by JonLee on Thu Jun 09, 2016 10:44 am
I am not sold on the idea. Carbon cloth would add strength, but without the fibers I am not sure what you are getting besides some abrasion resistance. And if you do the silica/epoxy "armor" on the leading edge of the board per the instructions, you are plenty tough on the one part of the board that actually could get abraded. Maybe they thought it to "reduce friction" between the board and the trunk? Still of dubious value to me, since a) the board is 1/4" narrower than the trunk, so it's doesn't exactly need to be a well-oiled machine to work, and b) you are already sanding the board to a "smooth as marble" finish, so how much of a reduction in friction do you really think you are going to get?
Plus, you never get to see the board in operation, so how could you show everybody how cool it looks?
Now, on the topic of abrasion resistence, one thing that I thought about doing, but didn't, but kinda wish I did, would be to run a strip of aramid (Kevlar) along the bottom of the keel when fiberglass in the bottom. Aramid is a bit of a pain to work with, since it doesn't like being sanded or cut, but it might be worth the small add hassle...it seems like it would make a heck of a keel shoe.