my 9’0 has several stress cracks along the bottom, none of them go around the rails. there was one from rail to rail up towards the nose which i glassed over to reinforce it. there are a couple near the tail that span rail to stringer, which i havent repaired with more then some resin to seal it up. None of them have cracked or effected the stringer.
This thing has survived two years of hollow beach break barrels, every fall and winter im on this thing pretty much full time. id like it to last longer. should i repair the stress cracks near the tail, or since they are sort of small leave them alone.
if you can feel the crack when you scratch your finger over it, i’d rough it up and give it a shot or two of clear acryllic spray just to make sure the water stays out. aside from that, it isn’t worth the trouble.
As a general rule, stress cracks are in the hotcoat and/or gloss, so they are not doing anything structural. The board flexes and the less flexible stuff at the outside of the radius cracks. Winter and cold water prolly exacerbate that some.
On the other hand, if you’re seeing any sign of the cloth weave there, it’d be a Real Good Idea to sand away gloss and most of the hotcoat and reinforce with cloth through there. That’s a sign that you’re pushing it to the edge of what the structure can stand.
yep…you can still see the crack, but it’ll completely smooth it out and seal it up…and just roughing up the surface and giving it a spray is a lot easier than anything else. those little cracks don’t really have any impact on the structural integrity of the board, but if they let water in, that could lead to much bigger problems over time. after every few sessions, i look for new cracks (especially on the rails) and seal 'em up before it turns into a problem.