AHD - Just how durable ??
PVonraits
have mentioned that that this board is not as durable as many of its peers.
Just two weeks ago, a friend of mine was sailing his AHD in decent wind and the
boom came crashing down on the foredeck and repairs were required. Realizing
that each crash is slightly different, I can still remember doing this to my
Xantos and Ride numerous times with either no damage at all, or just a
superficial ding.
Any thoughts, advice or opinions on the Free Diamond 77 ??
Thanks,
Peter
Weed Fin
I have a friend who is 6'8" (that's right Will 6'8") weighing in around 270 lbs
<guess> and loves his Free Diamond 77. This is his second year on the board and
so far no damage. He used it a lot last year, so far this year has been limited
use. He's a decent sailor and as far as I know, he's never (catapult) nosed
crashed it yet.
Dan Weiss
sandwich production board when impacting anything harder than water. That
is to say, they pay dividends in performance but are not armor plated. The
F2s and that sort of plastic skinned board will sustain a big impact from a
hard object much better.
--
Dan
"PVonraits" <pvon...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020802173949...@mb-bd.aol.com...
Mike M.
sailed it relatively hard and even catapulted once or twice! However,
no serious damage has occurred to the nose. The worst thing that has
happened to my board is damaging the finbox as a result of hitting an
underwater object, i.e. rock. I was able to repair this damage
effectively myself with epoxy resin. The AHD Free Diamonds are light
and lively and IMO not any less ding-resistant than other high
performance sandwich production boards. Good boards and I recommend
them.
Mike
"Dan Weiss" <dwusDON'TSP...@bellsouthSPAMSTER.net> wrote in message news:<_l_29.121017$Og3.28...@e3500-atl1.usenetserver.com>...
Brett
to be very strong.
A heavy board like your Xantos or a Bic with a thicker plastic skin will be
harder to scuff, and will not show minor dings, but will still sustain
internal damage if hit. On the other hand, most of the pure carbon
sandwich boards are much easier to chip or ding than the AHD. The
FreeDiamond is midway between an "eggshell" raceboard like a Formula, and a
plastic "tank" that is heavy and slow, but hard to dent. On the whole this
seems a good compromise.
On a board like your F2 you may not SEE impact damage since it is under the
skin, but the structure is breaking down. The board looks ok, but gains
weight and gets softer, eventually the deck may buckle. At the other
extreme a full carbon sandwich is easy to scratch and dent, but much
stiffer and hard to fold up. The AHD has a sandwich, but also a thin outer
skin.
On fit and finish AHD is tops. I have never seen a defective board out of
the box, never a bad paint job, shape irregularity, significant variation
in weight, etc. I can't say that for most other boards. Materials,
craftsmanship, and QC are first rate.
Our shop in Hatteras rents many kinds of boards, including AHD
FreeDiamonds. Over the last 3 seasons they have been among the best at
surviving hard rental use. While the paint can scrape, we have had fewer
major repairs from boom hits than on Fanatics, Bics, and Starboards, and NO
loose cracked or pulled boxes or inserts. None of the FreeDiamonds has
gained weight, or become soft.
Many of our Bics and ALL our Fanatics have had noses knocked off. The F2 /
Mistral shop up the street had the same kinds repairs on many of their
rental boards. Our Starts have cracked and delamed, carbon boards got dents
and holes, but the worst that's happened to the AHDs was repairable with
ding stick. Solid.
For any lightweight board, AHD included, the usual precautions apply - get
a board bag and use it, the vent plug is your friend, deviator / boom bra /
mast pad if you often drop the rig. This is true for any non-poly board
these days.
Brett
Dan Weiss
traditional skinned boards in every capacity other than resisting damage
when hitting rocks. And when they do ding they are much easier to fix than
a plastic skinned board. My AHD 95 is an egg for anything other than water
use. I've broken the nose and dinged the rail near the nose. Both times
due to pilot error. Southwest Airlines baggage crushed the rail in two
places. All repairs were straightforward and come out looking almost like
new.
Repairing ASA skinned boards can be an exercise in futility, since
traditional epoxy repair materials don't adhere to the ASA. After epoxy
shrinks a bit it seems to pull away from the ASA at the edges of the
overlapped repair. It might work in the end but isn't pretty. You might
know how to do it right, though.
Unless I launch in heavy shorebreak from rocks, I don't think I'll ever go
back to that kind of production board. The on-water performance is much
higher using traditional sandwich constructions. Stiff, the rockerlines
stay true and the weight is as light as possible. All good things.
--
Dan
"Brett" <hatt...@sailworld.com> wrote in message
news:01c23b08$71ce0720$ea79f4cd@waste2...
Wolfgang Soergel
>
> AHDs are rock solid on the water, and just as good as any other light
> sandwich production board when impacting anything harder than water. That
> is to say, they pay dividends in performance but are not armor plated. The
> F2s and that sort of plastic skinned board will sustain a big impact from a
> hard object much better.
>
are sandwich boards indeed. But so are the recent F2s. And, just like
the F2s, the AHD FD series has a molded plastik skin construction termed
protec. The just sand away the seam and paint over it. Generally, the
board looked sound to me and no more fragile than any board of
camparable weight. Maybe even less, i could not detect any impact on the
nose of the board in question, the owner claimed that he did not ever
hit the nose hard. There was just a little soft spot (but no scratches
or chips), some hair cracks at the very front and a split of about 5 cm
along an obvious production-related seam. And the glass layer beneath
(no cloth but chopped mat btw) looked quite dry, as if there was a bit
too few resin at this spot duricng the molding process. Something which
is not easy to control in manufacturing.
--
Wolfgang
clydewc
have to sacrifice weight for strength.
other than my freind who has a free diamond 65 who only has sustained finbox
damage in over 4 years
barrie
"PVonraits" <pvon...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020802173949...@mb-bd.aol.com...
Dan Weiss
nothing surrounding nothing, if you know what I mean. It's great that
companies (AHD and others) have moved forward to get some ding protection
along with keeping the weight down.
I have to say that a true seam really sucks no matter who makes the board.
My favorite analogy refers to clams. Really tough everywhere but the seam.
Once it's open, the clam fills with water.
--
Dan
"Wolfgang Soergel" <wsoe...@lnt.de> wrote in message
news:3D4EBF...@lnt.de...