Despite foiling with a Surfbent device attached I managed to do some minor damage to the nose of my fairly new Fanatic Stingray board.

These are fairly minor cracks but I'm looking for advice on what do about them (if anything):

Option 1: don't worry about them, it's minor, do nothing
Option 2: quick and dirty option, put some duct tape over it. Will this cause other issues when the tape comes off? If I put duct tape on for only a couple of days/weeks as interim solution will it likely cause damage (e.g. pain peeling off) to the board when I pull it off?
Option 3: superglue or some other readily available product over the cracks
Option 4: buy a specialised repair kit, apply, sand, paint, etc.

Other options?

Note that bottom pic below shows board fitted with newly installed Unifibre nose protector.

That's not damage :)

Looks like flexing from the hit caused paint cracking only. If its not soft, do nothing.

Mark I was going to say the opposite, looks like damage to me. But you can't know for sure without digging a little deeper

If after drying board standing on its nose/cracked area with a piece of folded up paper towel under crack and you do not see significant water wetting paper, then it is minor, keep changing paper towel until it stays dry, can also heat area using a hair drier to make sure there is no water trapped under the surface. Then make some devcon 2 part water proof uv resistant epoxy and allow to let set up for 5-10 min. then wipe area with epoxy using a nitrile gloved finger and set board so epoxy pools around crack.

If you want it to be invisible, get some acrylic paint from a craft store, 1 oz bottles, and mix paint to match the board color and paint cured epoxy.

And I would check that the new nose protector keeps mast off the nose, it looks like it is a little too far back at the nose apex. See my nose protector below. You want padding to cover the flat surface of the nose all the way to where it starts to curve at the very tip of the nose.

I would not risk it. Scrape the loose paint and suck-yes, give a hickey to your board-on the cracks to see if they are water tight. Regardless, If I were you, I would do a simple repair (check the board lady website for instructions if needed). you don't need to go fancy with carbon, kevlar, etc. Just two or three pieces of glass and you are good to go (previous sanding, of course).

Scrape loose stuff with a flat screwdriver or knife.
Sand down until cracks look very fine or maybe even gone.
Glass over a couple of small layers increasing size of patches.
Sand smooth and paint.

I wouldn't bother fixing that.
Most of my boards are covered in those.
Sail it 'till it drops.

Show it to Juergen, he is the master repairer in Melb, and will know whether it is serious
Fanatic make a light factory nose protector, about to stick one on both my Stingrays 125 and 140

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Shifu said..
I wouldn't bother fixing that.
Most of my boards are covered in those.
Sail it 'till it drops.

Agreed. Its paint cracks
If its not soft, leave it.

So I took the advice that I liked which was that it is minor damage and simply put a Severne sticker over the top of the crack.

Having now bought and applied a Unifiber nose protector and combined with my Surfbent device I felt safe that I was okay to go out again. But no, it wasn't to be and first crash I had a put a new crack in the nose. So frustrating, I'd hate to know what damage I would have done without Surfbent and the nose protector.

@Sandman1221 I think you're right about the nose protector not properly covering the nose, unfortunately the Unifiber XL model doesn't allow one to properly cover the Stingray nose.

This is really annoying but I think given the damage that's happened I'm going to have to bite the bullet and remove the Unifibre nose protector and get a dedicated Fanatic one (which I didn't realise existed). Has anyone removed a nose protector that's been glued to a board? Does it come off clean by slowing peeling it off or am I going to rip off paint or more?

@Peter Hands, where did you get your nose protector for your Stingray 140 and is this the type you got? BoardCrazy in Queensland has the below but only for the 125.
boardcrazy.com.au/shop/windsurfing/components/noseshield-stingray/

Probably for another thread but I'm really close to throwing out the Surfbent. It's caused damage to both my brand new FoilGlide2 sail (which mentioned in another thread) as well as causing damage to my new mast extension (warping the plastic into the release button). I'm also concerned about what it might be doing to the tendon. Given the mast is reaching its way to the board over the wall of the Surfbent this implies the tendon is being stretched beyond belief to allow the mast to reach over. I could maybe live with the Surfbent if my board was at least getting protected but given the results I'm really close to tossing this "marvellous" device into the Buy/Sell section.

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cleverku said..
So I took the advice that I liked which was that it is minor damage and simply put a Severne sticker over the top of the crack.

Having now bought and applied a Unifiber nose protector and combined with my Surfbent device I felt safe that I was okay to go out again. But no, it wasn't to be and first crash I had a put a new crack in the nose. So frustrating, I'd hate to know what damage I would have done without Surfbent and the nose protector.

