Hey Marsh…
Sure… Kevlar on the rails is probably the best location for it, imho…
Why?
Because it resists punctures,impacts with knees, rocks,dumb kitesurfer’s harness hooks, doh!!,
whatever, and makes these impact prone areas “bullet proof”… Well
sort of… Kevlar has better bullet resistant qualities without the addition of epoxy resin… .In it’s soft , dry woven form it “catches” the projectile, much like a baseball glove…
Where do you get the most “puncture” type of dings?? The
rails, and the bottom… This stuff works great there…The bottom of the board is also under tension ( being stretched) , not in compression like the deck skin… Tensile strength IS Kevlar…
You wouldn’t put it on the rails for a desired stiffness effect, like
you would for Carbon perimeter rails, you’d put it there for the ultimate ding
resistant rails…
That’s why they use it on extreme
(lightweight) white water kayaks, although they use a lot of high tech
forms of polypropylene/ polyethelene plastic now,( Innegra being one
form) which I’m sure Mike Daniel / Brasington’s. are quietly working with, in combination
with other great (glass) cloths…
Thermo plastics are the future, until the Continental U.S. oil reserves dry up, and they then start costing way more than Carbon…
For the average builder “dude” though… S Glass is pretty good stuff …And has never failed this builder…Top shelf Glass fabric!!
Kevlar’s ‘’ quiet virtue" ( as in, you don’t read about it often) is it’s shock dampening aspect (bullet resistance)… It seems to dampen hard , choppy water very well… A good thing to those kite boarding, or off shore speed boating etc., in choppy waters…This is not something I’ve read, but a quality I’ve felt in my kevlar builds…
There are NO real secrets out there… Every material has it’s pros and cons… I believe Dead Shaper has used most of the exotics, perhaps he can chime in… High performance windsurf board building requires you to look well outside of the E- glass box…They were doing stuff like timberflex veneers 8 to 10 years ago…
Starboard windsurf boards were one of the early adopters of the wooden timber deck skins… Todays modern Naish, F One, Slingshot etc, and many other kite surfboard manufacturers all use wood veneer skins to some extent…As do many modern surfboards…
Try them all, and stick with your favorites…