Foil board Repair Job - The new nose you all need

The Joy of WindFoiling is 100% correlated to the chance of catapulting and striking the nose of your beloved board with the mast while your hooked in, often unexpected when only moments ago you were having a great time feeling totally in control!

This video was the last in a series of crashes that have afflicted my awesome FMX 187 Hyperion. These boards are amazing, which is why I wasn't ready to part with it. But after spending nearly $1000 repairing it last time, I decided this time I would try myself.








I looked into Vacuum bagging, but decided to avoid the extra expense and complexity, instead planning to overfill the cavity with micro-bead filled epoxy filler, and squeezing it tightly to press any excess out.

Step 1 - Cleaning Up Causing Collateral Damage

After drying the board out (hopefully obvious) the first step is to clean up the damaged area... which may involve causing more damage. I did use a saw to cut a few straight lines, and some power tools to clean inside the front nose area. Try not to over-sand and cut through the carbon, which of course I did do a few times.



Step 2 - Delamination Catastrophication

During the clean up and inspection it became obvious that one section of the underside skin had delaminates about 25x50cm. This was a bit of a problem, but actually easier to fix while the skin is open. I ordered a large 100mm syringe and tube online which came in very handy for squeezing epoxy into the small gap while the board was raised on one side... allowing the resin to fall deeper into the grooves. I rolled the board around all axis' a few times before weighting the skin down with a bag of fertiliser (25kg) and a water bottle (5kg) to ensure good contact between the skin and foam. 24hours later the board seemed to be relaminated successfully without the need for a vacuum.











Step 3 - Filling In The Groove

Next I had a rather large gap to fill. Previously I had made the mistake of using expanding foam to fill a cavity. DO NOT USE EXPANDING BUILDERS FOAM! It is hydroscopic and soaks up water. While I am at it... do not use silicon to seal a gap temporarily either as it will make subsequent repairs harder.

Instead I used a foam esky, cut to size. Small pieces where needed, carefully shaped with a sharpe knife. Sawing back and forth will cut and give a smooth surface, while pressing hard to cut will often tear the foam beads apart leaving a rough surface!.








Reinforcing was applied with some DivinyCell hard foam about 10mm thick. Some extra DivinyCell was used as vertical reinforcement.





Step 4 - Glassing Down

With all the inserts cut to size I next needed to cut the reinforcing fibre-glass to slot between layers of foam to help the epoxy bond. I had to trim a few of the foam pieces again as the fibreglass added a mm of thickness and I didn't want the foam to dome and create an air pocket!



Step 5 - Getting Wet

Finally the big day came... time to get wet. With all the pieces laid out, I mixed up some filler with about 2 parts glass bead powder to 1 part epoxy resin. Although I didn't, it is probably best to mix the resin first and adding the glass to the mix. I had some slow harder left over for a small batch which I tend to prefer. The new bottle of fast hardener can overheat much more easily if over concentrated, which can melt foam!

With all the obvious gaps filled, I inserted the foam pieces, a bridging piece of glass wetted with pure epoxy resin, more foam, more filler, more glass mat and more pure resin.

With everything wet, I wrapped the repair in a layer of 'Peel-Ply' which is designed to absorb excess resin and let it break off easily.







Step 6 - Clamp It

Quickly so nothing had time to set yet I covered the peel-ply with some cling wrap then a board to the underside so I could clamp it down with some large G-Clamps and load spreading timber. Flipping the board over I squashed the deck down with another trusty 25kg of potting mix. I also used some flexible water filled ice-bags to smooth out the load.














Step 7 - Sand Back

My intention is to let all this dry, then sand back the exposed DivinyCell that remains above deck height.

Step 8 - Carbon Wrap

Then I will apply the exterior carbon layer without any external pressure, just careful 'stippling' with an epoxy soaked paintbrush to wet the carbon and ensure no bubbles are introduced.

Select to expand quote

powersloshin said..
I would have rounded the angles of that cut, also make sure you stagger the layers of carbon on top, so as not to create a stress line

Thanks Georgio, good idea... for next time.

It may help to mask off anything you don't want extraneous epoxy on - helps great later when sanding as you don't have to worry about sanding graphics or thinning the skin unnecessarily. Blue painters tape has been a good friend to me.

Peel ply really helps show how much excess resin you have used...

Select to expand quote

berowne said..
Question... does spray paint have enough "stick" to hold sand on for the deck regrip or do I need to mix up some epoxy sand mix and paint it on??

I've used clear spray enamel before with decent results but I was using acrylic dust (non-skid) not sand. Since you are doing the nose where there isn't much actual "foot traffic", I'd be inclined to say it will be just fine if you use something like that.

www.international-yachtpaint.com/en/au/boat-paint-products/topcoat-finishes/intergrip
more consistent than sand

Blue masking tape can absorb epoxy too!

I need a good name for my boat after all this effort...

Flying High
Crash Bandicoot
Hammer Head
Steve
the Mistress
Sir Far
Ondine
The flying Aussie

Forgot to weight it before I started...
name is an interesting one, crossed my mind Georgio

^^^ There are some crashes that a nose protector would do nothing....this was one of them, as I was sailing literally next to Berowne I can testify to that

Nice job Berowne

PS, Pro tip; when cutting carbon spray a light coat of spray contact adhesive over the mat, stops the threads coming apart and keeps it far more 'together', much easier than blue tape. You can also put perforated release film between the carbon and the peel ply, gives a shiny finish and requires far less sanding.

After about 3 coats of Dulux Satin White, I'm really happy with the finish. A few minutes of orbital sanding with 1200 grit wten dry to smooth out the micro-roughness.

Tiny bit of running I couldn't be bothered with, and some paint blending around the nose I'll sand back tomorrow.

Next up, I bought 12mm EVA foam (1sqrm) that I'll cut to shape and stick down with contact adhesive.

Select to expand quote

berowne said..


I have some spare!

there is a higher probability than average that you might need it in the future