Here’s a step by step guide to building your own extra volume thruster.

Materials needed:
1. Your boat (at least the cockpit)
2. A skirt that fits your cockpit
3. A garbage bag
4. A beach ball
5. Scissors
6. A container for mixing
7. A paint brush
8. Fiberglass resin (found at your local hardware store)
9. Fiberglass sheets
10. Sandpaper
11. Metal cutting saw
12. Marker
13. String

Step 1
Blow up the beach ball and insert in the boat then put the skirt on the boat. (Kind of tricky to do solo but can be done) The amount of extra volume added is determined by how much air you have in the beach ball (more volume=more space). Now place the garbagebag over the skirt (garbage bag protects the skirt from the fiberglass resin) and use the string to tie a loop around the cockpit to hold the skirt in place.

Step 2
Lay a fiberglass sheet on the garbage bag skirt layup and have it extend past the thigh braces on your boat. (This is roughly here you want your thruster to end) Cut three sheets to this length. Mix 1/4 of the resin hardener tube with 1/4 of the resin in a container and stir well. Apply with the paint brush onto the cut fiberglass sheet.

Note: The first few application strokes will tend to move the sheet around quite a bit and the sheet won’t form on the beach ball properly but after you have applyed enough resin the sheet will tend to move less and the sheet will become maleable and will form to the desired shape as you direct your brush strokes properly.

Shape and dimension of thruster; you want the resin to extend past the rim of the cockpit but not too much as this will be cut off later. You also want the bottom of the thuster to have a concave shape and the lenght of the thurster should be roughly the same length of the sheet you cut to be just a little past you thigh braces.

Step 3
Lay another cut sheet on the one you have just applied resin too before it drys and mix up another batch of resin and apply the resin to the sheet untill coated completly. Do this to the third sheet and let the layers dry.

Note: The fiberglass sheets I used had a multy directional layout but if you buy the sheets that are uni-directional lay the second sheet out at a 45 degree angle to increase the structural intergrity of your thruster.

Step 4
After the sandwich has dried cut the excess fiberglass sheet of with scissors. Now take the garbage bag skirt combo off your cockpit and lay the sandwich on the cockpit. Trace the rim of your cockpit with a marker. (If you trace any distance beyond the rim of your cockpit your skirt will not fit properly on your cockpit)

Step 5
With sandpaper sand any deffects on the surface of your thruster. Cut the excess sandwich off with the metal cutting hand saw and trace the line you made with the marker. I found it quite effective to cut along the traced line for an inch of cut then i would cut perpindiculer to this line. That way I could remove squares of sandwich off so I could have more room to work within cutting. After you have finnished cuting along the traced line put a layer of tape around your finnished product so you have a smooth edge.

Step 6
Cut a block of foam and shape it to the concavity of the thruster then apply contact cement to both the foam and the thruster. After the contact cement dries mate both surfaces and apply pressure for a few minutes. Now you have a sexy volume enhancing thruster!