Happy foil board inserts loose.

[grtlakes]

I recently purchased a lf happy foil board. I installed a slingshot front hook. The most forward 3 inserts are now loose. It is a single insert with three screw holes. The glue holding them in position has become unstuck. Now they can be pushed out of alignment side to side and fore and aft.
Does anyone have a repair suggestion. I'm worried about water saturation if I attempt to use the board as is.

[Cdog]

Can you post a picture or two?

[grtlakes]

A few pictures showing insert location and movement full left and full right from centre.

[TomW]

The inserts are not built to take the stress of a foot hook. You're going to need to replace the inserts. It's a bigger job than you realize.

[Peter_Frank]

The inserts are not built to take the stress of a foot hook. You're going to need to replace the inserts. It's a bigger job than you realize.

Indeed yes, normal footstraps has almost no load on the inserts, whereas a hook acts like a crowbar and will rip it up and twist it so you need a much stronger "base" when using hooks

PF

[Peert]

Repair suggestions are also welcome with me...

I would be tempted to drill out and glue one in using epoxy is this the easiest repair?

My Mitu convertible seems to have plastic threads that couldn't take the repeated beating of me learning to hydrofoil..

Could it work to fill the broken threads with either plastic (ski repair plastic) or epoxy and drill an re apply thread?

[davesails7]

My Mitu convertible seems to have plastic threads that couldn't take the repeated beating of me learning to hydrofoil..

Is it just that the threads are stripped in the plastic block? You can just go up one size in screw diameter. If you were using #8 screws, get a #10 and it will work like a charm.

[airsail]

Looks like your inserts have come loose inside the board, they are only glued into foam and the foam/insert glue join has failed.
To repair, first dry the water out from the board, out on the sun upside down, may take a few days. Water will be pushed out during the day as the air expands inside the board, then as the board cools at night dry air will be sucked in. Can be sped up by laying some black plastic over the board, but take care, too much heat can cause delams.
After the water is out of the board get a 10-20 ml syringe, get a drill the same size as the end of the syringe. Drill two holes either side of the insert about 2 cm apart. Grease a footstrap screw and thread it into the insert, grease so it doesn't get stuck.
Your going to new some epoxy glue with slow hardener, so it doesn't set too fast and cause an exothermic reaction (lots of heat). Possibly standard epoxy glue from the hardware would work, not the 5 minute stuff. Use the syringe to inject the glue into one of the holes, keep injecting till it comes out the other hole. You might need to wiggle the insert a bit to get it fully coated.
This is roughly how we install inserts into composite structure in the aviation industry.
Check the length of the footstrap screws supplied with you Happy foil, some were supplied a bit long and needed shortening.

[atomic-chomik]

Looks like you got one of the boards that were a bad batch from the factory. My buddy had one that didn't even have the mast tracks epoxied in once they were set. Happy Foil replaced it. Id get ahold of your product support or give em a shout.

[TomW]

Airsails fix is quick and dirty. Might work, you might get exothermic and totally fu the board, might hold up a while. It's not fixing the fundamental problem.
My fix would involve cutting away large area of the pad around the inserts. Removing deck lamination by grinding away at least 25mm all around. Remove insert and salvage if I could, replace foam with high density foam 50mm wide and longer that the inserts, deeper than inserts. route and glue in insert with epoxy, glass over inserts ( fill thread with melted candle wax). Then grind glass lapp smooth. I would put 4-5 layers 6oz glass over them. Use a big drill to remove glass over insert hole and dig out the candle wax with a small nail.
Then put a deck pad patch over.

Like I said, this is major repair. It takes 10x longer to fix it, than make it right from the beginning.
I've seen some really poor construction of fun box and inserts in factory boards. They are not built to last a long time.

If it was a Slingshot board, I'd totally claim warranty, they sell the hook so their boards better be built to take them. Used my dwarfcraft 10 or so sessions with foothooks with no apparent problems.