What do you look for in a hull?

T

te4250

Location
Western NY
I don’t want to discourage but I don’t think hand laid and cheaper are going to work out together. Fiber reinforced injection molded plastic hulls maybe cheaper, seadoo agrees, but hey you gotta start somewhere. Maybe in a couple years you’ll be asking who cuts injection molds I can’t keep doing this poop by hand anymore
 
Big Kahuna

Big Kahuna

Administrator
Location
Tuscaloosa, AL
te4250 said:
I don’t want to discourage but I don’t think hand laid and cheaper are going to work out together. Fiber reinforced injection molded plastic hulls maybe cheaper, seadoo agrees, but hey you gotta start somewhere. Maybe in a couple years you’ll be asking who cuts injection molds I can’t keep doing this poop by hand anymore
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uh, all the aftermarket hulls are basically hand laid. Some have much nicer more professional molds than others...........
 
MADMAT

MADMAT

Location
Ohio
te4250 said:
I don’t want to discourage but I don’t think hand laid and cheaper are going to work out together. Fiber reinforced injection molded plastic hulls maybe cheaper, seadoo agrees, but hey you gotta start somewhere. Maybe in a couple years you’ll be asking who cuts injection molds I can’t keep doing this poop by hand anymore
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Yep all you need is a 10,000lb + chunk of steel, a team of highly skilled machinists, a flatbed hauler, and then a place with high pressure injection to run them. Yea...no.
 
S

Storbeck

Location
Minnesota
My suggestion is experiment a lot with your own hull and hulls, ride as many other hulls as you can. Try to get a feel for what changes do what, spend a lot of time looking at other hulls. Become your own expert, don't overestimate what other people know about this stuff. I haven't worked on skis but I have worked on ride and handling type stuff, subjective evaluation, and even people who are really knowledgeable disagree on this stuff and the more you know the more you know you don't know, and the more you realize the guy that knows everything, doesn't (except Sparkplug of course).
 
Josh Watson

Josh Watson

Location
Florida
I will be doing the first hulls hand laided than vaccum bagged. After I get enough experience I’ll be going infusion. If you are using infusion to make hulls and have any kind of leak it can ruin thousands in material. The lay up will have a core which will be divincycell.
 
kevbo

kevbo

Location
dfw
A hull builders operating cost is the wild card. Some guys have low overhead and can afford to make hulls below the current rate. This happened a lot in the 70s but is rare now. I know of a local boat MFG that had a great product and regional success after winning some Mod VP races. He ended up casting hot tubs while the boat moulds rotted away. Treat hull building as a hobby because its very unlikely you will be able to make a living doing it. Be careful with using foam core. Its only for super lightweight hulls that are ridden carefully.
 
S

Storbeck

Location
Minnesota
kevbo said:
A hull builders operating cost is the wild card. Some guys have low overhead and can afford to make hulls below the current rate. This happened a lot in the 70s but is rare now. I know of a local boat MFG that had a great product and regional success after winning some Mod VP races. He ended up casting hot tubs while the boat moulds rotted away. Treat hull building as a hobby because its very unlikely you will be able to make a living doing it. Be careful with using foam core. Its only for super lightweight hulls that are ridden carefully.
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I'm interested in why you say that about foam core. My DVX has some areas with a foam core. No idea what type of foam, but there was a place where it was damaged and the foam was exposed so I had to lay up carbon over it for repair, so I know it's there and it's some kind of foam. I could see a DVX being described as a super lightweight hull but I'm not so sure about intended to be ridden carefully. I suck at freestyle so my riding is probably considered "careful" by freestyle standards no huge 20 foot flatwater flips from me, but I think people do that with DVX hulls.
 
Josh Watson

Josh Watson

Location
Florida
Storbeck said:
I'm interested in why you say that about foam core. My DVX has some areas with a foam core. No idea what type of foam, but there was a place where it was damaged and the foam was exposed so I had to lay up carbon over it for repair, so I know it's there and it's some kind of foam. I could see a DVX being described as a super lightweight hull but I'm not so sure about intended to be ridden carefully. I suck at freestyle so my riding is probably considered "careful" by freestyle standards no huge 20 foot flatwater flips from me, but I think people do that with DVX hulls.
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Most freestyle hulls have a core material saves a ton of weight.
 
Yami-Rider

Yami-Rider

TigerCraft FV-PRO
Location
Texoma
Josh Watson said:
I will be doing the first hulls hand laided than vaccum bagged. After I get enough experience I’ll be going infusion. If you are using infusion to make hulls and have any kind of leak it can ruin thousands in material. The lay up will have a core which will be divincycell.
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You check for leaks prior to pulling the resin threw.

Wet lay bagging will work also, just more labor involved, you also can't check for leaks prior to laying.
I'd have a spare pump on hand, I have 2 and luckily never had one fail, but I know xscream had that happen and had to throw away that half of a ski.
 
Josh Watson

Josh Watson

Location
Florida
Yami-Rider said:
You check for leaks prior to pulling the resin threw.

Wet lay bagging will work also, just more labor involved, you also can't check for leaks prior to laying.
I'd have a spare pump on hand, I have 2 and luckily never had one fail, but I know xscream had that happen and had to throw away that half of a ski.
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Good to know! Thank you for the advice! Definitely have more testing to do before anything!
 
joeschuit

joeschuit

Location
Spring Lake, MI
After having experience with some stock superjet and aftermarket hulls, I'm less concerned with the visual hull design and more on how the engine mounts, bulkhead, batterybox, etc are mounted and secured. I don't want to buy a new hull and after a year have to repair joints and mounts that were an after thought. pole length, intake grate, rideplate, and other driveline components can make a hull do many things, assuming the hull isn't so far removed from a standard/shortened superjet hull base. I'd also rather see a 95-105lb hull that can survive a hard hit on a trailer or landing on the beach without risk of cracking. I can make another 5hp to offset the 20lbs added in extra fiberglass layers.
 
kevbo

kevbo

Location
dfw
Now that we have the MFG process figured out, lets get some bottom dimensions so buyers can know what to expect.
 
Josh Watson

Josh Watson

Location
Florida
Right now it’s around 75 inches but may change before I start to sell depending on how everything turns out. The test motor will be a 1200.
 
Josh Watson

Josh Watson

Location
Florida
Storbeck said:
You want to build a low cost all around general purpose hull to get more people in the sport and you're testing it with a 1200?
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That’s what I have in the shelf I’m young and have a lot of buddy’s on superjets. They all want to get into the flips and tricks but can’t afford a hull. The material cost on a hull is around $2500-3000 for full carbon. If I could make a hull for half the price of the rest of the big guys and sell them to people wanting to get into freestyle, flips and tricks for half the cost and continue to grow the hobby I’d be happy. I’m not in it for the money I work at a local utility company making my way to a journeyman lineman. My relief from work is building and riding skis! Just figured if I could help grow the sport I would but seems everyone is negative when it comes to that. If nothing else I’ll build a few hulls for my lilac buddy’s and move on. Just figured id get some insight on what people are wanting, opinions on hulls and layups. Thank you!
 
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