Daggerboard Damage Advice Please

[Kohi]

Hi,

I have managed to drag the daggerboard of my 26M over the seabed for a few seconds and it has cracked along the back edge. My fault as I was being a bit careless in light winds at the end of a long day and despite only doing about 2 knots at the time and only briefly scraping the daggerboard (the boat didn't stop and sailed away okay) I now have to fix it so that will teach me!

The question I have is can the 26M still be safely sailed whilst I wait for an opportunity to get it out the water, drop the mast etc and lift the daggerboard out for repair/replacement? The damage looks messy (crack runs about half the length 2-3 inches from the back edge) but cosmetic rather than structural but I would appreciate any advice and experience anyone has as this seems to be a common occurrence. The front of the daggerboard looks okay.

Many thanks,
Richard.

[tek]

You aren't the only one, I managed to drag the daggerboard on my accross a shoal. Split along the bottom edge instead of the rear. I sailed it until an opportunity to replace came up with no issues.

It may add a bit of drag, but the only risk I can see is further damage to the board which is being replaced anyway.

Be careful removing it from the trunk, the lower split on mine allowed bits to move causing the edge to be too wide to fit through or retract, I had to break a loose chunk of fiberglass out of the board before I could pull it up for trailering and/or replacement.

[mastreb]

It's "safe" to operate the boat without the daggerboard if your definition of safe includes being blown sideways into things. The boat isn't going to capsize because you're not using the daggerboard, but it will sideslip without it and you'll be unable to make headway when pointing at all. Best thing to do is operate motor only instead of sailing until you've got the daggerboard fixed, as the DB is not necessary at all while motoring.

[CampCook]

If I read this correctly, it sounds like the daggerboard is still in place and can be lifted or dropped as normal. If this is the case, there should be no real problem. My dagger board was rather severely damaged. I repaired it with marine tek and added a piece of PVC pipe to the top part of the trailing edge to strengthen it. The pipe is sized to just barely protrude below the hull when the board is fully down.

[Phil M]

I badly damaged my daggerboard and continued to use it for the final days out on the water. I was surprised to see the extent of the damage when I finally got the boat out of the water.

[Calin]

Cracked mine twice. First, Bill replaced it. The second time I patched it myself.

While in my slip, to remove it I have extended both line on the top of the daggerboard. Then dropped it so that the top was below the boat. I fished it with a hook. Keep the line used to extend the daggerboard's lines. After you fix your, attach them back (remember the order) let the daggerboard in the water and pull it back in the trunk. Worked for me twice.

[Divecoz]

Marine Tex...........

[Kohi]

Thanks guys, the feedback is much appreciated.

The daggerboard is still in place and can be raised/lowered and it's just the back edge that split so as long as it doesn't crack further it should be okay.

I'm overseas so it will take time to get a new one and I'd rather have one that breaks and doesn't damage the boat rather than over repair it and make it too stong and then damage the hull if/when I'm dumb/unlucky enough to do it again!

Cheers,
Richard.

[Wind Chime]

What's the difference between "Marine Tex" and the "Gelcoat repair kit" ? (small jar of white paste with seperate harder bottle)

- For small scratched and dings in the finish use the "Gelcoat repari kit"?
- For big repairs use "Marine Tex" then "Gelcoat repari kit" for the final finish?

I damaged our rudder, with about a 1 inch chunk now missing.
Would I fill in the void with Marine Tex, then apply a topcoat of the Gelcoat Kit ?

[vizwhiz]

What's the difference between "Marine Tex" and the "Gelcoat repair kit" ? (small jar of white paste with seperate harder bottle)

- For small scratched and dings in the finish use the "Gelcoat repari kit"?
- For big repairs use "Marine Tex" then "Gelcoat repari kit" for the final finish?

I damaged our rudder, with about a 1 inch chunk now missing.
Would I fill in the void with Marine Tex, then apply a topcoat of the Gelcoat Kit ?

