Hello gentlemen,
Haven't been on in a while, but... I recently finished a 7'5 balsa single for myself. Retroish, round pin, a nice all-arounder from a Shark Bay blank. Usually, I only use glass-ons on my balsa shapes, but as this one was for me and I like to play with fins, I decided to go with a box.
Fun session (with Pierre) yesterday in fun head-high conditions. The board went great, not just no complaints but plain stoked. Hurry back to the car as we're running a bit late (one more last wave, of course...) and rush to pick up my son. Get home on time, then as I go to pull the board off the racks, I hear a dreadful sloshing sound. Double take. Move the board - slosh. Move it again... slosh. I check for unexpected cracks and nothing shows up. Then I check the fin box, and of course, when I turn the board its leaking like a seive.
So I drill a hole in front of the box, and one in a rail juncture to allow the water to flow freely, and I drain about a litre of water out of the board. Later, as I'm shaping a filler plug for one of the holes, I notice that between the moisture and the high temps yesterday, the skin has detached from the frame along about 18" near one rail. Not enough to rupture the glass, but enough to give me a 1/16" to 1/8" rise in my bottom contour. Shit.
So, tomorrow I'll have to sand the section down to wood, figure out how to glue and clamp the zone... and then get after my glasser about the box install and pass it back to him to glass the repair and reinstall the box. Shit. Almost makes me wish I was still glassing.
Lessons to be learned? Make sure that your glasser installs the box per instructions! And, for goodness sake, valve your balsas! I haven't done so in the past (maybe 20 balsa shapes as of now?) and have never had an issue before, but his one has me convinced!
Anyone have a decent brass valve that they'd like to part with? I'm now officially in need.
Mahalo,