Rail mistake - novice question

General Discussion
1

Hi, first of all this is a great forum. I’m on board #4 and and seem to find a new way to make a mistake every time. This board is a retro egg pintail type shape. I was shooting for 50/50 soft rails on this one and basically achieved it except for the last 18 inches or so. Don’t know what went wrong here but what I have instead could probably best be described as 30 / 70 rails with a rather sharp edge, looks bascially upside down, somtheing like this

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Unfortantely I’ve glassed it. I could fix this with a sander and patch the glass on the tail or surf it like it is and maybe fix it later. What do you masters reccommend?

What will the practical effect be of these unusal rails? In other words what should I be looking for while surfing?

Thanks for the help.

2

JT, what you might find is a lot of sliding and very little ability to burry a rail. One good thing, the board will be VERY forgiving when it comes to catching a rail. What kind of fin system you got on it? If its just a single fin you might want to consider adding some side fins to help out on steep walls.

3

Hi, thanks for the response. That makes sense. Its not quite as bad as my illustration and is confined to the tail area. It is a single fin. I think before I went to the trouble of adding side fins I would just alter the rail shape with the sander and reglass, very little rail would be removed to alter the shape to 50/50. This is an epoxy lamination and I haven’t put the “hot coat” on yet, might easiest to do it now. On the other hand it would be interesting to try it like it is.

Thanks again

4

JT, I do agree, try it and see what it feels like. Back in the 60s and 70s there were boards shaped with an extreme V tail that pretty much acted the way your rail might respond. Nat Young was one that did some funky sliding bottom turns but he didnt wipe out. It was unique but not like the modern surfing we are used to. Give it a shot and see how you like it, you might not want to sand it after all. Peace

5

you could perhaps make it into a flex tail or try building up the rails with some bondo…

6

i finished up a board with tail rails like that…on purpose… a few weeks ago. it’s a 9’2.

look for noseriding.

with a deeper fin there shouldn’t be a LOT of sliding, depending on where/what you’re surfing. the waves, i mean, not the board.

i wouldn’t try to reshape it now.

i mean…different shapes, different templates,different rail lines… different places to be on the wave.

go surf it and dig the experience.

7

Great advice, thats what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll like it. Learned a lot about rails this time around, I almost have to screw something up to learn.