Daggerboard drag

LETLMT

Member
I am rigging my boat and am up to setting up the daggerboard. Is the part in the attached picture supposed to be dragging on the daggerboard to help hold it in place? If so, how tightly? Does mine look too worn out? Am I doing something wrong, because it is not really doing much and if I pull it out any further it will not be under the screws anymore?

Does anyone have a picture of what it is supposed to look like?
 

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Yes. It helps hold the board in place,. Both up and down. Yes, yours looks worn out. Get a new one from Intensity and make sure you also have a bungee chord that attached to the front of the board and goes to the bow eye. Make sure it has pressure on it. This helps keep the board up.
 
It's supposed to look roughly like that, and it should be just tight enough so you can raise and lower the board comfortably. Yours looks like a (badly) homebuilt replacement, though. Get a real one (and a spare or two) from here.

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Get one of these:

91538-fro-web.png

Furthermore: the front upper corner is often scraped (gel coat is gone) get something like this: EVA foam, 2mm thick, 3cm x 3cm wide and stick it in. I don't know what material is used for the grip of ice hockey sticks, but field hockey grip tape works fine as well.

centreboard-protect.png


Pics from Max Hunt's Southeastsailboats website. Max sells tons of interesting Laser stuff & upgrades. His site is an Aladins Cave for Laser sailors
 
That blue-and-white "Mk 2" brake may not be a good choice, as there are credible reports that it wears out quite quickly, after which it may damage the trailing edge of the board.

Padding the forward corner of the case of course makes sense.

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Looking at the elongated holes, it looks as if the manufacturer knows that this will happen... (Make mental note to myself: quick check before this weekend's regatta would be a good idea...)
 
Thanks. It is the original brake that came with the boat 30 years ago. I will replace it with the $7.00. I have also read bad things about the MKII version of the brake.
 
Yeah. They have tried to improve the MKII brake by making the rubber part thicker. I like it because I think it does a better job of keeping the board centered in the trunk. It is not the easiest thing to fit as the original brake holes don't work, (too far back) and you have to drill new ones. Knowing about the wear issue I do keep my eye on it. The problem is it wears on the bottom edge first, (really hard to see) and it will damage the newer GP boards which are harder to repair than the older blades.
 
It seems like a brake on the front of the board would have been a better place so the board bungee could maintain board pressure against it.. It would also prevent wear inside the board case.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I haven't had this brake piece in my boat for many years. The bungee pressure has been sufficient to hold the board in whatever position is desired.
 
If you are a recreational sailor, on the new brake fitting it is very simple task to take out the excess plastic with a Dremel and then back fill it with a firm shore A polyurethane rubber. This makes the rubber the same thickness from the top to the bottom of the fitting, no issues with the blade yet since I tried this.
 

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