Obviously when if comes to sail and boards coloring the most important this days and aesthetics.

Nobody bother much how much heat management - or how hot they got left of the Sun.

So there we have - soft spots on the boards - breaking carbon masts while laying still on the grass.

I suggest that one day manufactures could think about heat management and color / paint their products in such way to avoid sunshine heat absorption. Boards for example could be tested and temperature compared - while different color used for top and bottom.

For sails - to avoid spontaneously breaking masts - the leading edge of the sail - 10 cm of mast pocket could be design with very light colors to reflect sunshine.










example above.
I love this Isconic board but simple change to lighter colors will make this great board much more resistant to overheating on the sun.
Next example.

Which one of this two designs protect your precious 100% carbon mast better ?

black leading pocket looks "cool" but in fact will overheat mast easy...

North have been making white masts for a while with their polyamide coating. Not only do they stay cooler but camber wear is reduced.
I agree some board colours could be better with climates in mind.

Back in the day, only an idiot would have requested a dark coloured paint job on their custom (polyester resin) board for this reason.

Clarence

Back in the day we even had carbon fibre to play with but we didn't use it because it was black. We used to paint the blank and clear glass over the top , geeze I'm old. But they still make surfboards that way.

That's got me thinking....if windsurfers went styrofoam and epoxy and vaccum bagged so you can get away with half the resin in the quest for weight reduction , then why haven't surfboards gone that way ? ( even though there are de lam issues everywhere because or resin skimping).

Yep. Agreed.

Select to expand quote

Imax1 said..
That's got me thinking....if windsurfers went styrofoam and epoxy and vaccum bagged so you can get away with half the resin in the quest for weight reduction , then why haven't surfboards gone that way ? ( even though there are de lam issues everywhere because or resin skimping).

I am guessing that a board made of polyurethane to the same dimensions of a windsurfing board is HEAVY.

Polyurethane and polyester boards are cheap, and my understanding is that the are more ding resistant than epoxy and styrofoam.

Not every windsurfing epoxy board has delam issues. Its just that you read about the ones that do. Its probably also a trade off of weight, cost, and expected lifespan. Would you pay for a board 2kgs heavier than another, even if it will last 10 more years?

I have seen new boards de lam and bubble and have problems that I believe is because not enough resin. The old method either epoxy or polyester was to pour resin over the top and squeegee the excess off the edge. This makes a far better bond from glass to foam. Now , half a cup of resin is squeegeed to the glass before applying to the foam and then vacuumed down. Then repeated with different layers. I know this method is lighter but at the cost of sticking properly to the foam. I would think the first layer on the foam could do with a little extra resin , the other layers probably don't matter so much. Mabee 150ml ( 150gm ) each side applied to the foam. This would have to make the board so much less prone to de lam and stronger. ( not to mention the tiny leaking pinholes that seem to be happening on newish boards ) These problems never happened when this old fart used to make boards. Yeah I know , they were heavy. So I think I would be happy with a stronger , longer living , non delaminating or leaking board for 300gm extra. Now that would be funny to see manufacturers offer that in their construction options

Apparently the market demands lighter boards, and the propaganda says they are lighter and stronger every year.