Hello guys.
I have read that having matte dinish on the bottom of surfboard or eaven on foil can improve speed. (drag in water).
also i have found some info on tis forum.
Anyone have tryed to sand bottom, or wings?
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I have never done this, but I heard that professionals do it. You can feel the result at a high level. The increase in speed is very small, but in some cases the better wettability of the wing as a result of grinding prevents the stall.
After little inverstigation i decided to sand boootm of my board with 600grit sand paper.
I can confirm thi is true, i can feal difference in planing speed.
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I remember it was forbidden in unified sailing class 420 to sand the hull underwater. The portugese used to draw the boats onto the beach causing abrasion and were the fastet in the class. The drawback is when you have tar, crude oil in the water. If something oily sticky hits your boat you are lost without a glossy surface, even with a glossy one it took days of work to remove it completely.
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I had a ding on my efoil after doing some icebreaking last winter, when i fixed it i sanded the whole board lengthwise with 400 grit and i can say - WOW!
There’s a huge difference both in how easy it is to lift and on touchdowns. The original surface quality before sanding wasn’t the best - i got some fisheyes when i top coated, this might have made the difference larger (just to be clear: the fisheyes are still there, only they’re matted down now)
It’s like a completely new board, I used to get thrown off at just a small touchdown, now it’s just a touch😃
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cool. I am curious will 400 grit sanded botom will be faster than 600 grit, i may sand mine with 400 also.
A friend of mine is a top sailer, and he once told me that some teams always dragged their boot (470) over the sandy beach to make them faster.
So yes. Sanding (scuffing) a hull to some degree will work!
I have sanded my foil and prop. While I’m not certain if the foil is faster, it feels like I can foil more effectively at lower speeds and take off much quicker on the wing without needing to glide on the board. Perhaps it’s just my imagination, but the improvement seems noticeable.
Previously, foiling at low speeds was very difficult for me because the board was extremely unstable.
From sailing boats to rowing sculls to surfboards to wakeboards - this is a time old question…
Do you polish? Or do you sand with 2000 wet and dry?
The sanding theory says that you have a wetted surface that provides a better “lubrication” layer than a polished surface that is hyodophobic.
People have done GPS tests on long runs attempting to compare.
I’ve never found the answer.