Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Making our own kite surfing boards

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic89.aspx

By AlexC - 1/16/2012 9:09:09 AM

Hello, My fatherand I are avid kitesurfers and have recently gotten into making our own boards.Our first board was made out of mahogany and is 6mm thick at the thinnest part.This has so far proven to be structurally sound but a bit too heavy, so werelooking into reducing the thickness and reinforcing with carbon fiber or fiberglass.

My question is, is carbon fiber skinning a good choice for this? Can Iapply multiple layers for skinning and if so do you have any recommendation asto how many layers would be needed to maintain the strength if I were to reducethe wood thickness by half? Also it needs to be slightly flexible to absorbimpact and would the clearcoat stand up against salt water conditions or wouldI want to apply a layer of something else on top?

Thanks much
By baja_patient - 6/2/2012 3:39:51 PM

Hi David, welcome to the forum! 

I have built several skimboards in wood and one in foam. They all came out to be very good and worked just like the bought item, if not better. 

I will have to dig up some pictures as it was some time ago, but when I do I will get back to the thread and help you out on that one. 

cheers