There are a lots of debris out on lake Michigan this year. To prove it, I just busted my Deep Tuttle finbox on the Falcon Lightwind. I crashed the foil into a tree limb that was about 12-14 feet long and 4" in diameter. I was ridding upwind peacefully on the foil while the sun was reflecting low on the water which made impossible to see through the water. The stop was rather sharp and while the foil resisted the impact without much damage, the fin box clearly shows delamination on the front. I bet that if I didn't had a PowerPlate to distribute the load over a larger surface, I think the whole fin box would have be ripped out of the board. Now, the finbox has raised the surface of the hull by 1 or 2mm towards the front with lamination that clearly shows it is compromised. I want to replace the busted finbox with a Foil-ready finbox. There are few options out-there. Does anyone have a suggestion on what finbox is worth the time to install?

Hard to see: the darker line parallel to the fin opening is a crack. The front of the box is raised and delam.




One of the ends of the incriminated tree limb, courtesy of the submerged GoPro


Evening sunset, perfect time...


...to perfect stop...


...to perfect crash

Ouch! You were lucky it didn't rip the box out and send your expensive foil to sleep with the fishes...

Windsurfing parts that don't float always make me nervous. I launched one time from Doug's Beach (Gorge) and sailed upwind to Rowena (a mile or so and on the other side of the river). I was adjusting things a bit and for some idiotic reason pulled my uni out of the mast foot and dropped it into the waist-deep and pitch black water Luckily I was able to find it with my foot among the large rocks and get it back.

Drew

Man, that's a bummer, Greg. Hope you can get back up and foiling again soon!

For sure, it could have been worse. Lucky I didn't rip the tail end of the board off. I kind of knew this was bound to happen and just in case, I always tether the foil to one of my back footstrap anyway. Your story about fishing things with your foot in dark water reminded me of a lucky moment in the 90's when swimming in a lake in Europe and I stepped over something unusual in the shallows and retrieve a thick solid gold chain with my toes. I missed interpreting the sign of a successful career in Rap music, obviously.

Is the board you were using designed for foiling or did you just have a power plate? I ripped out a finbox completely on a JP board but the finbox was not designed for foiling and I did not have a power plate, so your experience is actually encouraging if that was all that happened with power plate?

Greg S wrote:
That board doesn't have a foil-ready finbox - at least not the one I got. I think Fanatic made the Falcon Lightwind foil-ready the following year. It's of course speculative to say what could have happened during that crash without the PowerPlate. Might have done more damage or ripped the whole finbox out, who knows?

However, in normal condition of use, the standard finbox with the PowerPlate did just fine: There was no signs of weakness or damage prior. The connection was rigid and sturdy. Just don't want to hit something hard while riding!

Greg,

I just went thru this. Ended up repairing my deep tuttle in place. Found a bunch of info on that on iwindsurf.com and seabreeze.com. I also purchased a replacement box as I thought that was the only option for mitigation. The box I bought was from mackiteboarding.com. Not too expensive about $90. Saving it for next time I have a big hit.

I ended up hitting a giant invasive carp at around 30+ mph. Bent the fin back about 25-degrees extra and crunched front and back of the tuttle box. Took a bunch of hours to repair but got it done. If you go the repair route be careful not to make the fit too tight. I had it super tight and cracked the base of a very nice fin. Snug but not tight is what I learned shouldn't hear creaking when tightening the item to the box.

Good luck, if you go the box replacement route let us know how it goes. Routing that big new hole in the board will be interesting and what I was not confident taking on.

Dennis Koscielski wrote:
Thanks Dennis. I think you gave me the incentive to do the same and repairing the existing foilbox first. A bit of grinding/sanding on the hull, 3 layers of carbon, some fairing and paint and that should just do it!
Don't hesitate to share any repair tricks you think I could use. Thx.

There's a lot of tips, tricks and subtleties on box layups in these vids.






Also...

The Board Lady
https://boardlady.com/jppowerbox.htm






Look fellas, let's be reasonable, huh? This is not the time or the place to perform some kind of a half-assed autopsy on a Falcon. And I am not going to stand here and see that thing cut open and see that Deep Tuttle box spill out all over the dock.

I'm only trying to say that Sheboygan is a summer town. We need summer dollars. Now, if the people can't foil here, they'll be glad to foil at the beaches of Door County, Milwaukee, Racine... It's all psychological. You yell Lake Trout, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell log, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.

Reid Fillman wrote:
Ha ha! Well said. Logs are everywhere; the town is in commotion; no one dare a foot in the water. This is as bad as a Fourth without fireworks!
I know that replacing the whole finbox is the "right" thing to do. Just didn't want to! Humm... I'll have to toss a coin!

Happy fourth and thank you for the repair vids.