@Sandman1221 I think you're right about the nose protector not properly covering the nose, unfortunately the Unifiber XL model doesn't allow one to properly cover the Stingray nose.

This is really annoying but I think given the damage that's happened I'm going to have to bite the bullet and remove the Unifibre nose protector and get a dedicated Fanatic one (which I didn't realise existed). Has anyone removed a nose protector that's been glued to a board? Does it come off clean by slowing peeling it off or am I going to rip off paint or more?

@Peter Hands, where did you get your nose protector for your Stingray 140 and is this the type you got? BoardCrazy in Queensland has the below but only for the 125.
boardcrazy.com.au/shop/windsurfing/components/noseshield-stingray/

IMHO I'd I'd be really concerned wit the large crack you have in the nose then running along the rail!!!

Yes now it needs a repair. That's a proper crack

Yeah I've got a minor crack too.
I'll write a blog on the repair once I'm done... over Easter :)

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berowne said..
Yeah I've got a minor crack too.
I'll write a blog on the repair once I'm done... over Easter :)

Yeah, just chuck a Severne sticker over the top of it like I did, she'll be alright. LOL!

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cleverku said..
... I'm going to have to bite the bullet and remove the Unifibre nose protector and get a dedicated Fanatic one (which I didn't realise existed).

Before you do, read what the boardlady says about nose protectors at boardlady.com/noseprotection.htm
She reports that she found hidden damage under 90% of the boards with rigid nose protectors that she looked at. The rigid protectors do an excellent job at hiding the damage, but not such a great job at preventing damage!

One often ignored way to minimize nose damage is to use shorter masts, at least with freeride foils. They force you to control flight height more carefully, which over time reduces breaches. And with a relatively long board like the Stingray, breaches with a shorter mast are often easy to recover from, since the nose does not did into the water. Once you improved both your height control and breach recovery, you can go back to longer masts. I just returned from a trip where water depth forced me to use a 71 cm mast for a few months. After a while, you barely notice the missing 20 cm. Unfortunately, I can't tell you if I damaged the nose on my Stingray, because it came with the Fanatic nose protector. I plan to remove it when the weather gets warmer, and perhaps re-mount it with some padding between board and protector, as the Boardlady suggests.

My Stingray protection pack - custom paint job just for fun - mast padding will help prevent hidden damage underneath, plus SRs are built tough - will look for thick double sided tape to stick them on as yet another shock absorber, but liquid nails is tempting

With all that, no more Surfbent - great product, but shreds tendons and sail sleeves

Protectors came from BoardCrazy
Juergen is in Beaumaris 0411 266 758

Love my 110 mast, could never go back

I have blasts and that square nose shape is very prone to damage. I have had falcons and they were weak on the nose too i think its a Fanatic thing. Im a fan of the "suck it and see" approach....literally. A good suck, any air salt or water coming out and you know the skin is penetrated so water can get in and it needs fixing. Im very handy with materials glass resin etc but for speed efficiency, and cosmetics it is always best to go for a pro repair. Finding that unicorn repairer here in Sydney is the thing. My big blast has a bad nose crash and I don't know whom I trust to fix it. Most repairers I have spoken to seem to have no idea what vacuum bagging is or how to seal a Poly foam core with epoxy carbon and graft on PU foam blocks etc. Good luck!

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Peter Hands said..
My Stingray protection pack - custom paint job just for fun - mast padding will help prevent hidden damage underneath, plus SRs are built tough - will look for thick double sided tape to stick them on as yet another shock absorber, but liquid nails is tempting

With all that, no more Surfbent - great product, but shreds tendons and sail sleeves

Protectors came from BoardCrazy
Juergen is in Beaumaris 0411 266 758

Love my 110 mast, could never go back

@Peter Hands - How well does the mast protector stick in place to the mast? I'm using an RDM mast with a cammed sail (Foilglide2) so dubious about whether that thing will stick in place.

BoardCrazy only seem to stock the SDM model but found an RDM version available here
wssboards.com.au/ion-mast-board-protector-s-rdm/

Looks like a minor crack, but needs repair nevertheless - otherwise it might absorb moisture and water.

What I usually do in such minor cases, is use epoxy glue or epoxy-based plaster - like the below:


Just looking at your screenshot, I wouldn't take the board to the water any more before at least gluing the crack. This should only be used as a temporary solution however, and take it to a proper repair shop once the wind dies down.

Hope this helps - best regards