Track failure

[opie]

https://youtu.be/wgl1KfK-eQ4

Track came loose from everything except bottom skin.  When I move the mast back and forth the cassette rocks inside.  I opened the top and discovered that there is only eps between the cassette and the top skin.  I am thinking I will gorilla glue a chunk of 6 lb pour foam that is already cured between the cassette and the top skin.

[sharksupper]

Bummer!!!  When are the manufacturers going to learn....  they should warranty that, seems like a design flaw to me.

[surfercook]

That's a real mess, opie! I'd be bummed. gl w/whatever you decide to do. I worry every time I take my foil sup out. super shallow at my break and have hit bttm a few times. I still go really slow though! 

[opie]

This was a used board, the shapers personal board, and I got it for less than the materials would have cost me.  It's all good.  I just thought I should put it out there to reinforce the need for connection to both top and bottom of a board.

[Califoilia]

Yeah, even though I'm going with dual tracks in my new board, I can't help but think the Tuttle box is just a much stronger setup with the much deeper mounting of it (basically through the entire board), compared to the mast tracks that are less than a inch deep set into the board.

Add on top of the depth of the respective mounting systems with the ~3" additional leverage gained when adding a Tuttle adapter to mount it to the mast tracks, and you're adding additional stress to the much shallower fin boxes. Yes, some of that added leverage is dispersed over or between the two boxes side-to-side...but not so much in the front-to-back stressors, and the direction we're seeing more, and more of these tracks pulling out.

Whereas the only Tuttle failures I remember are Beasho here, and seeing video of Sam Pa'o pushing his through the deck of one of his boards (with speculation that the install might not have been done as advised...or so goes the stories on the beach anyway ), and both were sometime ago before I believe they were being installed with Gorilla Glue, but with the usual resin mixture instead. Could be all wrong on my memory there, and assumption(s) of when they happened wrt the install methods, and if I am....never mind. 

[sharksupper]

The tracks MUST be put into a PVC block before being put in the board!  Without that, just forget it, it probably won't last one session.  I actually went all the way to the deck with the PVC block on my Naish track install.  Probably took a 1lb weight penalty, but totally worth the piece of mind!  I also notice a lot of the failures here are in single skin boards.  Sandwich construction boards are much stronger, much more so if it's a PVC sandwich vs flat grain wood sandwich.  My Naish is wood sandwich and it shows, it delams easier than PVC, but still better than single skin.

[Beasho]

This was a used board, the shapers personal board, and I got it for less than the materials would have cost me.  It's all good.  I just thought I should put it out there to reinforce the need for connection to both top and bottom of a board.

I bought one of these boards "From the Manufacturer" on the cheap, the designers personal board.  And it failed in 7 sessions.  The Tuttle box melted through the board.  Installing a Tuttle box with Epoxy is asking for failure.  Its heavy, its brittle and unless done by a TOTAL ARTISAN it is inferior in every way to a Gorilla glue installation.

Whereas the only Tuttle failures I remember are Beasho here, and seeing video of Sam Pa'o pushing his through the deck of one of his boards (with speculation that the install might not have been done as advised...or so goes the stories on the beach anyway ), and both were sometime ago before I believe they were being installed with Gorilla Glue, but with the usual resin mixture instead.

Correct! My Blueplanet Easy Foiler is holding up like a Rock.  The key is not only top to bottom deck connection but distributing the stress in a connected fashion as Sharksupper did with a huge solid block AND THEN Gorilla gluing it all together.   

But I am always wary of these boxes ready for them to fail. As I keep saying (reference to windsurfing) we are living in the era of wooden booms.

[surfercook]

The tracks MUST be put into a PVC block before being put in the board! I actually went all the way to the deck with the PVC block on my Naish track install.  Probably took a 1lb weight penalty, but totally worth the piece of mind!

My V-Box has a dual track mount and it added alot of weight. I kinda regret doing it and wish I'd chosen a tuttle. It seems to be holding strong after eight sessions now but the poor Tomo shape is so heavy now. 

[Beasho]

Rest easy! 

After Bashing track mounts I am coming around to wishing I had one.   I have been testing smaller tail-wings.  What we are finding is that the "Perfect" foot placement isn't so perfect anymore.  Putting the Kai wing on the IWA required moving my front foot back so far that I ran out of holes for my front footstrap (worth a unique post).  Turns out I am not alone.  I called Sam P'ae yesterday and he says "Oh yes I ran into that problem and had to get a customized DaKine front footstrap and build new holes to move it backward on my board."  Now they tell me!!!! 

These are "Hawaiian World Problems" (HWP) BUT The movable track would have helped fix this problem.

Jeff Clark tells me last week he WILL NO LONGER PUT IN TUTTLE Boxes into his foil boards.  I am still skeptical BUT he still has more sessions than I do so have to sit on his knee and listen for a while longer 

[PonoBill]

Current Tuttle foil mounts are strong because they've been heavily modified to join the top and bottom skin in a carbon-reinforced PVC cartridge. That's NOT standard. Windsurfing boards with Tuttles have sandwich construction to begin with, and the Tuttle is in the thinned-out fin location meaning that even a standard shallow Tuttle set in EPS will tie to the upper deck--if only to get the screws in.

If you do tracks with as much care as a foil Tuttle then it should be as strong or stronger, even though the plastic bits are only secured to the bottom skin. A PVC cassette spreads the load better than a much smaller Tuttle cassette and connects load to the top deck if it's done right. I used construction foam instead of PVC (CHEEP!) but ran the cassette completely through the board and glassed it top and bottom. And I glassed under the mast tracks to the surface of the cassette.

I'd do the calculations, but A. I'm much too lazy, and B. No one would care or trust the numbers.