advice for repairing daggerboard?

Debmar

New Member
been trying to search for tips for repairing daggerboards but only seem to find info on repairing finishes. I have a daggerboard with damage from hitting submerged rocks and want to repair it prior to sailing this year but need some advice on products to use and if any advice on the procedure that would be great as well. attaching a couple pics to show what I am up against. Thanks for the help
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Thanks
 
Would you suggest the liquid or paste version of the g flex product?
Wondering how much i would go through (which size i should order)looks like 4 oz of each (8 oz) total for the small package
Would that be enough once mixed with the 407?
Thanks for the response
First time doing this type of repair
 
The best repair would be to cut away the damaged wood, epoxy in a new, oversized piece of matching mahogany and then plane to shape with a sharp plane, sand and refinish. Plan "B" be to simply plane away the damaged areas back to good wood, reshape the edge and re-varnish. You will loose a little surface area, but unless you are racing, you will never notice it. Plan "C", trim off the damaged wood, fill with thickened epoxy, then sand and revarnish.

Alan Glos
Hunkered down in Cazenovia, NY. Upstate NY for the Duration
 
I like Alan’s advice but I’d put in in b, c, a order.

If you go with West I’d get the liquid, and the 4 oz per bottle is plenty. And get the smaller 407 you can. It goes a long way. It it is pricey.
 
I too am in the midst of repairing my daggerboard. The damage to mine is not nearly as bad as yours. So far all I've had to do was some aggressive sanding. Some two part epoxy was added to the gouges and rough edges and I sanded those yesterday. Hope to put the first coat of varnish on today. You may be able to see the raw epoxy patches on the bottom and leading edge. If I can get my photo attached.
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The best repair would be to cut away the damaged wood, epoxy in a new, oversized piece of matching mahogany and then plane to shape with a sharp plane, sand and refinish. Plan "B" be to simply plane away the damaged areas back to good wood, reshape the edge and re-varnish. You will loose a little surface area, but...
Alan Glos
Hunkered down in Cazenovia, NY. Upstate NY for the Duration
I HAD suggested earlier that old mahogany boards shouldn't be thrown out.

The top 14" should be saved in case the Sunfish is to be towed by a powerboat, as a gusher results that fills the cockpit in short order. :confused:

When storing a Sunfish, that short daggerboard prevents insect critters from finding a new home. :(
 
:)
Remove the handles, rip the leading edge with a table saw and glue on a new leading edge.
That's the easy magic of repairing wood.
I like it! :)

No spare mahogany? :oops: How about instead, using white polypropylene cutting board for the new leading edge? ($1 at "essential" Dollar Tree stores--yes, they're open :rolleyes: ).

Hit more rocks--no more splinters!
:)
 
Hi Lakechapinguy,

As others have suggested, I glued new pieces of mahogany to the leading and trailing edges of the daggerboard that came with my 71 Sunfish and then reshaped those edges. I removed the "handles" first, and cut off the offending damage by running the board through a table saw. I also added pieces to the bottom to bring the board back to proper length. You can see the finished result in this picture.

Hope this helps.
 

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For those of you that have ripped off the damaged areas and replaced with new mahogony. Are you just gluing the 2 flat surfaces together or are you adding anything else like screws or dowels to those to aid in the connection
What type if adhesive is best for this type of repair?
Is it just mahogany i would look for or a special grade?
Maybe dumb questions but i have no idea
Thank you
 
For those of you that have ripped off the damaged areas and replaced with new mahogony. Are you just gluing the 2 flat surfaces together or are you adding anything else like screws or dowels to those to aid in the connection
What type if adhesive is best for this type of repair?
Is it just mahogany i would look for or a special grade?
Maybe dumb questions but i have no idea
Thank you

I think I used biscuits, I can't remember, but you could use dowels. The reason I think I used biscuits was to make alignment of the pieces easier when gluing, as epoxy is slippery stuff. If you don't want to use anything, I would clamp the pieces on a flat surface with wax paper underneath, making sure that everything was weighted down so it stayed flat while curing. Strength wise it isn't going to make a difference, as the piece you are adding will never be levered up enough to test the glue line.

I used MAS epoxy, I like the 2::1 ratio, but you could use any good epoxy mixed with wood flour or some other thickener. You could use fine sawdust as a thickener in a pinch.

Any clean piece of mahogany would work. You could even use another type of wood like white oak or ash. Mahogany IMHO is the best choice since that was what was originally used, and it is very easy to machine.

Hope that helps.
 
Hi Lakechapinguy,

I removed the "handles" first, and cut off the offending damage by running the board through a table saw. I also added pieces to the bottom to bring the board back to proper length. You can see the finished result in this picture. Hope this helps.
Looks like parquetry--nice!! :cool:

This tablesaw approach also works when repairing a split in a board.
 
Hi Lakechapinguy,

As others have suggested, I glued new pieces of mahogany to the leading and trailing edges of the daggerboard that came with my 71 Sunfish and then reshaped those edges. I removed the "handles" first, and cut off the offending damage by running the board through a table saw. I also added pieces to the bottom to bring the board back to proper length. You can see the finished result in this picture.

Hope this helps.
I am giving your patch a super thumbs up. Looks beautiful. My 72 fish is a little rough so I'm hoping to get it sailing and find out if really want to be a sailor. Only been out once, became a turtle and being overweight, out of shape I had a hard time getting back in the boat. Again, looks great.
 

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