Tuttle Choices

[Beasho]

Tuttles, tuttles on my bench. 

Who is the fairest of them all?

Upper Left - Kings Paddleboard - Handmade in SoCal
Lower Left - 1st Tuttle installed by Stretch in my 8' L41.  Board broke I extracted Tuttle
Upper Right - GoFoil Tuttle purchased from MacKite.  $87.95  (WINNER)
Lower Right - 1st generation tuttle cassette.   Smaller a bit thin walled with an interesting wooden sandwich strategy going on.

[Beasho]

Note on the tuttle that I extracted you can still see the Sharpy markers pointing to the tail.

This was because they installed using EPOXY. BAD-CHOICE!!!!!

I was able to pull out the Tuttle and peel away the epoxy / foam interface leaving a virtually NEW looking surface. 
Totally lame. 

GORILLA GLUE IS THE ONLY WAY TO SUCCESSFULLY INSTALL THESE BOXES.

[Beasho]

I'm getting good at these installations but probably underpaid for my service.

This next installation will be the 3rd Re-Installation of a Tuttle box on this 7' 4" L-41.

The first re-installation was because the box was ORIGINALLY installed with EPOXY.  And the box literally fell out of the board after 7 sessions.

[Beasho]

The second re-installation came after I was foiling Middle Peak at Steamers Lane in Santa Cruz, Ca.

The waves were 19 feet @ 19 seconds.  Jeff Clark and I had started at the base of the Pier and paddled out to indicators.

I was lured by the siren song to the outside.  There were just 3 guys attempting to catch waves on the furthest outside sets with 9 foot guns.

I paddled for a shoulder and JUST missed it.  Jeff was 500 yards inside of me and I was thinking "Man if I catch one out here I am going to fly past him all the way to the sand at the pier.  It will be a legit 1 mile ride.  He is going to be so . . . envious!" 

I turn and see a wave break from one end of the horizon to the other 15 feet of whitewater 100 yards outside of me.  I start to paddle furiously Towards shore.  I was trying to limit the amount of impact.  Some guy actually attempts to paddle underneath me, I am yelling at him to get the F out of the way.  I get completely destroyed but come up and my gear is intact (so I thought). 

I foiled for another hour but all on the inside until my legs got wobbly and I couldn't turn anymore. 

My board ended up looking like this at the end of the session.  I was riding waves for an HOUR with the bottom of the board delaminated and the base of the Tuttle Wiggling left to right. 

[Beasho]

So I fix it.  Rather than RIPPING everything out the TOP of the box and deck appeared STABLE.

So I gorilla glued the voids and reinforced the carbon with Basswood.  Rock-Solid.

[Beasho]

This is my favorite BIG-WAVE foil board.

7 sessions later I notice a Leak!  Ahhhhhhh!

Turns out the TUTTLE had CRACKED Mid-Box.  I never would have thought this possible.

There was a hairline crack at exactly 2 1/4" inside the TUTTLE BOX.  This is where the Male section of the Mast terminates in the box.

I love this sport but it's starting to get like flying RC airplanes.  1 hour of maintenance for every hour of flight.

[Califoilia]

Excellent writeup once again Beasho. While I don't use Tuttles any longer, simply because I don't foil in the frequent OH (plus) stuff you do...I really enjoy your science writeups, and it was one of them that finally got my board maker to start using Gorilla Glue for my track box installs, instead of the epoxy resins he was so accustom to using on all of the surfboard boxes he installed.

Great stuff, thanks once again.

[supfoo]

Beasho, I have an L41 board with track mount & was wondering how big a deal it would be to put a tuttle only in??  On a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty..... Thanks

[Beasho]

Difficulty appears to be a 10 but it is only a 6.5.

This is because of the Gorilla glue.  I would have been much less intimidated at Fin Box repairs as a youngster if we had Gorilla Glue.

It has ~ 4X the density of EPS foam (beer cooler foam) but sticks to everything.

I cut the opening drawing a line with a colored sharpy and following with Dremel cutting blade.

Then you can simply saw out the foam with a sharp knife.  Go slowly toward the edges so that the Tuttle is slightly snug in the opening.

Gorilla glue then laminate.

The lamination DOES require a bit of attention. 

First use Fiberglass.  2 Layers of 6 oz topped with a layer of 2 oz just to make sure it is water proof.  Then I use 2 Layers of 6 oz Carbon with additional 2 oz fiberglass for sealing. 

The most important layer is actually the TOP of the board.  Your back foot will be standing on what amounts to a CARBON cap on the Tuttle.  This was the saving grace on the board above which allowed me to foil for an hour when the bottom layer was fully compromised.

I'll take more photos of this repair. 

[SUPeter]

Got to mass produce these Tuttle boxes.  I just enjoyed foiling some large hurricane swell this past weekend and got trounced by a big one.  My leash must have wrapped around my foil since both board and I were dragged over the falls.  After the dust settled I noticed my foil, mast connected) and all floating about 10 feet away.  That's a first for me.  Never had a component break before.  The mast boke right at the point of insertion into my board.  Surprised me since my masts are overbuilt.  My Tuttles are overly over built.  No sign of box failure.  Very glad.  I can repair a mast much easier than I can repair a box.

[Beasho]

Some people think these things shouldn't break "Just make them stronger"

No Way!  I am now prepared to have them break and ready to do a quick re-install. 

There is simply too much surface area.  Any wave that is > 7ft breaking on the rig is going to put the whole wing, mast and Tuttle / Base at risk.   

This will be my 5th Tuttle re-installation across 4 boards, with 2 cracked masts in just under 2 years. 

[SUPeter]

I've been very lucky I guess.  More likely is that I don't foil on waves as big as you do, most of the time.  One  broken mast in 3 years.  I can handle that.