Fun, fun, fun eps foam sucks! Hit a rock yesterday and did not notice upon initial inspection my rear standard future fin box cracked. I repaired it myself a while back after a lateral hit cracked the box out sideways. Was all good till a front on hit yesterday. Surfed quite a while after impact and plenty of water in it. That horrible feeling when you hit the beach, grab the carrying handle and the tail drops to the sand......
Cut it open and plenty of water coming out. Would love any opinions if I should remove it completely and start again once dry? It is still in position and would love to get away with leaving it in. It has minimal movement laterally, but some and a little at the front of the box. Rear of box pretty secure.

Any advancements in blanks for Sups????? Would love to move away from EPS foam next board if possible.

Cheers,
Marty.

Piros said..
If the boxes (including FCS) are put in properly you shouldn't have an issue even in the super light eps

Well, not exactly, they need some support rather than just the main eps foam, for instance a box of heavier PVC foam.

Funnsurfn, I would open it as much as possible, while keeping some strands of glass to keep the box in position, to rinse it (salt is bad for epoxy curing), let it dry as much as possible (weeks)
Then you can use "epoxy foam" to fill the void. Personally I fill with beads of another lump of eps that I get loose under the thumb, and wet with epoxy to rebuild the blank. cut flat with a cutter blade once hard.

I then drill 5mm holes all around the box, about 2 per inch, then I inject a mixture of epoxy resin + a lot of microspheres (never pure resin or it will be so hot as to melt the blank) with a syringe in one hole out of 2 until the resin come out in the other holes, to build an extra resistant box around the finbox.
Sand, and then apply a glass job (3 layers) on top of the hull + box.

I like to fill the box with child putty or soft packaging foam that protrude from the box, and cut holes for it in the glass, to glass around it. I am always nervous when trying to cut the glass with the usual method consisting of taping the box and glassing over it, I find it easier to just remove the putty with hot water, or the foam with a blade, and sand away the remaining glass ridge.

Same method for leaks around the handle.

It is quite easy to do as you avoid the tricky part that is positioning properly the fin box.

Already did 3 boxes and a handle this way.

Thanks guys. About a cup of water out of this baby so far