Is my board worth repariing?

[johnarmitage]

2006 Mistral Syncro. It cracked around the drain plug six months after purchase in 2008, but no weight gain. Got a warranty repair from Big Ben, but it soon leaked again. I dug out the whole plug and glassed it over, but it still pisses.

Specs say the board should weigh 15.6 lbs. Actual weight is often 10% more, and now it weights 19lbs. (my brand new 104l sincere is a pound over its weight too...footstraps plus ??)

I guess it has logged 2-3 lbs of water. Still sails OK but obviously less float.

Water would be near to the drain hole with the existing repair.

Any advice? what would it cost?

John

[superkraut]

a repair only makes sense if you can find someone to evacuate the water. without, any repair will be contaminated with moisture and doomed

[ERROR!!!]

A repaired board is heavier and won't satisfy you. The enjoyment and recreation that you get from a new board will be worth it. Give your old equipment away on Craig's List or this forum unless you know of a kid who would want it or you live near a lake. I always remove my plug and store it in the universal slot of my board and close the latch. When I rig up, I ALWAYS immediately screw in the screw (so I can't forget). I keep my boards in board bags. Try to avoid over-heating your board. I don't expect my board to last more than two seasons. Do your part to keep windsurfing thriving. Someone should always be windsurfing somewhere.

[windfind]

I agree with Error. Once water and various ions and organics in the water enter a board and bond with the foam it is hard to get the water out. If you can get the weight back to normal do a repair otherwise shop for a another board. Good excuse for a Gorge trip since there are lots of used boards here cheap.

Interesting how different boards give you different perspectives about necessary board care.

I have never touched the vent plug of any of my or my wife's 6 Real Wind boards from 90 to 65 liters since the day of purchase. I drive over high mountain passes all the time, never use a board bag and leave the boards in the hot Gorge or Baja sun for weeks at a time. (Yes, I know this is board abuse but I have more important things to baby)

And some of the boards are stored 9 months per year in a sealed non vented metal & concrete shed in La Ventana where the summer temps inside have to reach 130 degrees.

Most of these boards are 3-10 years old and so far no weight change according to my digital scale and no shape or performance changes after hundreds of jumps.

The sole exception is the one Real Wind board that got a hairline crack from a mast smack when I was trying to do a trick above my skill level.

I wonder what it is with different construction techniques that make it critical to use the vent for some boards while for others vent use does not seem to matter.

What I do know is that I have heard of a lot more boards ruined by a forgotten vent plug than by lack of venting.

Mike Godsey

[flaherty]

Interesting Mike. My RW 250 delamed in Maui this year. Rw has like a small cult following at Kanaha, and one lady there ( Marcie) has had two of them delam. She has a whole quiver of them ,like you. I luckyly got to replace the 250 with a 247 RW fish, it's an awesome board. As is every RW I've sailed, but now I take out the vent plug, and store it in the chinook universal base.

[superkraut]

good for you, flaherty! because I was known to be able and put them back to rights, I saw more delams than most, I suppose, maybe 70 altogether in my 15 years of repairing. Most of them had not received the benefit of venting, most of them had been ridden hard. Most healthy boards will not blow, but well used ones might, due to fatigue. So for myself, I open the plugs when I put my boards away for the night.

[johnarmitage]

Thanks for the advice folks. I actually have already bought an new/used Syncro, but the 104l vs the 92. Maybe this can be my new high wind board (I'm 6'5", 220lbs).

I'll see what the performance difference is, and then decide. The 92 still sails fine, its just not as floaty anymore. Maybe save it for the extreme days when less width might be worth it.

Wow, most boards last only two years? I owned my Mistral Custom 95 (bought used/like new for $600 in 1998). Sailed it 7 seasons, at about 30 days/season, big jumps and hard landings at TI, the Gorge, Waddell, even brought it to France for a mere one day in the Mediterranean.

Then again I like Mistral for their durability...maybe due to my size. I destroyed two F2s (the first warranty replaced) in four years before finding the Custom. Maybe that's closer to the norm.

the Custom's rear deck delammed in 2007, got it repaired nicely and sailed it one more season (and then replaced it with the Syncro 92).

Is now on loan to K-Rad who broke his board in two last season at TI (and sailed it in btw, held together by the top decking). And working fine from the reports, except that the original fin snapped clean off, again off TI at Buoy 4 and resulting in a CG rescue that cost him his rig.

Interesting that how I trashed the first F2 was by blowing out the finbox through extreme lateral force. Obviously I had worked that fin to exhaustion.

[isobars]

[gerritt]

I guess I expect a lot more from my bag of beads. I wish they still made boards the way they used to circa 2004 to 2008. I've got 2 RRD's that I am still using 10 years on. They are the carbon kevlar layups. I also sail a LOT. 139 days last year. 85 and counting this year.

I've killed Alphas, Seatrends, customs, F2's (soft deck is correct), Mistral, and Quatro. But those RRD's just won't die. I estimate they have over 500 days each, ridden hard and put a away wet - with vent plug open.

Before those RRD's, I used to expect about a year to two out of a board. But now I know the technology is there to do much much better. I think the manufacturers simply don't want to build a board that lasts too long. Doing so only lessens demand and with such a small market, they need to make sure the new models sell.

I'd be interested to hear the board lady's opinion on the best manufacturing techniques and whether two years is all we should expect out of a nearly $3000.00 investment - assuming one pays full retail, which most of us rarely do. Sticker shock indeed. For that price, it better last more than two years. Alas, price and build quality rarely correlate.

[johnarmitage]

I guess to get more precise, the lifespan is in sailing days, or even sailing hours.

30 days per year at 2 hrs/session = 60 hours of sailing.

My Syncros cost $900 new, and $450 like new.

How many days/hours per year does everyone else sail?