Over the weekend we had a chance to sit back and think about composite sandwich construction and it’s application to a wakesurf board. It’s interesting that composite sandwich technology developed in airplanes back in WWII and then migrated to ship building in the 50′s about the same time that ocean surfboards started using foam and single skin fiberglass. In the 80′s and 90′s windsurfboards embraced composite sandwich technology and principally that’s all that’s available. In fact, it was this sport that drove the introduction of composite sandwich technology to surfboards through Surftech. That got us thinking that we should look at the advances in windsurfer technology to see what those folks have been up to. Along the way we found some old cross section pictures that we swiped from The Board Lady epoxy board repair site.
In this first one you can see what is termed “state of the industry” in windsurfer construction. This is almost identical to the Original Flyboy construction. Some windsurfers have a center keel-like fin, so you can see the box in the middle of the board that wouldn’t be part of a wakesurf board. Inner and outer fiberglass, low density EPS core and relatively thin high density foam skins.
Here is a rather innovative approach to composite sandwich construction, it’s a double PVC skin sandwich. There is an inside layer and and exterior layer of high density foam. This construction was developed for very demanding conditons and probably is overkill for anything less. It’s interesting to see the use of multiple layers of skin material that also sandwich fiberglass between them.
Now this next cross section picture requires some explanation. Without looking closely it’s hard to differentiate the components.
In the design of that last cross section there are varying thicknesses of skin material and also the use of a little bit of carbon fiber. If you look closely at the skin, the bottom of the board is slightly thickker than the deck skin, but also the rails are slightly thicker than the deck skin. You’ve been paying attention so you know that the extra thickness increases stiffness. This design of this windsurfer is attempting to increase the stiffness of the bottom and rails to some degree MORE than the deck’s stiffness. Also there appears to be a section of carbon fiber close to the middle of the board, most likely surrounding the fin box on the bottom.
More current developments use wood veneer reinforcements under the feet to prevent heel denting and compression of foam, in combination with carbon fiber. Various weaves of Carbon Fiber to reduce weight and resin useage, and biaxial fiberglass to improve strength, as well as, the double PVC sandwich. For a point of reference, biaxial fiberglass is not woven, instead it is two layers of unidirectional fiberglass sort of tack glued together typically running on a bias of 45 degrees to each other.
As we talked about the various changes in construction in the windsurfer arena, it became apparent that those folks are designing for specific loads and conditions that impact the windsurfer. For example, wood veener patches under the feet would provide vastly superior compressive strength and load dispersion that a single layer of fiberglass.
Those folks are also developing components, they are treating the deck and bottom differently and also reinforce areas of high impact or high load differently. In the wakesurf areana we have the same sorts of conditions. Heel dents are rather specific to areas of the wakesurf board deck. Landing from airs reverses the compressive and tension loads and creates a compressive load on the bottom of the board for a brief period of time, but that compressive load is focused between the feet.
We have talked briefly about the idea of componentry of a wakesurf board and we just saw that windsurf boards have already adopted this refinement of composite sandwich construction. We think it’s time to sit down and identify what is need and where!
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