I'm really fed up with the standard vent plug.
Most of you know why, forget to do it up, forget to undo it, sand gets in and stuffs the seal up or O ring splits and water gets in, leave it undone on the roof racks and it's gone on the drive home.

Yea I know there are solutions to these problems, but why should we have them when there's a simple alternative, I think Carbon Art has it right, goretex vents are the obvious answer, they breath air, but don't pass water.

I rang goretex last month and they sent me some samples. I've converted two of my old boards with them.


This is Hardy's old Thommen, fairly easy job, as the old vent was in the mastrack. I expanded the upper hole with a router, (free hand, that's why it's not a good circle, but a template would fix this). then drilled out the old thread and retapped it. Routed surface wasn't completely smooth so I fitted the vent with a smear of sylastic.



This is my speed board, I'd originally used an individual vent, when I tried to route it out, I found that it's too small to convert. I cut right thru to the foam, so I used the above bolt to mould a housing into the hole the router made. this method is fine for a new board, (or one you have an exact paint match for). But hard to get a good finish on a nice new board.

Unfortunately goretex don't have a housing for the vent, it's designed to mount on a flat panel.
Goretex say Bennett surfboards have housings, I emailed them Monday, but haven't heard back.
So don't know what they cost or what they look like.

Keef has a method that uses a plumbing fitting, he sylastics the vent in to the fitting, tests it then glues into board.

Goretex charge $12.95 per vent, but they have a minimum order of 40.
Gortex say Bennett boards have them for individual sale, but I don't know what they charge.

My thoughts are, if enough people near Perth are interested we could buy 40 between us.
If that's happens I'll continue to investigate a suitable housing.

That's exactly what I was looking for, but I'd prefer to deal local if possible

Well if you end up ordering a few, I'll be happy to give you $12.95 or so for one. Sounds like it could be worth trying..

why doesn't someone make a goretex plug that fits in a normal vent plug? Obviously there is probably a tiny bit o design work to be done, but if you mass produced it there is absolutely no reason why everyone shouldn't be using one.

as for the lifespan issues, just replace it once a year, $12/year is easily worth the convenience.

Well I think the main reason is that a goretex plug that you only have to remove/replace only once a year prevents those moments where you are halfway through the break, and then realise you forgot to put your vent plug in. From what many people have said I think a few $$$ is well worth the peace of mind.

End of the day, I agree with you, I have never had an issue with the vent plug sailing. I did lose it once when it rolled off my board and fell on the lawn, grass hadn't been cut for weeks and I spent 40 minutes on my hands and knees trying to find it before borrowing my neighbours metal detector and finding it in 15 seconds flat.

But I can see how a goretex plug is probably a better solution for a lot of people.

p.s. I green thumbed you to neutralize your red thumb stalker, that guy is fast!

swoosh said...

p.s. I green thumbed you to neutralize your red thumb stalker, that guy is fast!

Ta.

yes he is fast. with a Capital L on his forehead too I guess...

Mark _australia said...

swoosh said...

p.s. I green thumbed you to neutralize your red thumb stalker, that guy is fast!

Ta.

yes he is fast. with a Capital L on his forehead too I guess...

Must be a rogue kiter trawling the windsurfing forum.

I'm with Mark on this one as I would rather have that knowledge of a physical barrier (traditional vent plug) as opposed to a gortex vent. Then again my boards never get shoved in or on top of a car in the sun and are stored under the house in a fairly controlled environment. I might change my mind if I had to screw & unscrew the vent plug everytime I went sailing though.

choco said...

you always adapt a pressure release valve off a hot water service to replace a normal srew type valve

Choco,
that's not a silly as it sounds - a sprind loaded vent that allows the board the vent positive pressure but seals if negative. Correct me if I'm completely wrong but negative board pressure isn't damaging to a board as much as positive build-up.

Of course you may need to equalise the board every now and then but that wouldn't be too hard to overcome i.e. manually lifting plug (finger pull) and turn to lock in vented position.

