I´m afraid, no. A dive revealed that the the trailing edge "bumper" went off already and the trailing edge is broken again on exactly the same area. Tomorrow I´ll take it out and apply some layers of glass to it and maybe something to additionally enforce it.
I've gotten OK at repairing mine. I hit a rock at Lake of the Woods and lost a big chunk of the trailing edge. I went to WalMart and got a bunch of fiberglass, some stiff plastic sheets, and a bunch of paint stir sticks. I taped a plastic sheet to one side of the missing section, put in a few layers of glass and resin, added the wood paint stir sticks as support between the existing skin and the repair, and poured more resin in. After it hardened I pulled the plastic off and had a pretty flat surface on the repair. Did something similar to the other side. Not the most professional job but got it fixed in a couple hours on the dock with a repair that's stronger than the original.
I guess my point is that the stock board can and should be modified to make it stronger and this may not take that much effort. It's still annoying that Macgreggor supplies such a cheap board for an otherwise good boat.
My X centerboard is now a daggerboard. With all the resin and filler it weights about 60lbs. I will be putting it back into the CB trunk this week, I hope. I'm looking for two results: One, I would like to have the boat wander less when under power. I have up to 10" of vertical board to play with. Two, I'm looking for a better track when sailing. Often the boat is just blown sideways even when the rudders are all the way over (no helm). I'm not to concerned with heel because I have a furling main sail and jib and it is quite easy to change sail size.
Often the boat is just blown sideways even when the rudders are all the way over (no helm).
Gerald,
This may be normal if you don't allow the boat to build speed after a tack. When I tack, especially in light air, I let the sails out so they're quite full and head off a little to build speed then head up and sheet back in. This is actually normal to some extent on any sailboat. No speed means no lift on the rudders or board which causes side slip and loss of control.
I've noticed that also. I'll really have to make an effort to better banance the boat. I've read some good info here and I'm going to try some of the tips.
As far as I can tell, mine is completely hollow.
I was thinking of dropping about 80 pounds of old lead bar in mine.
But what a idea...... This would be a much easier place to pull the chain out of than the lazzerette.
BUT I really haven't felt the need to weight the daggerboard on my Dboat. She handles so nice, and is so fast, I don't want to do anything to slow her down.
If it's a M board I can't imagine it being completely hollow. I've seen the inside of 2 of them and they both had an internal brace running lengthwise. The brace itself does have some air in it though but not much usable space for any ballast.
baldbaby2000 wrote:All these things I did--weighted daggerboard, backstays, Kelly-Hanson Pentex sails and IDA rudders primarily--resulted in incremental improvements in perfomance but
Daniel
What's your opinion of the Pentex sails? How much improvement relative to the others did it bring? Thoughts?
What's your opinion of the Pentex sails? How much improvement relative to the others did it bring? Thoughts?
Richard,
They seem to be of good quality and the main at least visually has better shape than my stock sail. Maybe not unique to Pentex sails but I like the loose footed main: it's easier to adjust the outhaul and easier to take the sail off. As far as performance goes it's hard for me to say now. I did race at Lake of the Woods and didn't do that well but I kept hitting rocks too which didn't help. I was hoping to do more races at Granby since I have somewhat of a track record on how I did before but I've been out of town. The fully battened top of the sail has a disadvantage in very light winds in that it can be left in an "inside-out" state after a tack and requires pulling on the boom to pop it back; just like I had to do on Hobies. The verdict is still out but generally I give them a plus over the dacron.
The fully battened top of the sail has a disadvantage in very light winds in that it can be left in an "inside-out" state after a tack and requires pulling on the boom to pop it back; just like I had to do on Hobies
Interesting. I haven't had this problem. Might be the battens themselves. The ones Quantum put in are superb, flexing exactly when needed and staying straight & snapping back exactly when needed. I have been really impressed with this since day one. They're also supposed to be unbreakable, use batten cars at the luff and secured with hardware at the leech so they essentially can't pop out.
I concur with the loose foot. In heavy air, the sail can be made really flat with a strong outhaul, also acting as a flattening reef due to the loose foot aspects. In light air, one can achieve a very drafty sail, pretty much like a jib, by letting the outhaoul out, giving a real big belly to the sail.
Back in the old days of the retractable keel the best speed improvement was to epoxy and sand the keel so smooth ( like glass). This supercharged the MacGregor more than the best sails. Thus, I expected the new 26M to also gain from dagger board mods. So far, not so much. My first was a lead fin of 600 lbs and no water ballast. Slight upwind improvement and a lot of work to raise and lower. Much poorer powering (always tring to round up)! Then we used a bulb keel on reinforced fiberglass fin. This weight so low caused such pitching in waves it was slower than stock water ballast. But very fast in a breeze in flat water ( in the marina with no waves we beat everybody upwind). This also was too much work raising the keel/daggerboard and poor powering.
My overall take on the ballasted board is it is not worth it! Spend your $$ on a mylar or better genoa if you sail in a windy area. If you are like us in Marina del Rey, CA with light wind, the main is where improvement is cheapest. Get a fat head main with roach as large as the sailmaker will do. My latest is square top much like the A/C boats, PHRF now 195. Needs to be reefed upwind over 10/12 kts but really enhances the rotating mast.
For you X sailers, get the rotating mast! I have done many for local sailors and it is a huge improvement. My take is: X vs M. Hull shape maybe a little, extra area in main depends on wind strength, daggerboard vs centerboard maybe a little, blue color maybe a little, rotating mast the most! So do that first then get good sails.
Just my opinions but all tried by me, some several times!
Mike Inmon
Great input mike. Perhaps I did make the best choice in going with the 150 lb lead section at the bottom of my daggerboard (not a bulb) I have experienced no sailing performance loss and virtually no noticeable motoring speed loss with the 50 hp. No increased pitching, etc. Of course, this is additional ballast, not a substitute for the water ballast. I'm guesstimating an average heel reuduction of 5 degrees. If you are up for any more experimenting, you may try such a keel. I think a number of folks would be interested based on previous threads I had on this, provided it wouldn't be cost prohibitive. Already go the high performance pentex sails from Quantum. Agree with you completely that this was by far the best performance improvement I made to the boat. Most expensive too.
I have converted my X's CB into a daggerboard. The board weights in at 65lbs. I launched the boat in order to install the new board. I was really surprised to fine that the new board, filled with resin, fiberstrand, cloth, ets. lost almost all its weight when it was in the water. I could hold the CB with one hand and raise it up an lower it. I gather from this that the stock X board has no weight when it is submerged. The stock X board has holes in it to keep it from floating up.
Does anyone know the density of resin and body putty? I have a few cosmetic things left to do inside the cabin. I'll soon be testing the board. I hope this mod is not a waste of time.
