Bay Area Ding Repair

[wandrian]

Hi,

I am looking for a good ding repair person in the Bay Area (I went and cracked the nose). Does anyone have any recommendations?

Cheers,
Matt

[weihlac]

http://forums.iwindsurf.com/viewtopic.php?t=15074

[jordanwd]

epoxy resin and 800 grid wet sand paper.. less than 7 bucks at home depo...

[wandrian]

Thanks for the replies.

It is not a deep crack, so maybe I can fix it myself. Does Home Depot sell the UV stabilized epoxy and if not, does anyone know where I can get some? I read that the normal stuff yellows and you have to spray paint over it.

Thanks,

Matt

[LeeD]

You gotta spray paint over any kind of "UV stabilized" epoxy anyways.
But go for something better than HomeDepot if possible, like WestMarine's systems.
If you don't paint over, it looks like do do crap, semi transluscent gray ugly mess.
Most paintovers shield away the UV's.

[swchandler]

For an excellent repair resource, check out the BoardLady's website.

http://www.boardlady.com/index.htm

[DonORiordan]

To avoid future nose cracks, I recommend installing some kind of a pad on your mast, about 4-5 inches below the boom head (i.e. close to where the boom attaches to your mast). Something like the pad in the link below may work.

http://www.the-house.com/dk330zzdakinemastpad.html

The reason for the 4-5 inch gap is to give you somewhere to put your hand on the mast while tacking etc....
Note that these pads are normally installed on the foot of the mast, to protect the sides of your board, your feet etc. But there is nothing to stop you putting a second one higher up as I recommend here. Since I've started doing this, I don't think I've had any nose dings.

There are other "solutions" out there like
(a) stick a nose pad on your board (I find these kinda ugly, but they work I guess)
(b) use a "deviator". These are evil. They make it very hard to fly the sail when waterstarting, and there is a strong magnetic like attraction between the hardest parts of these and the most sensitive parts of your feet i.e. pain inducing, especially when tacking.

[wandrian]

Thanks for all the good advice.

LeeD : I am going to take a trip down to WestMarine tonight to get some of the decent stuff.

swchandler: I will read the info on her site, tonight. It looks very useful.

DonORiordan: Thanks for the tip. I will try the pad idea. I may even stick a bit of hd foam on the nose, if I can bare the look of it.
I was using a deviator for a while, but as you said it made water starting a nightmare (I am learning as well). It also made foot placement for tacking a little tricky. So I took it off, and then first time out I cracked the nose. Typical!

Thanks again,
Matt

[chophop]

Does the epooxy resin work better than epoxy ding stick for small repairs on small cracks or holes?

[koogzah]

Marine-Tex