Starboard's wave boards too darn heavy!

[rswabsin]

During the evenings or when the board is out of the sun - try packing the end of some paper towels into the insert hole that water is dripping from and keep the board on its belly. The towel should be stuffed in tight against the hole - you can leave the excess hanging down. The paper towels should continue to draw water out of the board through wicking action over night. I've had luck with this method in the past. Worth a try.

Rob

[dvCali]

[rigitrite]

You may be wondering why it will take sooooooo long to dry out the board. Water is a polar molecule, and the polystyrene of the boards core is also quite easily made to accept a charge, so the water is attracted like a magnet. There is not a chemical reaction to create a permanent bond, but more like van der wahls forces. There is still a level of energy that you have to attain to get the water molecules to break free from this cage. Vaporizing will work, because gas molecules generally travel around 1000 mph, so even though they bump into lots of stuff, if the water is vaporized, it'll find its way out.
The other problem is that polystyrene is an amazing insulator, so even if you get the boards skin up to say.....75 C, the core can easily be 40 C. This is why vacuum bagging is the best method. Use black plastic and put the whole thing in the sun to get it hot, and you'll probably get 95% of the water out.
Of course, if you are unsuccessful in finding where it's cracked and how the water got in there to start with, then it'll all happen again the first time you sail.

[flaherty]

Thanks, for the excellent chemical explanation. I've been wondering why it's so hard to get the water out of a board.

[manuel]

Status...

Days in the sun: 2.5
Cloudy days: 1.5
Weight Loss (lbs): 1

Yesterday, I tried sucking air out of the board with a syringe. After some time pumping, moisture seems to no longer be present. Either at the tail hole or at the strap insert one.

I'm leaving it now in the sun bagged with the tail hole up. Small bubbles are coming out of the insert.

Good plan?

17lbs (with only pads) is still too much, hoping I can go down to near 15.

[isobars]

According to Eva, you will never get all the water out. Delam, at least, is highly likely, especially if you let the board get too warm. Keeping it cool will probably delay its inevitable demise, but whether it dies tomorrow or next year is a crapshoot. Would you rather repair all the leaks, remove what water you can*, and put up with the extra weight and risk until it fails, or just buy and enjoy a replacement now at end-of-the-season prices?

* I deliberately bought a wet board years ago just to try it out and see if it met my performance criteria well enough to buy a dry one. I dried it adequately for my testing by using a $10 aquarium pump to pump air into the vent and out of all the leaks before patching them quick and dirty (e.g., tape, glue, screws in unused leaking footstrap screw holes) just for test riding. I wrapped it in black plastic bags and set it out in the sun with the pump running all summer to keep the water as near its vapor state as possible, counting on the leaks (and the small-capacity pump) to prevent the balloon syndrome. You may want to seal the leaks more permanently than I needed to, but I surely wouldn't bother rebuilding any of the hull on a board with terminal cancer.

[manuel]

Too warm even with vent off?

The bottom is white and the sun not as intense as it seems here. Meaning it's not that warm on the white side. But if I put black plastic over then it gets really hot. I'm not too fond of exposing the deck to the sun. I guess best would be to wrap the whole board in a bag. Time is on my side, I'd rather wait long enough to get the most water out.

It takes a while for the pressure to build and bubbles to come out. Nothing comes out of the rear now. Either way I'm just going to keep it drying for the next few days (weeks?) weighing it to monitor progress.

Heat rises and humid air is lighter so vents up I guess.

[cgoudie1]

You might get a month or several years out of it, if you pay careful
attention to using the vent plug, but ultimately Mike is right it will delam.

I'm a believer in riding the thing until it's unrideable (due to how it feels
to you, or complete structural failure). But where I sail the river bank is
always less than a mile (and usually a lot less) away, so failure isn't life
threatening if you keep your head). I've had a couple of boards that
watered up, I've dried them out to the limit of my patience and
ridden them for years, but they're just not quite as "lithe" after a good
core soaking.

Good luck,

-Craig

[dvCali]

[dllee]

DR blows 4 days a week and winter IS surfsailing season.
Manny needs all his wave boards now, not in May.