Time to lubricate bolts!

We all know that we should pull apart, rinse & lubricate our foils after every session. But I don't. But I always rinse over foil & board with a container of freshwater.
I know the painful & frustrating experience of having to try & loosen seized bolts! Sometimes even having to try & drill out bolts that have had their heads snapped off. And I don't intend on doing this to my foil!
So usually after a few continuous sessions Over a weekend or roster days I will pull my foil apart, rinse & lubricate with white lithium grease spray it stays white for a while & doesn't blacken like WD 40 & other oil.
A good warning that lets me know when my foil needs maintenance is when I hear a clicking or cracking noise when the bolts are tightened & or loosened. It means the lubrication has run dry & may have dirt or sand deposits.
When I hear this I will never tighten the bolts any further as it tells me the bolt has bitten into the mating surface & may need more force to undo. This usually doesn't happen when the bolts are newly lubricated I am then more confident in tightening the bolts fully.

That's one thing i never have to bother about with the go foils.

Just use Tef-Gel. This stuff is fantastic, both to isolate from chemical (salt) and physical (electrolytic) corrosion, but it also acts as a threadlocker (aka loctite). Foils vibrate, if you just lubricate the bolts, they will come apart, and foiling with a wobbly foil is instant hell.

Carbon sandwich construction with stainless inserts and bolts. Hundreds of hours of hard use. Multiple impacts with sandy bottoms. A couple of bumps off rocks. Zero maintenance. Zero failures.

That's not strictly true. I fill, sand and paint the odd scratch or chip to the wings. Maybe twice a year. I replace the hex head bolts a couple of times a year as the hex gets a bit chewed out. Going to try Torx screws to see if they work better.

I disassemble after use and give things a quick wipe with a damp chamois cloth before putting it in the bags. That's mainly to protect my car from salt and stuff dripping.

It worries me that aluminium is becoming the de facto standard for foiling components. I suspect manufacturers are building down to a price to get market share. That makes business sense and I guess it develops participation. I'm not sure how good it is for the users of the gear. The premium for quality carbon products is not that great.

Carbon masts might never be the future because most weigh the same as their aluminum equal.

One manufacturer at Surf Expo actually told me they were releasing a carbon mast, just to say they had one. They didn't expect to sell hardly any because the weight is the same as their aluminum version.

The same applies to some of the fuselages out there. Carbon is just as heavy as aluminum. But not all. Depends on the design. Carbon needs to be hollow or foam core, otherwise similar weight to aluminum versions.

With aluminum it is no big deal to offer many different mast lengths. Giving everyone the option to buy just the right length for them.

To be continued I'm afraid.

On the carbon/alu, I do not know. I am a long time windsurfer, so I was "alu? no way!". But having had both carbon and alu foils from the same maker, I do not know anymore.

various pro/cons:

- the carbon foil was not much lighter than the carbon one. Only 15% less weight, and the alu had heavier wings (half carbon / half glass, and more volume). But it costed more than 3 times more... and has now no resale value.
- corrosion may not be an actual issue, as the carbon and alu parts do not actually touch, thanks to outer layers of paints (fuz) and glass (wing). Gong has some guinea pig foils they never rinse nor disassemble as durability experiments (but with Tef Gel), and so far no corrosion appeared after one year. But it is too early to say so to customers.
- being hollow is actually stronger than solid shapes
- hollow masts are a pain for the water they store in
- high end foil windsurfers (Antoine Albeau) also use alu masts
- carbon foils could get down in price once the market stabilizes around few makers and models, with the mass market effect

So, I don't know. My guess is that alu foils will solve the water-in-the-mast and corrosion issues and become the norm, and carbon will stay for the prototypes and high end expensive offers.

Good points Colas. Good to hear you have some foil experiments regarding corrosion.
tomooh. Good point also. I hate having salt water dripping on car. Not from my foil though. I pull it apart. But had saltwater dripping from my Hobie kayak when I used to car top it. Got trailer now.
Maybe the hollow masts should be foam filled. Wouldn't be hard to do for a DIY with that spray in expandable foam. As long as its compatible with aluminium or carbon etc.

2 things

1 phillips or x head screws were designed for automation - NOT for going in and out again repeatedly.
2 aluminium threads are not really fit for purpose - when the purpose is to be used and reused over and over. Especially not the grade of Aluminium that lends itself to extrusion.


These are just engineering principles.

However - they seem to last ok especially if you use something like tefgel - but they are not going to last for ever.

Carbon is of course much better - but you gets what you pays for.

I really need to get some foam into my masts to stop salt water sitting in them and make rinsing more effective.

I cant be the only one wanting to see an aluminium mast extrusion that allows a piece of rubber/HDPE to be slotted seamlessly into the leading edge. The guy who designs for MFC put some sketches of something similar on his instagram recently. First brand to make a mast with a leading edge not made of rock hard aluminium gets my money.