Mistral explosion? Aptly named, methinks

Check out this site:
boardlady.com/

for the lowdown on how serious the various problems are.

Delamination needs to be fixed, pronto, or you will end up with a much bigger area to fix later on. The boardlady site explains this better than I can, but a quick summary is that we use a sandwich of stuff that's good in tension (fibreglass) on the outside, with stuff that's good in compression (divinycell) on the inside. This makes our boards incredibly stiff, but it only works if the glass is bonded well to the divinycell. If not, then you lose the benefit of a sandwich and will quickly ruin the board.

This sounds like either a long and arduous home fix or new board time to me, I think that you'd be paying more than the board is worth for a commercial repair. But then again if you love your mistral and want to see it back on the water, then I can dig it

Arrr, listen to Decrepit, he's the guru of board making/fixing

AAAH ! my board has the dreaded and lethal softdeck! nooo , what to do?
its pretty bad in the middle of the straps its super soft .
it only cost me 100 should i try and fix it?

its plastic well on the outside anyway , the soft area is hmm about 300mm square?
its an F2 wave , i think there is a crack at the end of the mast track , is there a way i can seal that up?

not wanting to appear like in anyway negative at all.........but

soft deck

check use by date (it's inside the finbox) sometimes hard to read!

usually expired.

onya mav!

HEY Mark
Retail outlet said the board was delam. I know they would have a vested interest in selling me a new board - not that I have the money. I think the delam has been happening from an earlier crack. You need to push hard on the deck to get movement and I have noticed a small drip come from the mast track when I dry the board out upside down.
What I would really like to know is with delam is the board weaker and likely to flex/crack easier?

Mark _australia said...

Old Salty: who said it had delam? I gather you mean it is up at the nose, not a seperate problem?
A good hit to the nose will cause a lot of damage but not usually delamination as such... the layers of foam and glass may appear to be separated when you look 'end on' at a snapped off piece but it is not really delam. If only about 1" - 6" of the board is stuffed it will be an easy repair..... long time but easy and about $50 to do yourself.

How big, where, pics?

Salty what I'm trying to get at: you smashed the nose. Got that. But is the delam elsewhere (ie the shop told you the nose is not worth fixing due to delam elsewhere?)

Delam in the first foot or so of nose is nothing to worry about and is easy fixed.

Water coming out next to mast track is not delam it is the box coming away from it's PVC (divinycell) cassette is is inserted into. Again, not hard to fix.

You have 3 seperate problems I'm guessing ....... all easily fixed

Hey guys
Thanks for the input
The board is NOT soft around the foot straps and fin box.
The board is soft from in front of the front foot straps through to the nose where it has over flexed.
When I say soft you need to push hard to notice movement.
The board is of foam sandwich construction
I was considering injecting the board with material to stop delam. What is the best material to use and what do I use to cover the holes left in the skin

remember, 1L petrol + your soft deck board= global warming

use a chainsaw