Wow my Dad is pretty smart with the old bung trick
God bless and goodnight

yes i do mainly leave my bungs in, BUT my mate and myself both delaminated a board on the same occassion from leaving them in a hot car on the same day.
Both boards popped their bottoms the next sail.
Another friend of mine who stores his boards under the tarp on his ute has popped two boards!.
Basically if it is hot and you leave your board in the car / under ute cover then take bung out . The only board left out of 10 of one brand that i bought into the state many years ago is the board that has always had its bung removed. that says something.
Anyway here is a pic of the chinook base method that us tassies love. Perfect and simple. It is just big enough that it does not fall out. Try it!. i personally leave my track position once i find the spot i want so fixed plate no probs.

I know sh%t little about windsurfing,but I use to repair large fibreglass reinforced concrete panels on multi storey buildings.Sometimes they had massive amounts of water behind them which soaked the concrete making them impossible to repair in this wet state.We use to drill holes in them and put in a "wick"to drain the water out.It takes time,but evapouration might be your best friend to dry your board out.But definately not the sun.
Ian

Sailhack said...

Fancy-shmancy systems...I gave up on the 'proper' way to remove the moisture & simply cut a strip off our mop 'wick' (about 250x10x2mm strip), inserted it into the screw vent on the board & placed it out in the sun on 'warm' days - left it in there most of the time & in the shed on 'hot' days and in winter sat it in our spare bedroom (ducted heating = dry air). After about 30mins the 'wick' is dripping wet, which evaporates & draws more moisture out (convective evaporation?). That removed 'most' of the moisture over a period of time...

...then again, my board is now shagged, so don't try this cheap-skate method...although it does work ok if you only got a small bit of water in the board (hit water, notice screw missing instantly, oops, jump off board & return to shore). Also if you've got heaps of time, too lazy to set up a vac system and aren't overly worried about your 'old' board.

Mark's method will ensure the longevity of your board.

I hope all you bung removers give the the bung a good licking before reinserting!

I've seen situatuins where sand grains on the bung have caused it to leak.

Mobydisc said...

<snip>

What alternative is there to these fragile boards that suck in water if the hull is not intact? I'd be willing to buy a plastic board that weighs two or three kgs more but is extremely tough.

So put your money where your mouth is and buy a BIC! I think there are some Mistrals still made like this too.

I think a few of these are still made as a plastic ASA construction.

No vent screw, and a tough plastic skin.

Tell us which one you buy.

Mobydisc said...

What alternative is there to these fragile boards that suck in water if the hull is not intact?

Go custom, Get them to make the core out of closed cell foam and from what I hear these don't take on water. I hope that's the case, My new quad is rumored to be made out of this....Hope so! Apparently they don't use it because of weight but my new board is 115L and weighs in at 7.0 kgs on the dot, That's light enough for me.

....and custom don't cost any more then production boards and you get to do anything you want as far as design.

Mark _australia said...

I think all those who say they never remove the vent screw need to qualify their remarks with where they live and what sort of heat their board sees. Garage to car parked in shade, yeah maybe you can get away with it.

My gear lives in my car so I can sail after work so every day for 3 months it sees 15 deg to about 60+ degrees cycling. That is a lot of expansion and contraction.

Why take the chance? geared4knots has seen it happen (even in Tas?) - 2 boards on the same day is not a random event it was obviously the heat

Leave it undone that's what it is there for....... unless sailing or straps are dripping wet and it is in a bag. Even then if straps are damp just undo vent, bag it and leave bag open about a foot on one side.

I would suspect that some boards are more prone to it due to their construction. My mate stores his gear in his van, parked in the street all year round. It is Sydney and probably not as hot as WA but we do get some hot ones.

The same guy also forgot to remove the bungs when we went for a sailing trip to Fiji. We thought for sure they would have popped in the plane, but they were fine.

So I wonder what is the deal with my Fanatic sups, they dont have bungs!

I'm sorry to hear too...as a woman I would have taken it to a board repairer...because I don't tinker in the shed.

shear tip said...

I wonder why there aren'e more board manufacturers using gore-tex vents like CarbonArt? Simply not an issue for scatter-brains like myself...

It's probably because tight arse board manufacturers don't want to spend $2 on the goretex valve.
It's like steel board bag zippers.why anyone would make a bag with a steel zip when plastic is obviously so much better and unaffected by salt water is beyond me.

sorry about my last post few too many shandies yesterday.

anyway here is photo of some of the damage. the crack runs all the way round and half way across the top. there is also a smaller one on the tail.


this looks repairable sure, but worse is the fact the whole board is warped and delaminated.

once again pretty stupid

thanks for the board loan offers but i yesterday purchased a second hand fanatic quad, which im looking forwrd to giving a go this weekend at the NSW wave comp, seen plenty of good comments on these boards.

i do recommend a nude chopper to anyone considering one of them. really surfs well and carves hard. works well as quad or twin.

What a bummer Dunko!
When I first got my boards I was paranoid re vent plugs.I had a sign on cardboard -vent plug! that I kept in my board bag on the footstraps so I was reminded everytime I opened them. I got into the habit of screwing up the plug everytime I put the fin in but today I didn't.. I think I thought I'd wait till the last minute as the board is blue & it was out in the sun so i didn't want it overheating..
I went out for an hours sail and came in and realised the plug was in but not tight..@##$. Luckily it was only 5-7kts of wind and flat water and I didn't plane so I don't think much got in..
Someone once told me to suck on the vent to see if there was any water in it so I did and there was a little bit first go but none after..maybe water sitting in the top? Anyway I've put a wick of tissue in it after taking the plug out and the wick is dry ??..Serious lack of hot sunny days here this season so I can't see me placing it out in the sun to evaporate much.
How do you know if there is enough water in it to be a problem? What sort of extra weight can it get with water and if it delaminates can it be fixed by a repairer?
I don't really feel its a big issue today as the wind was so light and the sail a really dry one but I'm interested.

sboardcrazy said...

What a bummer Dunko!
When I first got my boards I was paranoid re vent plugs.I had a sign on cardboard -vent plug! that I kept in my board bag on the footstraps so I was reminded everytime I opened them. I got into the habit of screwing up the plug everytime I put the fin in but today I didn't.. I think I thought I'd wait till the last minute as the board is blue & it was out in the sun so i didn't want it overheating..
I went out for an hours sail and came in and realised the plug was in but not tight..@##$. Luckily it was only 5-7kts of wind and flat water and I didn't plane so I don't think much got in..
Someone once told me to suck on the vent to see if there was any water in it so I did and there was a little bit first go but none after..maybe water sitting in the top? Anyway I've put a wick of tissue in it after taking the plug out and the wick is dry ??..Serious lack of hot sunny days here this season so I can't see me placing it out in the sun to evaporate much.
How do you know if there is enough water in it to be a problem? What sort of extra weight can it get with water and if it delaminates can it be fixed by a repairer?
I don't really feel its a big issue today as the wind was so light and the sail a really dry one but I'm interested.

leave it with me, i'll get that water out.

or just mabey u leave it in tight all the time and get the same result...witch is nothing

Anyone in Newcastle ( other than Dunko.a reputable repairperson who could dry out my board? Also if it's a few days after the vent was left out that I get it to them is that too late?

sboardcrazy said...

Anyone in Newcastle ( other than Dunko.a reputable repairperson who could dry out my board? Also if it's a few days after the vent was left out that I get it to them is that too late?

If you put a wick in it within a day or so and it was dry, no probs