Introducing Patice Remoiville, paddle shaper and undoubtedly a perfectoinnist on the subject. Located near Vannes, he presents his activity and his new orientation towards windsurf drift boards, open but also raceboard. Virtually unknown to raceboarders, he could well surprise them with the appearance of new shapes in the near future.
FRA: Can you introduce yourself?
Patrice Remoiville, I'm 55 years old, originally from Soustons in the Landes, I've been living in Morbihan since 2012. I've pretty much practiced all water sports on the village lake and on the nearby ocean: Optimist from the age of 4/5, Europe and 420 in my teens, then windsurfing, rowing, Hobie Cat. But it was surfing that I discovered at the age of 10, which became my passion, my profession and the common thread running through my life ever since.
At the age of 16, I started building my first boards. They were inspired by the first funboards or water starts that you saw in magazines. Then, with a friend, we set up our first surfboard shaping workshop in Vieux-Boucau, when I was just 22.
Where is your workshop based? Do you work alone?
My company is called 3 Bay Paddle Surf SAS and has been based in Plescop - Vannes for almost 4 years. Previously, I was Product Manager for Stand Up Paddle at BIC SPORT in Vannes from 2011 to 2015.
At 3 Bay Paddle, there are two of us working on production plus a seasonal worker, usually for the first 6 months of the year.
Do you know about drift boards and the specific management of setting up a drift well?
The manufacture of the daggerboard well and its installation in the shape was this year the part where I had the most to learn and experiment. Fortunately, my CNC already allows me to machine the exact location of the well in the shape. But I'd like to make a well mold as soon as possible, before starting mass production. For the moment, my system for manufacturing and integrating the well takes too long.
You're equipped with a 5-axis CNC. Is this technology compatible with small series production in terms of production output and price competitiveness?
My workshop is equipped with a 5-axis CNC, manufactured by a small company based near Montpellier: KMS SYSTEM. It has been specially developed for shape shops and for machining rigid foam. It has a maximum length capacity of 18'.
With the SHAPE3D design software, this set is reasonably priced, and can be amortized over 5 years for a medium-sized workshop like mine (200+ boards). Blocks are machined individually, but of course identical series of parts keep set-up times to a minimum.
But the precision achieved, and the reproducibility of shapes, is incomparable to manual machining. This type of CNC machine is now indispensable for board production.
Projects on drift boards?
Belgian designer Bernard Buren approached me two years ago with a project to manufacture Open boards. Then, last spring, we moved on to the production phase of the first two prototypes. Alain Cadre, who was in charge of design on SHAPE3D, tested the first proto in Morbihan last June.
Since then, we've applied to WORLD SAILING for certification of the model. So that I can offer it for sale from 2020.
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Are you aware of current product and technological developments, such as Arkema's Elium resin, which makes composites recyclable, or thermoplastic composites, which allow composites to be processed without chemicals?
Yes, we do. For many years now, I've been in the habit of going to the JEC show in Paris every March, to visit my suppliers of course, but also to "fish" for new developments in composite materials.
For several years now, first for BIC, I've been developing a whole range of Stand Up Paddles, then surfboards, using "Ecofriendly" materials wherever possible: flax, cellulose fiber, wood, bio-sourced epoxy resin and cork.
These are still marketed under the EARTH SUP and EARTH SURF brands.
But I want to go one step further and try to do away with the expanded polystyrene core in favor of hollow molded SUP boards with a flax/cork/epoxy sandwich skin. I hope to build my first proto this winter.
I've never been able to try Elium resin because I'm not sure it's well suited to my manufacturing process (too long gel time, I think). However, these are only rumors, as some users have already tested it, and no sales representative has ever contacted me to offer it for trial.
As for thermoplastic composites, "thermo" means heat and heating to shape the part under press, then to harden it. So it's incompatible to laminate an EPS shape with a density of 15kg/m3, which starts to melt at 80 to 90°C.
It's a production method for very large production runs, due to the high cost of molding tooling.
Do you think this can be transposed to the windsurfing industry and made accessible to small workshops like yours?
I think "the windsurfing industry" is a bit of an exaggeration. As far as the windsurfing industry in Europe is concerned, it should be called "windsurfing craftsmanship" or even "windsurfing self-employment"!
The technique of making the foam core "shapped", then laminated and sanded for finishing + decoration/painting, is essentially artisanal. Even in a factory like COBRA in Thailand, they'll be making tens of thousands of boards a year, just as we European craftsmen do. The difference is that they will multiply the number of workstations and simply specialize the staff to produce more.
Would you like to add anything?
Alas, my project to build Open boards, and even Raceboards in the future, may never come to fruition, if I don't quickly find a manufacturer of the 75 cm long mast foot rails that equip these boards. This vital part seems to be the monopoly of COBRA Inter.
