I'm not even really sure what happened. It was a big day (>25kts) and there were rocks close to shore. Wouldn't have surprised me to have a new scratch on the bottom of the foil but a bunged up foil tip...that a new one. I tried some superglue/sanding it a little but quickly realized that was in vain. It's as though there was delamination. Is that a thing with carbon foils?
Any suggestions for repair?
I have good pics of the damage but I'm too stupid to figure out how put them inline. Here's an iCloud link: share.icloud.com/photos/0aabXQfUaY10j5HcqtXdKqYOg
should be an easy repair with epoxy and some fairing compound. I would probably epoxy and clamp first and then put epoxy and fairing on in a 2nd step.
Select to expand quotesunsetsailboards said..
should be an easy repair with epoxy and some fairing compound. I would probably epoxy and clamp first and then put epoxy and fairing on in a 2nd step.
Any useful vids on this? Product recommendations?
Yes the layers delaminate. Sometimes its horrific lol
Repair:
If it does not clamp down it gets difficult. Quite hard.
And most of the time it will not clamp back down and it will end up thicker.
Then its grind back and re-laminate .... preferably vacuum bagging and definitely not filler!
I repair way worse all the time, and make it like new.
Don't bog it up like Sunset said, it will be thicker then you shape back down and its weaker.... Come say hi. I have the correct spread-tow carbon to match also.
Mark
MOzCustoms
42 Daly St South Freo
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
Oops forgot you're north of the river 
North of the river indeed. That's the Columbia River. thanks for the suggestions.
Take a look at these threads for pictures and instructions and links to other repairs. Scroll down a bit until you see photos of scary split foils.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/Foiling/Damaged-carbon-wing-tip
kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=196&t=2407240&start=10
I recommend not using filler on split tips
if you clamp it back down with some epoxy inside, happy days.
if it will not quite clamp back down, and its thicker as a result, then you start sanding. That's removing structure. so u end up with a weak tip.
if the first fix doesn't work it is far better to grind back and relaminate the carbon layers. That's hard
but if it cost $1000 why not go pay to get it done right (presuming somebody does near you but yeah I get some folks don't have the option)
I have a related question. How noticeable would that defect be when riding the foil? Subtle because it's so small? Huge because it's acting at the point of greatest leverage?
I ask because my last session on this foil before I noticed the problem (presumably the session wherein the problem developed) was notably poor. I'm no pro foiler but I struggled much more than usual
Short answer, dunno.
Longer answer, I can tell when I get a single strand of sea grass wrapped around my mast. It vibrates. It's a bit slower. The normal foot pressure gets unbalanced.
That suggests a mangled foil tip would feel a bit crap.
I contacted the guy who built my foil and he said to glue it. bog it, sand it. At the time there was nobody around who would fix foils.
In the end it didn't matter. With the broken tip the foil was rooted. A failed fix attempt would just mean a little bit more work for a professional repairer.
The bog fix was still going 500 hours later and the refurbish has taken it to 850 hours and I learned how to laminate carbon. It's pretty easy and quite fun to do.
It's sort of a precision job so the quantities of resin are tiny, 1-5 grams per batch. I bought some drug dealer scales for weighing out the resin and little silicone cups for mixing. You can do a batch of resin and apply a coat and clean up in about 10 minutes.
The simplest approach would be best. A little epoxy maybe with some black pigment in there, clamp it together, sand and go. You'll sell it in six months anyway.