You have it right - Marine Tex is essentially "boat Bondo", made for bonding to fiberglass and the like. It is sandable, seals, hardens...pretty neat stuff...and you'd use it to fill in gouges and small cracks and such...gets really hard and you can sand it smooth.

The gelcoat is essentially "the fiberglass equivalent of the clearcoat paint layer" compared to the Marine Tex. Gelcoat is a basically a layer of resin without any glass in it, meant to be a smooth and shiny surface over the otherwise rough fiberglass surface. Once you do fiberglass repairs, you would use the gelcoat to once again make a solid, smooth, shiny surface that matches the rest of the smooth surface of the fiberglass. However, on rudders and such, where those looks and layers aren't as important, gelcoat is probably not necessary, and you could use another type of paint instead.

Others on here have a lot more experience fixing stuff on their boats, so they can give you more advice on how to go about fixing it.

[RobertB]

Daggerboard repair is really pretty easy and saves us shallow water bottom gougers a fair bit of money.

My personal advice after doing this (only repaired a daggerboard once but have built and repaired a few wood/epoxy boats):
- remove badly damaged fiberglass if the glass is shredded and you do not have a good chance of wetting it out with epoxy or polyester (fiberglass resin)
- decide if you need a pretty or just functional repair: a fine gelcoat finish is a great thing but will anyone ever see the repaired area? Consider using epoxy or polyester resin with white tint.
- For front or rear edge damage, you might try rounding over the damaged area with a rasp or RO sander (I use a shinto rasp, essentially a bunch of bandsaw blades riveted together but well built, can file off drips without damaging the surrounding area) and then building up the area with chopped up fiberglass and resin. Cover with a few layers of fiberglass cloth and the resulting area is very strong. I belive you may find this less expensive than Marine filler (Bondo filler is probably just as useful here). All areas that will be getting resin/filler should be roughed up/sanded.
- Consider pouring some unthickened resin into the inside of the rudder after your external repair to back up the repair - rudder built this way, when damaged, you likely broke chunks of the stuff loose. I spent about 30 minutes just working the loose chunks of resin out of the rudder.
- When making a resin repair, in addition to buying resin and tint (if desired), you should also have some thickening agents (see West System products) to keep the resin from running.

[Mac26Mpaul]

Should be pretty easy to fix. Can't really picture it, but from the sounds of it, I'd just grind out the cracks a bit, slap bog in, shape it with your sander, and go sailing! Probably take you 2 or 3 hours. If your going to make it pretty, use flowcoat not gelcoat (see my last coupla posts on the second page of this thread
http://macgregorsailors.net/forum/viewt ... fd267e3850
But I dont think I'd worry about pretty on the daggerboard. In fact mine has the front of it bogged and has done since I bought the boat 2.5 years or so back, I dont see it so it dont bother me

[fkraus]

Today, I hit an underwater obstruction while powering with my dagger board down at low speed. I feel some binding a I try to raise and lower the board but feel I will be able to lift it out of the well. I have read the other posted comments, they are very helpful for my pending repair efforts. But I have one outstanding question, has anyone experience damage to the dagger board well? If so, how do you inspect and repair it?

[Steve K]

Tore the crap out of mine a couple years ago. I was doing 6+ knts and hit a very solid rock. The bottom foot of the board was shredded pretty good. The boat felt like it jumped right out of the water, when it happened. I had to work at it to get the board up, to get the boat back on the trailer and later, at home, I spent about an hour, prying and pulling, to get the board out of the trunk.

I looked down through the trunk with flashlight in hand and then went underneath to look from the bottom. I then pulled all the inspection covers off inside and checked every inch that I could. I never found any damage to the trunk and nothing has ever leaked. I also look the trunk over, even now, to make sure nothing has separated over time. No problems.

These boats are much tougher than you might think

Best Breezes,
SK

[mastreb]

The base of the daggerboard trunk is solid resin and its where the 300 lbs of lead are glassed in. If you tossed a MacGregor on the rocks for 40 days, what you'd have left at the end is the base of the daggerboard trunk.