Inspired by Tux's recent efforts and after wanting to build a fin for a while now - I have been forced into action after losing my treasured JD fin a few weeks back. Finally found a bit of spare time today when the wind turned onshore I also have a new blue tint that I wanted to have a play with before using it on my new 10ft blank. I had been fortunate the other day when I called into the local factory to get some more lam and picked up a bunch of offcuts - which reduces the cost of the fin significantly. I borrowed a mates 9" hatchet fin to get the ball rolling.

First step was to take a template in paper and then transfer this to cardboard.






With all the offcuts I had I made a rough cardboard outline so I could cut the glass to size. My research had told me that I needed 44 layers of 6 oz to get the required thickness. After cutting them out it makes a hell of a lot of mess!!





Next up it was to get everything ready. I picked up an old piece of kitchen cupboard from a mate and greased it out - so the glass doesn't stick. Then it was time to lay the first bit of lam. Now there was no turning back.





When bad light stopped play this evening I have 15 left to do. Its a very long process using offcuts like this - and uses a lot more resin. But its been interesting. I am really not sure if this is going to work or be an epic fail. Time will tell Lots of lessons learnt so far. It would be a hell of a lot easier to do big squares - especially when working the edges and getting small offcuts into the process. Messy. Anyway this is a trial run before I do a bigger flat panel at a later date. Not sure when I will get to the rest of it but will keep you posted.