So i've been eyeing off some of the amazing carbonco boards, but don't quite have the budget yet. Anyway, it occurred to me I have a 110cm carbon board already, being a turn-of-the-millenium Underground Wave Tray 110. Dusted it off, cleaned up the rails and a few dings, gave it a quick paint job, and banged a foil on it - works a treat.

There are lots of great posts on here on building a pocket board/nicely converting a twintip - this isn't that. Here's a brief run-down of my methodology if you're not inclined to put a lot of effort in.

a) match drill the base to your foil mount (i'm using 4 point) with a pilot hole
b) drill it out to 10mm and fill with epoxy (i used some solar cure stuff lying around for ding repair)
c) once it has set, re-drill to 8mm (i went with M8 for consistency with my existing foil setup, but do what you want, i don't care - easier to find M6 in stainless)
d) get some SS316 bolts (I used, M8 x 35mm with countersunk head) with the largest washer you can find
e) bolt on, put some deck grip on and go foiling
f) oh, i almost forgot - before you do that, do a quick float test in the bath (bang some weights on the board to make sure the whole thing doesn't sink).

if you have the skill and inclination weld the bolts to the washers, then epoxy the washers to the deck (so it works the same as a t-nut/insert and you don't have to screw around with the bolts when you connect the foil) - then cover the lot with deck grip. I added a bunch of closed-cell EVA as the float test was marginal and i wanted to be able to have a bit of buoyancy for lighter wind. It is obviously much flasher to put a t-nut in but this is a super-thin board and i didn't really want to cut into the deck to recess them (and more relevant i couldn't find any off the shelf in M8). I do feel a lot more confident in the giant washers spreading the load a bit.

Took it out today and works a treat - its a bit narrower (~40cm) than ideal and the thickness of the EVA makes it a tiny bit spongey (i got 25mm because it was easy to get, 10mm would have been better and would have been heaps of buoyancy), but it is quite nice to have a bit of softness in the deck.

If you have a TT lying around that isn't getting much use its definitely worth a bash. I will probably stay with my primary board for a bit longer until i have transitions totally dialed, as i totally sucked at them when on this, but once i'm more proficient then pocket boards will be my go to!

Nice work. That will keep you on the water for a season or three.

Using a rivet nut and large washer can give you a insert

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RAL INN said..
Using a rivet nut and large washer can give you a insert

Nice, that was originally what i was looking for! i had some in M6 but i couldn't find M8 in 316 locally.

My first board I drilled little holes for the four teeth on each t-nut but on projects since then I just snap the teeth off, file the underside flat, and use a little resin to glue them in place. I used m8 for my first couple but now I'm on Armstrong I've used m6 on a twintip conversion and a board I've built from scratch (pawlonia core with s-glass and uni carbon). With any wood-core board I think pull-through is highly unlikely. The main reason to reinforce the mount area (top and bottom) is to reduce flex and to reduce point-load stress at the front of the mast pedestal.

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CH3MTR4IL5 said..

RAL INN said..
Using a rivet nut and large washer can give you a insert

Nice, that was originally what i was looking for! i had some in M6 but i couldn't find M8 in 316 locally.

M6 is more than enough

The duotone foil is recessed for M8's and mu north board uses M8's so it seemed sensible to stay with that!