Daggerboard retainer shockcord: How taut?

Desultor

New Member
Hi all,

I bought 10’ of 1/2” shockcord to retain the daggerboard but I’m not sure what to do with it, other than attach to the top front of the daggerboard with an eye strap.

I’ve seen examples of a single line to the mast, double line to mast, and double line to the handle at the prow. Some folks drill holes in the splashguard for the shockcord to go through.

Advice for racers is to loop it around the mast, then pull it further around one of the spar ends at the tack. I’m no racer, but is this good advice for recreational sailing as well? If so, should the shockcord be loose when stretched around the mast, and tight/taut when pulled around the spar junction? How taut? I assume this tension changes a bit when coming about.

My over-thrifty instinct is to create only a large loop in the shockcord, secured with a fisherman’s knot, without any hooks or snaps. The loop would be permanently secured to the daggerboard with an eye strap (or through a hole in the daggerboard if you had one).

When rigging, I would lay the loop on the deck around the mast step. I’d mount the mast in the mast step inside the loop, hoist sail, and after placing the daggerboard in its step, pull the loop around a spar end.

Thoughts? Thanks!
Jack.
 
Hi Jack,

Here’s how I rig mine. Don’t know or care if it is “race legal.”

1. I have a length of shock-cord that goes through the bow handle . On each end is a Brummell hook/ sister clip.

2. I connect the hooks with the mast up. The loop is such that the clips are in front of the mast.

3. I bought a nylon rope clip, and used a thin piece of line to create a 6” loop connected to the clip.

4. I then ran the loop through the hole in he daggerboard, and the threaded the clip through the loop.

5. Pull th clip tight and it is now attached to the daggerboard with a cow-hitch


That’s it. Now when you sail you can just reach for the shock cord an with the board already in trunk just clip it.

The reason I do it this way is that it is easier to get the board out when I a landing. If the cord is directly attached to the board, you are fighting the shock cord to get it out of the trunk.

When I land now, I just unclip the board and lift it straight out.

One last thing is that as the shock cord lose it’s “stretchiness”, I just move one of the hooks to compensate.

Let me unowned if you want a picture.

Hope that helps.
 
My rig is simpler. Take a piece of 3/8 shock cord and tie a bowline in it that the mast can fit through. Tie a piece of 1/8 line to the free end of the shock cord. Install a small clam cleat on the front of the center board. When you step the mast put the butt end through the loop in the shock cord. Pull the line through the cleat and tighten to your needs.
 
Skipper prefers old school, just a retaining line, as it was hard for her to get the board out at the beach or mess with it while sailing. She wants the board to move when she grabs it and not fight a shock cord. What we did find when we played with shock cord was that longer lengths up to the bow handle worked better for us, on a short cord it got harder to pull the board all the way out on landing because of the steep cord angle down to the mast. As for tension it was good to have light tension with the board set just below the boom. So try out the shock cord, keeping in mind you might end up ditching it if is too much of a distraction. Racers love the shock cord. We experimented with different boards and here is what we found....

Which daggerboard do you have? On the wooden ones we usually drill a hole vertically through the forward edge of the handle if there is not one there already, keeping in mind we like to put the long edge of the wooden board aft, so if the tip hits bottom the board rides up vs digging in. Then we either run the 5 foot cord through that hole or tie a short piece of 1/8th inch line through the hole to attach the cord too. The other end of the shock cord we put a snap shackle on it, run it through the bow handle and clip it back on itself at the bow handle, that was our cheap way of not buying 10 feet of shock cord for each boat. The brummel hook idea is great also, as well as the 10 foot cord.

One of the board we did put an eyestrap with stainless ring to attach either a retaining line or shock cord. We are still trying to get the fleet standardized, for us that will be a simple 1/8th inch nylon retaining line run to an eyestrap just forward of the trunk.

daggerboard lanyard hole.jpg


ZIP still needs the line.

IMG_4507.jpg


On this variant we found the board hard to move when it was up at the top of the trunk, not enough shock cord.

daggerboard cleat hole.jpg


On VIPER we made the cord long enough to go to the bow handle or just tie to the deck eyestrap.

daggerboard retainer line.JPG


VIPER bow wave.jpg


So there are lots of variations, just play with the length until you get the tension you like, and try some different connectors.
 

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