Looking to the group for collective wisdom, My tudor nuuhiwa noserider has developed several stress cracks on the bottom near the nose. These appear to be surface “glass cracks” and do not cross the stringer- Is the board at risk for snapping, and is it possible to add an additional layer of glass across the bottom (thereby increasing weight and strength)/ What are the down sides? Also if the bottom is resin tinted what will the outcome be if additional cloth is layed down. These are probably stupid questions I just have very little knowledge regarding board repair
If the stress cracks are close to the nose, it is most likely from pearling in shallow water while on the nose and coming in contact with the bottom.
The likelyhood of the nose snapping is slim, but over time the cracks will wick water and the foam will start to turn brown around the area.
give 'em a light sand with some used 220# and a quick shot of clear acrylic spray paint. it’ll keep water from getting in there and making a bigger problem out of a very very small one.
so long as there’s no delam underneath, and the fiberglass at the rails remains uncompromised, the board isn’t at any greater risk of snapping.
One of my board got a bunch of stress cracks in the middle. An ominous sign was that the cutlap was open for about 6 inches on the other side. I’m sure I had a near break. It’s a 10 ft. board and the cracks were over about 4 ft. I think the board was flawed to begin with. The guy I bought if from said one of the cut laps had opened before and he had it repaired. I think the glasser sanded too deep.
There was no buckling or delam on the deck so I didn’t think it went too far but the cracks were pretty bad on the bottom so I decided to fix it. I repaired it by sanding through the gloss and hot coat ‘till I could just see the weave over the whole area then installed a layer of 4 oz. I also reinforced the cutlap with a layer of 4 oz. The board is yellow pigment in the lam’. After I applied the lam, hot gloss and polish it’s only detectible by a minor shade change due to the extra glass. It didn’t effect the underlying color in the glass. I did have to replace the pinlines though.
Hope that helps. If you want I can show some pics. Good luck.