r0d forum posts in last 60 days

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Jeroensurf said..
I have a Sunova DW board from last year, and my topcoat chips quite easy. It is waterproof, just doesnt look that nice.the seccond I see glass i use a bit of epoxi (not warm enoughh to use solarez at the moment).

I have done a ton of board and foil repairs (happy to share pics) and I think Jeroen has it exactly right. You've chipped the top coat and exposed the laminate. It also looks like there is a small crack emanating from the chipped top coat. If it was my board I would slighty scrape out the crack and fill that and the chip with some epoxy resin and microballoons / silica (to make a paste like mix). It is very hard to know if the board is leaking just from looking at it... it probably isn't but...It's 20 min fix and worth it for peace of mind.

I have Mikeslab foils, AFS foils (very similar mast fuse connection) and have had Axis and Unifoil (both use the mast into fuse connection).
The unifoil connection is incredible, it works like a tuttle box, in that the wedge shaped top of the mast gets tighter into the fuse during use.
It's the strongest I've ever used. The bolts can fall out and it makes no difference.

However the AFS and Mikeslab connection is much more streamlined and (after 3yrs of hundreds of sessions) definitely strong enough. Even with (3) M6 bolts on Mikeslab.

Mikeslab have had a variant of this connection since before 2020 on their early Bullet kitefoils, basically everyone else now using similar (duotone, afs, f-one, f4, cabrinha etc) have copied them, overtly or otherwise, mostly in the last 2 / 3 years.

So I would say unifoil has the strongest connection, but Mikeslab the most streamlined and the most tested.

What is amazing is that given the Mikeslab connection was out there pre 2020 is how awful other early foil connections were. Clearly not learning from the competition. Eg My 2021 Slingshot foils had a simple butt joint between mast and fuse.