I have been fiddling with the idea of developing a haka for myself, but I'm happy to make more of them for you guys here. I have access to marine-grade AL, a laser cutter, press brakes, etc.
My preliminary design is made of 3/16" thickness Aluminum, held onto the boat using some "Quick Fist" clamps (thanks to someone on the FB group for pointing those out!), with a white marine-grade macropoxy finish. I'm looking into putting "Sea Dek" or similar, but depending on price I may have to pass.
I'm about to cut the prototype this week or so, and here are some specs:
- 66" Long, 12" wide
- 3/16" AL should be good to 250 lbs in the center, 1/8" could save some weight but may be flexier. Will protoype 1 of each probably.
- Weight: 16ish lbs a piece, comparable to rotomolded backboards
Cost will end up being around $100-250 depending on sea dek pricing and so on. Hoping to keep it towards the lower end of that range, but I have to have some margin in there in order for my boss to approve me making more than a couple. I don't run the place yet!
Any thoughts? I also have a rotomolding machine, but we'd be looking at $10k in tooling just to get it started, which I don't think is in the cards...