Modify dagger board, or sell it?

Hi folks.

I have two dagger boards. One is the original board that came with my '75 Sunfish that I bought earlier this year. It seems to have a little "modification" at the tip of the leading edge, where it must have been damaged at some point. About three inches of the blade have been removed from the leading edge, about 3/4" back, and then smoothed and rounded off. Gives the bottom of the blade a stepped-down profile, and I'm sure it effects performance some.

The other is a blade that came on a '68 (original profile?) 'Fish that I parted out. It is in pretty much perfect condition, other than the finish. I am thinking about keeping this blade as a spare - or maybe modifying it if that's a viable option. Could it be modified to match or exceed the performance of my buggered '75 model dagger board?

Or - should I just sell it and use the money to buy an updated DB?

I'm not planning to race. Just sailing for the joy of it.
 
...or take the modified (i.e. damaged) wood daggerboard and make a new rudder blade for when your current rudder blade comes to grief on a rock or worse. The wood in these older daggerboards is usually nice mahogany and you can usually get a nice rudder blade out of the undamaged part of the daggerboard (been there, done that x2),

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
Good idea. I was going through all my mahogany stock on hand, and found none thick enough for a spare rudder.

So, can the original-profile DB be improved any - or should I just use it as-is?
 
If my readings of the Sunfish Bible are correct, you should be using that old board as you primary one and keep the other as the spare. Before the racing board came out in the late eighties there had been three wooden boards: 1) original 2) "new" board (which i think is your primary) 3) barrington board. I think that the barrington board which came out around 79 was an improvement on the original board, but the "new" board of the mid seventies was designed to look newer, but performed worse that the original profile board (less surface are than either the original or the barrington). It might be worth some testing to see if you can detect any differences.
 
You are correct. The old "round bottom" board should become the primary board, and the "shadow" board from the 70s should be the spare, or could be used for wood for another project. There is nothing in particular to do to the round bottom board other than be sure it is smooth with a good coat of marine/spar varnish or a marine paint. BB
 
Thank you!

That is the information I needed. I will sand and refinish the round-bottom board over this winter and hang on to the other one as a spare or stock for a rudder.

Thanks again, guys!
 

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