Quickly sketched this very rough idea. Now all I need is to sell 1 million of these at a dollar each and I'm in the money

Thanks every body for your input on this, the more the better.

Re pressure, I've had a small head of water, about 100mm, on the vent for several days with no sign of leakage. But that's probably not as much pressure as a board could have on it, taking into account negative internal pressure and submersion in a big wipe out. I'll have a go with more pressure and see what happens.

Sand abrasion is a possibility I guess, but the vent does have a fairly restricted aperture protecting the goretex.

Salt sealing the gaps in the cloth, needs to be investigated.
Just thinking about it though, seems to me it would only block the vent breathing in, when it breaths out it should blow the salt away.

I did suggest to goretex they'd have an instant market for a vent with a standard windsurfing thread, but they weren't interested. The other problem is the head is wider than a normal plug, as it contains the goretex, so even if the threads are the same, it's not going to work unless you can expand the top recess.

The vents Bert Burghers made for his Sunova boards were quite good, they used a rubber diaphragm over a small hole, you only had to crack the screw a smidgen and it could breath out, but negative pressure, sucked the diaphragm against the hole. I have these in 2 of my boards, I added a thin slice of sponge rubber between diaphragm and screw, to act as a spring. Over the years they have worked very well.

i'm a bit sceptical about the extremes

and in the past some humans i have known have had a pub lunch with the bungs out in 40 degree heat in board bags on the roof of their car.
then rigged up and shoved the bungs in and sailed the boards in cool water and viola....fully sunken board bottom and a twisted shape which was a result of the superheated epoxy being soft before being plunged into the water.
if the goretex plug is submerged in that situation e.g. waterstarting what would enter the core to rectify the pressure imbalance?
false sense of security for the ordinary man, but a pain in the arse for manufacturers down the track. who knows!

footnote....my ripcurl windseries steamer with goretex arms from the eighties delaminated within the year and my goretex redwing hiking boots from a few years back leak bad.

Keef, I think there's one problem with water in the board, it appears the vent won't breath out if it's wet inside.
I read in the goretex literature something about the vent having to be the right way round, so the other day I put the vent into my plastic bucket back to front.
It still doesn't pass water, but today it doesn't want to pass air in either direction!!!!!!!!

I'll leave it in the sun tomorrow and see what happens, but I must admit I'm turning off the idea, not breathing out if the inside is wet, doesn't seem like a good thing.

Keef

I was not being negative (I think?) I was just saying that the existing sytem works fine and costs 10c each year to service as opposed to $12 to service.
Plus, when you think of all the things that can clog micoscopic pores in goretex I won't be the first to test it.

decrepit said...

Keef, I think there's one problem with water in the board, it appears the vent won't breath out if it's wet inside.
I read in the goretex literature something about the vent having to be the right way round, so the other day I put the vent into my plastic bucket back to front.
It still doesn't pass water, but today it doesn't want to pass air in either direction!!!!!!!!

I'll leave it in the sun tomorrow and see what happens, but I must admit I'm turning off the idea, not breathing out if the inside is wet, doesn't seem like a good thing.

looks like your right decrepit, just did a test with a wet and dry vent, the wet vent won't breath

decrepit theres no need for alarm,the vent only stop's breathing when totally saturated or emersed in water , and it works fine when its damp, as in normal conditions if there was moisture in a board , if the board had that much water to stop the vent from breathing it would have to sink

The biggest problem with gore-tex as rainwear is that for it to be able to "breathe", the user must be wearing breathable layers of clothing underneath the gore-tex, otherwise your sweat turned water vapour never even gets to the gore-tex.

This may sound a little simplistic and I don't mean to sound arragant,
I leave all vents done up all the time, I don't store boards in the sun or car ever, I do not fly, I never have to worry if have I done up the vent before sailing. I still replace O ring 12-18 months, if I remember.
I have not had any problems (now patting my wooden head).