26M replacement daggerboard

[Kevin]

I managed to drop a pin down the daggerboard well on the Dwen and when I looked up from under the boat I discovered that things looked remarkably wrong.

It seems that I have managed to destroy my daggerboard in one of my mishaps. The top 2 feet have the fibreglass sheeting cracked but intact. The remaining board consists of some forms and traces of the fibreglass sheeting. I'm guessing it is nearly 3 feet long now and less than effective.

I've contacted Macgregor to get a replacement and it is on order, but I'm not very optimistic about receiving it any time soon. Demand for the boats far exceeds their capacity and they have no ability to produce parts other than for the boats being produced.

Since this is not a warranty issue, I caused this damage by my stupidity, a replacement daggerboard doesn't have the highest priority for delivery.

With so many sailing events planned beginning within the next 2 weeks, I need to come up with a plan B. I haven't been able to find any source for a daggerboard on the web so I need to make some kind of a suitable substitute.

Right now I'm thinking something made from wood and shaped roughly to the dimensions of the original. I know the shape of the well by the top 2 feet remaing and would use that as a model for the remainder of the contour. I'm hoping the factory can give me the length of the stock daggerboard.

I'm kind of thinking any board in the daggerboard position is better than nothing. Even a square board with no airfoil shaping would be no worse than a beat up daggerboard.

Does anybody have any suggestions for my project? Anything about materials and finish. I have no experience here and am kind of in desperation mode. I'm way short on time and I'm not going for ultimate performance. I want a reasonable replacement that is safe and not going to do any damage to the boat.

Thanks for all the help!

[craiglaforce]

I made spare rudders for my X out of a simple oak board that I purchased at a home depot. I contoured it with one of those powerful automobile angle sanders. Then finish sanded with an orbital hand sander.

Stained it and applied 2 coats of clear epoxy to seal it up. They look really nice and I've never put them on the boat. I ended up ordering a replacement rudder from the factory. The wood ones are just spares. They are too pretty to put on the boat. But in an emergency I guess I would use them.

If you do make your own daggerboard, be aware that the daggerboard is designed to be the weak link and break when you hit an underwater obstruction to protect the daggerboard trunk from damage. Oak may not provide this break-off protection. I've since heard that oak is not all that rot resistant either so maybe its not the ideal choice of wood. Plus it is really hard to cut and sand.

Good luck.

[dclark]

Well, here is my 2 cents worth...it might not even be worth that much...

I have an X and I'v never seen the M daggerboard. Part of me says wait for the factory instead of making a bad thing worse but then part of me wants to see you make the Ensanada trip...

So, knowing absolutely nothing, here is what I think...

It probably won't hurt to try a temporary fix. I'm assuming that you'll take a new factory board the first chance you get. I'm not sure how big this thing is, but it's probably in the neighborhood of the X CB...maybe 6' long and a foot or so wide?

As you say, you are going to need to decide on a material. If it were a CB, I don't thing wood would be an option since I need to depend on the weight of the water filled CB to keep it down, does the M have the same dependency or can you push it down and lock it?

IMO, if you can go with wood, that's the easiest to work with. If you can make a 1" think piece of plywood work you should be able to whip something up in a day. Cut it out woth a jig saw, sand the edges, and put about four thousand coats of marine varnish on it...that'll be good for plenty long enough to get a replacement.

If not wood then what material? Fiberglass is about you next best option, but unless you have a lot of experience it'll probably be less the successful. Fiberglass IMO is a funny thing. Patching and fixing is real easy, but fabricating something from scratch in the garage so to speak is a whole different story. It's time consuming, difficult, messy, and expensive.

If you need a hollowed board that will water fill, then you only have three practical options that I can think of...1 - wait on MacGregor, 2 - take it somewhere and have a pro fabricate it, or...

3 - Fabricate your own using fiberglass and thin plywood as a core. It's still messy and a lot of work. In my mind (admittedly a simple one) the biggest difficulty is going to be assembly. By that I mean you will need to fiberglass what will be the inside of the hollow board, then assemble it, then fiberglass the outside (keeping in mind that you are adding thickness, so be sure you allow for that or it won't fit when you're done). I picture cutting two identical pieces of plywood for the sides. Then you'll need a way to attach and support them while creating a hollow space and still keeping it thin enough. I'm picture additional strips on plywood to match the shape of the sides an inch or two wide. Enough so you can stack them up, epoxied together and creat a hollow board a few inches think. That's an awful lot of work for a temporary solution though.

Wish I could help more.

[Kevin]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Lots to consider.

Dan from Arena Yacht Sales called Saturday and said the new daggerboard would be in yesterday. I'll be calling them later today to check. For sure getting a factory replacement is the way I want to go.

The folks at Arena told me to bring them the wreckage and we'd think about some way to turn it into a spare. There is a good portion of the forms in tact so that would make a good start on making one from fibreglass, but it's a project to be done at leisure. Not with a deadline.

Given the time constraints, if I don't have something this weekend I'll start on a wood temporary replacement that I can install and have a chance to test before the trip.

[Billy]

If you're thinking about building one, you may want to consider HDPE board about 1" thickness. Once you shape it, that's it. I think it's about $100 for 54" x 96" x 1". Joel @ Idasailor uses a lot of this stuff for CBs and rudders. He could probably tell you the thickness you need.

Good Luck.

[Kevin]

Thanks for the Idasailor lead.

They don't show a daggerboard in their online catalog, but I wouldn't expect that.

I'll be contacting them.

I'm also going to follow-up on the HDPE. I'm going to check TAP Plastics and see if I can get something close and quick.

