repair of split rail

Hi, Have split through a rail on a 5 ft 10 shortboard. The split is 3 inches long one side and 2 inches the other. Width is 0.25 inch. Lucky it did not shear all the way down the board and snap I guess. There is a small gap where the foam got washed out. Have done repairs on boards before. Given its a rail should I strip/cut more fibre glass back and create more strength from new layers of fibreglass or should I keep it minimal ?

Many thanks

shoot a pic for us

Pending a picture or two… I’m assuming that this board wasn’t snapped but it was close, yeah? Like the bad sketch below.

It’s generally a Real Good Idea not to cut away glass in a ding repair unless it’s loose and flapping in the wind so to speak. Instead, a little filler, sand smooth, then glass over. If you cut something out, you got a lot more filler that needs to go in, extra weight, weaker repair ( where the fibers are kinda bent around the edges of the repair) and so forth.

Now, what does concern me is how the board may be bent a bit and it might be a good move to look down the bottom and see if there’s any ‘bumps’ in the curve of the rocker.

Lousy sketch, I warned ya. The thing is, if the board is bent you may well have some no-fun getting the bend out. Oh, and if there’s a stringer, check to see if it’s got some fractures in it, on a line between the splits. If it’s broken and you got splinters poking the glass up, you got something really weakened there.

hope that’s of use

doc…

many thanks…here are the pics

many thanks…hope the pics come as i had trouble with the posting. Thanks for the tip on the broken stringer possibility

Wow…that’s kinda unusual. How the foam that left town there is so smooth, almost like there’s two kinds of foam there:

In any event, here’s how I’d attack it:

Now, the width of the bands I showed is prolly more than you really need. The narrow one under, maybe a foot wide, depends on how heavy the cloth is, the top one maybe six-eight inches wider. With your sander, feather the edges some so there’s no sharp transition . That way the board flexes okay in use and you don’t get someplace it’ll naturally want to snap.

Sanding before glassing - you’re just making the filler smooth and roughening up the existing glass so the new stuff will bond well. You’re not sanding beyond, say, the hot coat, maybe just enough so you start to see fibers.

Hope that helps

doc…