Nose repair advice! Please.....

Just been lurking recently, but you've been keeping me entertained.

Damaged the nose of my Techno 273 again (surely the worst board for getting easily damaged, or is it just me). My latest effort has resulted in such a mess that I have ended up chopping about 2.5 inches off the nose to leave it square. I have some glass fibre mat and some west system epoxy, I don't reckon I need that extra 2.5 inches that I keep damaging anyway.

What is the best (and easiest) way to seal the nose? I can't work out how to wrap the mat around the nose (two 90 degree angles) and make it stick without leaving air gaps or wrinkles in the mat. Also how many layers do I need over the polystyrene (?) core.

I've hunted through the archives and the West systems website so know the basics about epoxy work.

Any advice on my specific problem gratefully received, any comments on my ineptitude & stupidity are probably deserved.

ordinary 'boat' mat will not work with your Epoxy resin (the binder is Styrene-soluble, and Styrene (fortunately) is not a constituent of Epoxy). Get some cloth instead, 4oz or so. It will drape over your curvateous nose much easier than mat, and wets out more easily as well. 3 or 4 layers should do it. Drop me an e-mail if you want detailed photos of Techno nose repairs

Thank you eva, I was hoping you would chip in. I did read that bit on the west system site so bought Powder bond mat as opposed to ordinary mat. Will cloth be better than this?

Is this despite having, or because you haven't yet added, a nose pad and mast pad?

Mike m/

I think it will be smart to fill the gap you created by cutting off the bow before fibreglassing it. You will need to clean out all the broken material and fill it with epoxy /microbaloons and if the gap is big you may want to throw some fiberglass in there too. When everthing is dry then reshape the bow with a sanding block and 60 grit. Then get some light cloth like 4oz and glass the bottom first and rap over the nose(2 layers) about four inches back from the tip of the bow. Then when dry sand the slag off the top and glas the top the same way. Then sand the slag off. Then paint some epoxy/microbaloon mixture over the glass top and bottom. Sand smooth and paint.

Heavy man, heavy. Seriously, I'd avoid filling with epoxy -even amended with silica or whatever. Makes for a very brittle nose. Chopped glass as a filler helps, but nothing is better for meaningful strength to weight than fitting a small piece of foam to get the nose back to where it was and then laminate. 2.5 inches is a lot of thickness.

On the other hand, ignore the shape of the tip and just get to it. If you can stand the aesthetics then by all means begin to laminate. But I don't think you want that much weight way up front, weight that simply can't take a hit.

Mast pad and Jez's knob yes, Deck pads no. I thought I had got through the worst of my catapulting stage (no damage for more than 6 months), but sailed into a sandbank.

Thanks for the advice, I was also wondering about the technicalities of wrapping the fibreglass round the nose and getting it to stick. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it will be hard to keep in place while the epoxy sets. Any comments/ideas?

Cheers,

You could try setting the board up on end, wrapping in the glass and epoxy, then taping the whole thing up.

Brian

The information I read (from a supplier in this country not from West) suggests that thin cloth is difficult to wet out and says that 'Adhesion between 2 layers of fabric is poor and should be avoided'

Is this correct?

Cheers

preparation, perparation, preparation... Fiberglass cannot go over sharp edges, or span hollows with impunity, so you need to substantially round things and fill to an easy shape with near-perfect surface. Also, many layers of a thin material will lie down more easily than one layer of thick material. If absolutely necessary, you can cut your material a bit long, and use tape on the (dry) edges