[Kevin]

Yay!

Just talked to Dan at Arena Yacht Sales and they got my daggerboard in!

No rush now. I'm still going to look at alternatives so that I can have a spare. The daggerboard seems vulnerable and based on my very limited experience it's proven to be the weakest link in the system.

Course my running the thing aground is a completely unfair, annecdotal measure of the likelihood of it failing again.

Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement.

[BobCardz]

If you live near many shoals... Why not buy a factory spare. Dont buy/make anything stronger than the original. I doubt a stronger board would break the trunk but why test the theory. What did they charge you for the board anyway?

Bob

[Kevin]

The replacement cost approximately $260. I don't have the receipt here and I bought some other stuff. I'm a sucker once the purse gets open.

I do want to come up with a spare. I'm still considering rebuilding the damaged board. The top 2 feet are in ok shape with just one littel crack and some chips.

The second 2 feet is just frame, but could be sheeted fairly easily I think.

Hardest part would be the missing 2 feet.

Jeff at Arena thinks the best idea would be make a table out of what is left.

[Buell_S1W]

Hi all,
I've never been happy with the very sloppy fit of the daggerboard on my 2009 26M. Recently I removed it just to check it & was horrified to find the back edge badly chewed away in the top 12 inches.
As many of you already know, there is only about 12 inches still in the trunk when the board is right down and this is the most likely way the damage has happened, bashing around in the trunk when extended. I am in the process of repairing this with a folded sheet metal tip running down the back edge of the board & resined over / faired for a smooth finish in the water....

This got me thinking seriously about making a new daggerboard from scratch. After searching the archives & seeing how all too easily they are damaged I have decided to build one & use the original as a spare. If anyone is interested I will post photos & fill you in with performance changes (good or bad) etc after it is finished.

I am making it from folded sheet steel (zinc plated) with 4 internal horizontal reinforcing plates shaped accordingly at regular spacing to help keep the board stiff. These shaped plates will have holes in them for drainage as the board will be hollow and still water filled.

The daggerboard trunk is not concentric on my boat & has a large taper from the top to the bottom. Unfortunately, the taper is much larger at the top than the bottom so I can't make it a perfect fit or it would obviously jam halfway down. If it tapered the other way then that wouldn't be an issue. However, I have started building up & thus also strengthening the top section of the trunk to try & even it up a bit. I made the template as large as possible but with suitable clearance. When it is finished I will have the board electroplated in a zinc bath. The ultimate material I feel would be to make it in sheet stainless steel & this is what I'll do for the MK2 version if this one is as successful as I think it will be.
The main advantages I can see are: (in no particular order)
1)-Only slightly heavier than OEM so no changes will need to be made to raising gear also still light enough for trailering being hollow. Extra ballast weight can be easily added if desired.
2)-Much stronger than OEM but being hollow & relatively thin it should dent if something solid is struck at sailing speeds & still not damage the boat.
3)-Rubbing on a sandy or mud bottom wouldn't destroy it like OEMs do. A quick touch up with a high zinc content paint is all that would be needed. The OEM boards are way too brittle.
4)-Easy & cheap to make with a welder & folder. The only outwork I have had to source so far has been the profile cutting for the 4 mild steel plates @ NZ $11 each plus the zinc plating later on which is not expensive, neither is the sheet steel.
5)-Future mods or repairs are easily done.
6)-Much better fit should reduce wear on trunk & reduce banging. The trunk can always be sleeved with thin plate to reduce wear even further.
7)-Being 2 inches longer than oem yet still flush with the bottom of the hull when fully raised I will have the choice of having the stock 57" under the boat with the extra 2 inches inside the trunk or deploy the extra length. I don't see the extra 2 inches doing much for windward performance so at this stage I think it would be better to have this inside the trunk for more support.

I hope you find this interesting / entertaining or just amusing!

Dave
Christchurch
New Zealand

[TAW02]

Dave Hi.

Before you get started check-out this mod in the mods section;

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/modt/in ... ?view=1095

Haven't gotten around to doing my own daggerboard mod yet, but this will be the way to go!

Good luck

Big T

[Currie]

Hehe,

I fixed my daggerboard before last season, just repairing the six nasty chips (only one from me ) in the trailing edge with Marine-Tex. It's great stuff, but I'm almost afraid to pull it and see how it held up (I haven't yet). I reeeeally need to do Doug's (parrothead's) PVC mod at some point. We'll see soon if it's going to be this year.

~Bob

[baldbaby2000]

I've crunched my board 3 or 4 times. Every time I repair it I make it stronger and I now have 2 boards so I have a spare. The factory board is way too weak. I've reinforced mine quite a bit. I agree that making it too strong may be a problem but the daggerboard trunk seems very strong and can stand a stronger board. I've also added 55 lbs of lead to mine and added a stainless steel rod lengthwise in the center.

[Phil M]

I repaired my badly damaged 26M daggerboard last summer using more fiberglass than what was on the original. So it was made a little bit stronger, but not too much, as I do want the daggerboard to disintegrate in case of a hard grounding, and not the boat. The repair seems to be holding its own so far.

Phil M

[Patrice FERRAULT]

Hello,
I am a new 26M (2004) Mac Gregor Sailor, and I just lost my daggerboard in rough weather last week (How can this happen: no grounding, no warning, the board just disappeared !?!).
Before considering making a new one, like I understand many of you did, I would like to buy a manufactured one.
Anybody can help me to find a source, preferably in Europe, otherwise in the USA ?
Thank you for your help