Health Care Reform, Insurance Reform, Quality
Wicked Wanda

Roger H Strube, MD
BuiltWithNOF

WICKED WANDA

WICKED WANDA is hull number two built from plans from Kurt Hughes for a 12 foot “Car Top” trimaran.  Originally widened to accommodate “full sized” arses the boat proved to be the fastest of the series of three as it was the lightest.  After being almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Charlie the damaged boat was stored for several years and is now being rebuilt (2008).  As part of the rebuild, the fractured hull sections in the bow were temporarily repaired and a new fiberglass “nose” was splashed on the hull. 

A stern section was also splashed on the stern.  Wanda had her stern extended about 18” and bow extended 2’.  She is now 15’ 7” (almost sweet 16) and promises to be as wicked as ever.  Surface foils are being added to the bows similar to, but more refined than, those fitted to the main hull of “Blue Moon” when she was extended.  The process of extending Wicked Wanda’s bow and stern is documented in the albums below. The center section of the main hull required some stabilization and portions of the dagger board box had rotted. The dagger board was lost during Hurricane Charlie. This rebuild is also documented below.

WICKED WANDA

EXTENDING THE BOW

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WICKED WANDA

EXTENDING THE STERN

The stern was extended by splashing a part over the last 18” of the stern. The transom was then cut out and the gunwales extended.  Additional longitudinals were added near the curve of the bilge. The keelson was extended 18 inches also. The splashed extension was then glued and clamped to the extensions and tortured into a flatter shape using clamps and weights.  The pictures below show this process.

Following the extension and fairing of the hull a foam core transom was added. Then deck beams glued in place.  Trex engineered lumber (the stuff used for decks and docks) was used to fashion several back up plates where the steering lines will be turned by Harken blocks. Straps for bullet blocks are mounted into the forward back up plates and cheek blocks for the final turn to the rudder are mounted on the aft plates. The curved gunwales were achieved using sections of PVC pipe glued in place and covered with fiberglass.

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WICKED WANDA

THE DAGGER BOARD BOX &

BOARD REBUILD

The center (cockpit) section of the main hull had some delamination issues that were repaired using West System epoxy. The forward dagger board box spacer had rotted out and needed to be replaced. The aft dagger board box spacer was intact. The dagger board had been lost during Hurricane Charlie so the decision was made to use one of the spare Hobie 14 rudders as a dagger board. The box was rebuilt and the exit appature was shaped to accept a modified Hobie 14 rudder as a dagger board.  This required building a “cap extension” receiver for the board that would allow it to be positioned deeper in the water. A bailer aperture was added to the aft end of the dagger board trunk to keep the water level in the box as low as possible.

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WICKED WANDA

REBUILDING THE AMAS &

 ADDING SURFACE FOILS

Following Hurricane Charlie Wicked Wanda’s amas were beaten up.  Damage to the glass surface had allowed water to get into the tortured plywood decks and hulls causing delamination of the wood.  A decision was made to splash a glass skin off the Starboard ama using polyester resin to make two hulls. The hull splash was done in two steps for the amas so the hull could be lengthened to 15 feet. The hull bow splash extended 2/3 of the way to the stern and incorporated an extended vertical top side forward for later attachment of the ama bow surface foil.  This Ama bow section was then pulled off the original hull and slid forward 3 feet. The stern half of the new fiberglass skin was then splashed on the aft 2/3 of the original ama and, in the process, bonded to the forward section. The bow surface foil (shaped like a “Spitfire” wing) was then jigged up and attached to the extended topsides at the bow.  The entire “male molded” part was then faired. Following the initial fairing using Duraglass (polyester body filler using milled glass rather than talc as a thickening agent) a layer of 4 oz fiberglass and epoxy resin with red dye is used to seal the hull. Epoxy thickened with micro balloons is used for final fairing. The second ama (starboard) was also splashed on the temporarily repaired starboard Ama using the same process described above. The fairing is no easy task. Several weeks were consumed in this fabrication, filling, sanding, fairing, filling, sanding, fairing, filling...well, you get the picture.

Following excision of the damaged, delaminated original plywood deck and hull parts the new fiberglass hull skin was bonded to the port ama “skeleton”. This port skeleton was reasonably rigid and stable because the aka structural bulkheads, gunwales and keel were intact.  To assure no twisting would occur during the bonding of the new glass hull and plywood decks the skeleton was attached to the short aka tubes being used to suspend the main hull in its rolling cradle so alignment could be maintained.

The starboard Ama had suffered much more sever delamination and dry rot than the port ama. All that was left of the “skeleton” after removal of the damaged/rotted plywood was the forward cross beam mount/station and the keel. The gunwales and structure for attaching the aft cross beam were not salvageable. Following the fabrication of the new solid glass hull skin/bow surface foil new gunwales were bonded inside the fiberglass starboard Ama skin. These were made from treated 2” X 6” X 8’ resawn to 1 1/2” X 1/4” X 8’ battens using my big band saw. Three layers of these 1/4” battens were glued up with staggered scarfs.  A new aft aka mounting structure for this ama was created, the remaining forward cross beam reciever/bulkheads/keel were hung on the short main hull crossbeams and the new fiberglass skin bonded in place so proper alignment would be maintained.  Several new bulkheads were then added and new epoxy sealed thin plywood decks were bonded to the new gunwales. The resulting amas were lighter than the original wooden hulls.

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