Dagger Board Repair

[nemo]

My wife is out of town with our tow vehicle, but I had Saturday afternoon free and fortunately, have some friends that own a Suburban who wanted to go sailing so I took this guy and his wife out for a late afternoon/evening sail. We launched in the Columbia off Sauvie Island (Burlington Ferry Rd Ramp) and went upstream to the Willamette. Had great wind and got a lot of Gibing practice as the wind was running parallel with the river. We were going 7+ MPH according to GPS overground and upstream - not bad.

We had our first mishap though as we came to a railroad bridge that we weren't sure we could sail under. So the plan was to make a Gibe just before the bridge and sail parallel with it while eye-balling the height prior to making the call that we were good to go, then sail under the bridge. I was working the main/jib sheets while my buddy was at the helm. He yelled gibe-ho and half way through the turn we hit a sand bar and ground to a halt. I have a depth finder but he wasn't watching it in the excitement of the gibe and watching the height of the bridge. Now it said 3' deep. :-/. It crushed the dagger-board on the back edge for about the top 1 foot (we found out later). I was able to use the motor to get us un-stuck. Fortunately we could then raise what was remaining of the dagger board up and motor back to the ramp. Good learning, and no human bodily damage, nor damage to the boat where the dagger board lives. I don't get too riled about these sorts of things. It's funny, we sailed for 3 hours without doing any tacks.

I'm thinking I will buy a new dagger board (I wonder how much they are..how much folks?) and might repair this dagger board to keep as a spare - I can see how easily this could ruin a good sailing vacation..

So my question is have any of you repaired a dagger board on a 26M? I've got to run to a meeting now, but perhaps can post a picture of the damage later.

thanks,

[Richard O'Brien]

I'd really like to see how a daggerboard fares in these situations Nemo. My guess is that pretty nearly anything made of polyester fibreglass can be repaired and improved with epoxy fibreglass. Please post a picture if you can. I believe that you are one of the first to hit hard enough to do any major damage. I'll bet Bill at boats4sail can give you a quote?

[nemo]

Here's a couple pictures of the damage to the daggerboard. The damage is actually 24" long and 4" wide along back top edge.

http://brownz.com/dagger1.JPG
http://brownz.com/dagger2.JPG

Does it look salvagable as a spare?

[nemo]

I might mention that I wouldn't want to improve on the strength of it - I like that the dagger board took all the damage and the boat is fine.

[ALX357]

So that is where it was bearing and forced against the back inside bottom of the DB trunk, where the hull is thickened and reinforced with extra 'glass. IF the board had been stronger, the boat would have either stopped harder, or torn up the hull there, or the forward edge of the DB trunk, a bit higher.
Did the lift line pull out of the cleat, ? and the safety line hold ? You might have even lost the board entirely if the top leading edge had pulled out of the trunk.
No damage to the front edge of the board from impact is visible in the photos, was it a mud bottom ? ... could have been much worse if the grounding been hard enough to stop suddenly, like a rock or solid stump.

[richandlori]

Interesting, as an M owner, I always wanted to "see" what would happen. You did say that the boat didn't sustain any damage?

When I bent my spreader all to hull and another time needed a new rudder, I just called the factory and they shipped me out a new one,,,,,,for a few $ ofcourse.

I would give them a call here as well to check on a new board, it shouldn't be to difficult, since the M is still in production.

Rich

[nemo]

Damage to the boat was so minor as to be insignificant. Upon close inspection there is a 1 inch long, 1/16" deep "dent" inside the DB trunk on the front side about a half a foot up where the top front corner of the DB hit it. I'll just pop in a bit of gel coat to fill it in. The top front corner of the DB has a small crack in it on top.

A knot in the lift line did pull through the block, and the safety line held but it did bend the metal bracket a bit as it pulled down.

I presume the bottom of the river is sand/silt.

I left a message with the factory to call me about a price for a new one. I also sent email to BWY for a quote. Is the factory price on things usually the same or better than dealers? Guess I'll find out. I rather give the biz to BWY as they have been good to us.. but not sure if they would even stock spares.

Does my damaged DB look repairable? (as a spare)

[Richard O'Brien]

Nemo, I think that looks pretty repairable. You could easily make a mold from the lower "good" half" using molding plaster, or ultracal 30 gypsum which doesn't expand signigigantly. wax it, pour some plaster on, and brush on a couple of layers of burlap dipped in yogurt thick ultracal. You can mold the bottom 1/2 and edge. slide the new mold up. wax it, and use mold release. a thin layer of gel coat, or white epoxy, brush on a layer of epoxy, and a single layer or two of woven fibreglass. shape a piece of thin foam as the sacrificial weak link. Fold the cloth over, and brush it down. Shape the remaining top surface with body putty, unless you can shape the epoxy. Sand to shape.......Or just do most of it in body putty, nobody 's going to see it anyway?

[nemo]

Thanks Richard for the tips on repair. I ordered a replacement DB from BWY for $218 + ~$25 shipping. Not bad, I expected much worse. I received it the very next day - nice service. Popped it right in so I'm ready to sail again.

I will take a crack at repairing this broken one and keep it under the rear berth (if it fits) as a spare.

Looks don't matter to me - I just want it strong enough but not too strong. I was thinking of putting shaped surfboard foam in the damaged area and fiberglassing over it with just 1 layer of glass - not bothering with a mold. Just another project to add to the list.

[Richard O'Brien]

Boy that's cheap Nemo. I mean i'm sorry you have to fork it up,but I'm surprised? I wonder if it would be possible to flip the damaged one end for end, and replace the bottom foot or more with a foam, breakaway, section, kind of like surf boards are fabricated? Better yet a cast iron or bronze section. The possibilities are interesting. In any case it doesn't sound like the local fibreglass shop can beat the price of a new one?

[Paul S]

I would repair the old one for a spare.

It looks like what should happen. No/insignificant damage to the boat. You did not shear off the board, which is good.

This will be a great project to practice your fiberglass repair. It doesn't have to look pretty. Get some fiberglass mat and some resin and go to town. clean up the loose fibers, I use a dremel, but you could use sandpaper. Put laters of resin and glass mat, make it somewhat presentable. Good as new.

Paul

[nemo]

I'm planning a trip down the Columbia River and thought it would be wise to have an extra dagger board along (lots of sand bars in the Columbia), so finally got around to fixing my broken dagger board as a spare. Had it fixed in a few hours work.

I didn't want it to be *too* strong, but it also needs to be strong enough. I ended up using wood and Bondo. I cut a wedge of wood on the table saw, and then shaped it further on a table mounted belt sander.

Here's a sequence of photos showing the steps of repair.

http://www.brownz.com/dagger2.JPG
http://www.brownz.com/dagger_repair1.jpg
http://www.brownz.com/dagger_repair2.jpg
http://www.brownz.com/dagger_repair3.jpg
http://www.brownz.com/dagger_repair4.jpg

Seems okay as a spare -

[They Theirs]

Superb M Dagger-Board Repair by Nemo