I just noticed these... and found some info on the yahoo site, but nothing very specific. I was wondering if anyone here might have an idea of how concerned I should be about this.

From the look of the pic, it would appear that something has happened to put undo pressure on the pad. It's telling that the beam end damage is around the areas where the pad seems to have an impression rubbed into it from the main hull area. So, I'd say you have two issues:

1 - Why did this happen? You need to figure this out. Was there a collisions? Did you recently replace the pads? If so, did you take the time to make sure that the clearance was proper? If you don't have the proper clearance, things like this can happen. Check for the proper clearance. If you have not done anything to the pads, and this happened, inspect the rest of the folding system. Make sure nothing is loose or broken. On my F-27 the delrin bushings in the joints had gotten old and brittle and started to come apart resulting in some excess play.

2 - Assess the beam end damage. Hard to tell from the pic, it may just be superficial from flexing (gel coat cracks) or something more. Remove the pad (after you've figured out why the joint is too tight) and inspect the beam end. You may be ok once the other problem is addressed, but you might ultimately want to send a pic to Corsair or to Ian Farrier.

On Ian's site is a document about beam care and inspection, there's also another regarding beam pads. I suggest you download them and see if your problem is covered.

Farrier Builder and Owner Page

Keith,
Thanks for the info. I had found that compression pad page and supposedly there is a page somewhere where he describes how to fix damage to the end beams.
I took the compression pad off and doesn't look bad per se. I do think they are too thick- previous owner replaced them somewhat recently. That may be 90% of the problem. I looked everywhere else for any indication of a collision and I don't see anything. Maybe the wire that runs from just behind the front beam on the hull to the aft outer beam was loose and that allowed it to move fore and aft more than normal... but I would suspect I would have seen something on the aft beam also then. I think I will send an email to the previous owner, but I am not sure I really want to.
I haven't even sailed the thing yet!
I still may grind off some of the gelcoat so I can just feel better (in the end, I doubt there is any serious damage to the underlying glass). This wouldn't be hard and since it is not a part of the boat that shows, I would not need to be too crazy about making it look awesome.
With the reported stresses on that area I think that significant damage in that area would probably show more than the cracks.
I did shoot the pics to Ian for the "consult" and I am awaiting his response. He is busy with the whole f-22 thing so who knows when I will hear back.

It appears to me that someone replaced the soft plastic (delrin)compression pads with G-10 or other molded glass pads. The purpose of the pad is to allow slight compression of the pads to eliminate the point loading that occurs from the hard pads. I would replace the pads with the proper material and repair the gel coat damage.

I ended up emailing Ian about it and he recommended doing the repair so I did. I think I ended up putting a little more epoxy in the beam than was intended, but it seemed to all work out ok. I have been using the boat all season with the repair and everything seems ok. In the end, I am not sure it was necessary. When I drilled out the beam end, everything looked ok, but by then I was somewhat condemned to do it.
I think that the glass pads that were on there were replacements directly from corsair. I agree though, HMWPE or delrin/acetal would probably be a better idea due to their ability to conform a little better than glass. I do use HMWPE instead of the glass as a pad in 2/4 though (I think, cant remember where they are really). I keep a close eye on them with an inspection mirror and slide a shim pad to see if I can put it between the beam and hull.

As far as the beams being too tight- I thought about this and talked with a dealer who said that they can't necessarily be too tight. However, I do make sure the beams fold and unfold ok... I certainly don't torque them down with the beam bolts.