Sanding a dinged up wooden daggerboard

Saltydog87

Active Member
I should acknowledge right off the bat that I’m sailing locally and not planning to travel around for regional/national races anytime soon...

Fixing up a new/used Sunfish with the old mahogany daggerboard. From either running into things or putting it into and out of the slot, the front and back edges were showing significant wear. I’m stripping the varnish, planning to sand these worn areas smooth again, then reapplying varnish.

My question is - should I be mindful of anything while smoothing it out that I should avoid, that would make it no longer “class legal,” or will that ship have sailed as soon as I start sanding it? I would plan on trying to keep the original shape as much as possible but acknowledge that with dings there will be some removed material to return to a smooth shape.
Or...does it not matter and I should be considering updating the shape in some way for better performance?
 
For reference, the board looks like the far right on this post:

 
Class rule 8.1 says, among other things, "Minor adjustments may be made to the daggerboards (shown in Rule E.3.2) by way of sharpening the trailing edge, rounding the leading edge, refinishing or repairing damage provided that the daggerboard has dimensions in accordance with the measurement diagram", and "Repair and preventive maintenance work is allowed on the daggerboard provided the dimensions as shown in Rule E.3.2 are maintained."

Rule E.3.2 consists of this drawing (your board on the left):


daggerboard.png



The measurements are either "MAX" or nominal, so to me it looks like it's basically ok to remove small amounts of material, as well as add some, up to the maximum dimensions. I don't think you need to worry much about making your board illegal.

_
 
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LaLi is correct. And furthermore, unless you show up at a regatta having massively, massively modified a wood board, no one will say anything, as the wood boards just cannot keep up with the “new” (as in the past 30 years) foil shaped boats.
 
Thanks! These diagrams should be helpful, too.
Now I just need to decide how I want to position it for re-varnishing - either doing one side at a time or hanging it.
 
I was debating between breaking out my spokeshave or the bow-sander for maintaining the curves and smoothing down to a fresh edge. So far, 80grit in the bow-sander is working very well! Planning to follow up with some 120, possibly 220 before varnishing (I’ll have to do a little reading - so far there appear to be varied opinions on grit to use before the first sealing coat).
Anyone with experience varnishing mahogany?
 
I would fill and build up as opposed to sanding down, when wood boards were in people would build to max specs.
 
Thankfully, nothing is super deep, so I’m not removing much.
I figured the alternative was to try to find a wood filler that could match the mahogany as best I could, but I wasn’t confident that it would look as nice and unsure how well it would take up varnish after.
 
What is recommended for filling holes (dents?) in the wood daggerboards?

My daggerboard has some scars I'd like to work on after this summer.
IMG_0351.png
IMG_0352.png
 
LaLi is correct. And furthermore, unless you show up at a regatta having massively, massively modified a wood board, no one will say anything, as the wood boards just cannot keep up with the “new” (as in the past 30 years) foil shaped boats.

Beldar,

When (what year) did the first synthetic Sunfish with the cut-out hand hold appear and is the foil shape the same as later boards without the cut-out hand hold? Thought you might know.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
What is recommended for filling holes (dents?) in the wood daggerboards?

My daggerboard has some scars I'd like to work on after this summer.
It's the "Shadow" board, so a tube of THIXO will fill the bill.

So many things to fix! :confused: Save the rest for later--it keeps well. :)
 
Beldar,

When (what year) did the first synthetic Sunfish with the cut-out hand hold appear and is the foil shape the same as later boards without the cut-out hand hold? Thought you might know.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
It was 1993 I think. The boards are all supposed to be the same regardless of the manufacturer and material, but LP has changed mfrs several times and the boards are very similar but different. As far as I can see at regattas, no one board is preferred or outperforms the others.
 
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