Does anyone know if small tears in wing canopy's like the one in the photo below should be repaired professionally ? And if they should why ? I was thinking about using PSP Kite or Spinnaker tape or Tear Aid Type A. The tears are both about 10cm long.

If it were one tear, I'd just tape it and ride. But two tears of that size close to one another, I would eventually get it professionally fixed. Should be a very easy repair.

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Sambo # said..
Does anyone know if small tears in wing canopy's like the one in the photo below should be repaired professionally ? And if they should why ? I was thinking about using PSP Kite or Spinnaker tape or Tear Aid Type A. The tears are both about 10cm long.

This is an easy self repair.
Spinnaker tape in a cross cross grid pattern and tape along the rip and then it's good to go.

Thanks folks. All good.

As a repairer I always state it's better to have a professional repair done. If done correctly it will almost be unnoticeable and definitely stronger than just taping.

If you did want to do a sticky back repair job inwould recommend using insignia cloth as it sticks much better than sticky back ripstop tape. Don't use tear aid........ it sticks amazingly but stretches and contracts (why it is great for bladder repairs) and also near impossible to remove for a pro repair at a later stage.

Hit me up if you want to go professional repair route.

Ry
The Sail Doctor
0474581489

This advice to have it professionally repaired is silly. Its coming from people flying $1500 D Labs and if this was a $1000 wing that was new i'd agree. This wing was worth $400 new (the on sale price at the end of its sales cycle) so its worth $150 in used but good condition. The pro repair is definately more than that. From a pro repair perspective this wing is toatled - replace it or fix yourself.

Straight tear, not overlaping 2 panels - Easy fix. You need spinaker repair tape and a sewing machine. Any home sewing machine will work, find someone you know who has one. Probably your mom. I used my mom's regular mom machine to do mine. Look through her sewing stuff and find some polyester thread. Your good to go.

Lay the canopy flat on the floor(clean and DRY) and try to get the repair area good and flat. tape it - tape centered on the tear and overlap the ends a few in. I like to measure and cut my tape first and round the corners to prevent them from peeling up. flip it over and tape the other side the same way. Its easy to adjust the edges from the first tape from the other side.

Once its taped then sew the tape down. The adhesive holds the repair and the thread keeps the adhesive from peeling up. Your sew line should be just inside the tape edge.

Don't stress about the repair - again if this was a new awesome wing id worry about messing up the shape but this wing is so old and blown out your not going to screw up the shape any more than it already is. Don't listen to these $$$$ wingers. Your a dirtbag winger, embrace it!

Put Tear-Aid on both sides and be done in 5 minutes and $12.00

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FoilColorado said..
Put Tear-Aid on both sides and be done in 5 minutes and $12.00

Already have.

Thanks all. Went the tear aid in the end. Had to do it twice cause I made a bit of a mess of the first repair which was done in a hurry. Solvent got the tear aid from that first repair off no problem. 2nd repair not too bad.

I think I'd have gone for a non-stretchy patch on under-side, stitched around as per above advice from TME, as TearAid will indeed stretch, and TearAid on top surface to reinforce and stop sand from entering the tear.
Must have significant stress on that area to have torn in the first place, or prior damage?

For me TearAid pealed off after several sessions. For repairs I use reinforced duct tape. I am riding with such repair for two years and no problem. You make cross pattern (like this -+--+-) and it holds really good.
TearAid is really good for repair of bladders.

Gorilla tape works great on canopy or strut/leading edge repairs. I only use Tear-Aid Type A on the bladder repairs.
I haven't had any issues and have used it a bunch of times. Hard to justify getting the wing fixed properly when it holds up this well.

As much as I tend to have any damaged windsurfing sail repaired by my trusted sailmaker, I don't think the same logic applies to a wing canopy. Almost all of my wings have at some point in time got into contact with a foil or worse the tip of a stabilizer and they always lost the battle. But I'm flabbergast how well spinnaker tape does the trick. Make sure the wing is dry, preferably cut the tape so there are no sharp edges, tape from both sides!
They've been holding up since then without any noticable change in performance, some for more than two years now.
Having spinnaker tape in the colours of your wings might not be necessary but makes it a lot more enjoyable. While a Gorilla Tape repair might serve the purpose as well, it's not something I would really want to see on unrolling my wing.

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ZeeGerman said..
As much as I tend to have any damaged windsurfing sail repaired by my trusted sailmaker, I don't think the same logic applies to a wing canopy. Almost all of my wings have at some point in time got into contact with a foil or worse the tip of a stabilizer and they always lost the battle. But I'm flabbergast how well spinnaker tape does the trick. Make sure the wing is dry, preferably cut the tape so there are no sharp edges, tape from both sides!
They've been holding up since then without any noticable change in performance, some for more than two years now.
Having spinnaker tape in the colours of your wings might not be necessary but makes it a lot more enjoyable. While a Gorilla Tape repair might serve the purpose as well, it's not something I would really want to see on unrolling my wing.

I second that for spinaker tape. Amazed how well it holds up. I do hair dry a bit immediately after patching it on both sides and let it rest for 24 hrs under a stack of books or any other mass.

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Venomguy said..

Sambo # said..
Does anyone know if small tears in wing canopy's like the one in the photo below should be repaired professionally ? And if they should why ? I was thinking about using PSP Kite or Spinnaker tape or Tear Aid Type A. The tears are both about 10cm long.

This is an easy self repair.
Spinnaker tape in a cross cross grid pattern and tape along the rip and then it's good to go.

Agree, spinnaker tape on both sides and no need for professional repair it. Fixed way bigger and still holding fine after 1 year

I use dry wall tape with neoprene glue over it, then any ripstop cloth with neoprene or nylon glue, whichever works best on the material I have. If you want to sew it, remember to use the zig zag stitch, it's pretty fun to do and will be good as new. For smaller tears I just glue old umbrella material that I cut in circles, cos I'm cheap

Ripped my 5m Smik from the leading edge to the trailing edge almost a year ago.
Cleaned the rip stop with thinners on some tissue paper.
Cut strips of tear aid and carefully laid them top and bottom with some help from my wife, making sure not to leave any gaps.
The wing is still performing well and the tear aid has not stretched at all.