, and a lid type hood. All while keeping weight to a minimum. Also, I didn't want it to closely resemble anything else out on the market. As you can see in the above pics it might have a little Rickter or footrocket silhouette, but that basic profile is what it takes to simply cover the dimensions of the motor. We started calling the project the "Hammer" as the front portion of the bottom deck resembles a hammerhead shark. As far as the weight goes, I haven't gotten a complete rtr # yet, but I did measure the bonded hull (gunwales foamed, p.p. balls in tray)+ hood with motor plates+ motor mounts, all inserts, battery box, exhaust tube, coolant + trim tubes, and midshaft at 69.2lbs. It is an S glass and carbon lay up with foam core and some biax. I shortened a stock fx1 pole 11" and modded it for breather tubes to weight about 6lbs. I'm also running a 12cell LiFe battery to keep the amps up and the weight down. For now the powerplant is a stock 64x 760 and electronics w/limited bpipe, h20 box. This first ski was handlaid and vac bagged. The next project is to make an infused full carbon ski to shave a few more lbs and throw some real power in it. Do you guys want to see any specific part of the build or should I just post some randoms?

 

[Scraggly]

Start from the beginning. Random shots throughout the build would be really cool. Looks nice

 

[zimmy]

Thanks for chiming in Scott, I am sure everyone would love to see how the hull developed, it sounds like it was a huge mission!

 

[txsuperjetfreak96]

x2 looks really good

 

[SmittySX]

How's she ride...?

 

[hydrostyler]

Smitty it rides very stable for a short 70" ski. It is 3 inches wider than a sj with a built in tubbie type sponson.

The bottom deck started out as a SN, but was essentially covered up during the widening process. I attached pink board in the desired thickness and shapes I wanted. I then rolled epoxy resin on as a protective sealer so that I could use quicker setting polyester body fillers to achieve the shapes I was after. I cut and widened the pump inlet to roughly 160mm and created a raised tunnel type channel ahead of the intake.

 

[hydrostyler]

I'll dig through and post up some more pics tomorrow night. I still havent slept from my 710 mile drive back from the Erie ride yesterday just to make it home in time to go to work. I've got to get some sleep.

 

[hydrostyler]

Ok, so no feedback on the bottom deck creation. Pretty simple huh? Well here is my method of creating the top deck. Maybe this will lift an eyebrow? I purposely built the bottom plug with no flange so I could make an exact template out of foam to create the top deck. See pic 1. I created the side profile by taking measurements from both my SN and RN, and making sure the top deck would cover all engine components, intake, exhaust, etc. I then built a jig and used a hot wire to cut the pink board. At this point its starting to look like something. The rail/flange area was built out of 1 1/4 mdf. I went a little wide to accommodate a new spinning flip combo I'm going to invent in the future

 

[hydrostyler]

The gunwales were also created with 2" r-board. Once shaped and secured into place, I built the inner tray area out of hardboard. The tray is lowered 1 1/2 around the pump so that when turfed with 1" padding, it appears flush until you kick into the holds. After shaping the nose and checking with contour gauges and cardboard templates, I rolled the entire plug with epoxy resin to seal the foam from the body filler and primer that was used to smooth the surface. I kept the foam deck seperate from the rail board so that I could easily move it from the paint area to the curing oven between steps to speed up the process.

 

[jaxrider]

Looks great. How long did it take you to build this?

 

[ChadGnarly]

Thats awesome. Shouldah carved it out of a single block of clay, just kidding. I saw this thing in person last weekend, everyone was talking about it and saying whats that hammer ski. Ya did a nice job, thats about as custom as it gets.

 

[hydrostyler]

Well I got really serious about it last summer. I split the sj deck in july and had a bottom mold done by the end of the year. The top plug and mold were started in january and finished up by mid june. Take in consideration that I also work 60 hours a week and usually only have 1 day a week off. Its also a build as you go type of project so you can't determine every move you're going to make and work off a schedule. I would say I easily have 300+ hours in the project until the molds were complete. As far as building the ski itself, I would say I have roughly 60 hours in it from cutting the 1st piece of cloth to the 1st test ride.

 

[jetpilot808]

That's awesome....Hammer time!!!

 

[Jp79]

Very cool looking in person, wish I had more time to check it out closer! Would of liked to give it a rip.

 

[LimitedSlip7]

I walked by this thing several times trying to figure out what the hell it was before I checked it out up close later. Build quality looked great and the engine bay was roomy. Neat hood idea too. Looked good out on the water!