Builders' Forum |
|
| ↓ Scroll to Last Comment ↓ | Forum Guidelines | Builders' Forum |  RSS
|
I am painting my Skerry hull now. Given my inexpert epoxy skills and limited passion for sanding, I decided on flattening the green Brightsides to a semigloss and settling for a "10 foot finish"...don't get closer than 10 feet and it looks pretty good. After the holidays I'll turn my attention to the spars and foils. Before I varnish the daggerboard, I'm wondering if I should 'glass the leading edges or entire board for durability. The one sea trial I did before starting the painting showed me that I will definitely be dragging the tips in shallows and otherwise bumping them around. This daggerboard is a bit thinner than the stout board on my family's old Sailfish, so I wonder if a reinforcement is in order. I have plenty of clearance in the board slot for a layer of glass.
I'll be varnishing the rudder blade also, but the close clearance on the cheeks means I won't 'glass it. One thing I've done is enlarge the pivot and made a little compression tube from a piece of heavy wall stainless tubing so the bolt can't squeeze the cheeks together, binding the blade. I have always used compression tubes on through bolted boom bails and vangs on my aluminum spars to avoid crush forces on them.
4 replies:
RE: Skerry daggerboard finish
I already have shock cord to hold the board, after seeing how it floats up so easily in light wind or a slow tack. Our Sailfish had a friction fit (maybe a spring if I remember?) so it didn't do that.
RE: Skerry daggerboard finish
I didn't glass my daggerboard and it has been fine. There are few sandy beaches around here so it has picked up a couple of knocks but has suffered no real damage. I don't have a problem with it floating up, after a chat with John at CLC I made the slot in the daggerboard trunk narrower than the plans said and it has been fine.
I row the Skerry more than sail her so to prevent the wet bum I made a short dagger board to fill the trunk. here it is - you can see the bottom of the boat has met the stony beach a few times :)
[img]http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/Hugh_Jar/dummy%20dagger_zpswyrbjqje.jpg [/img]
RE: Skerry daggerboard finish
Mmmm, it appears I should have done something different to put the photo up and I don't know how to edit the post so I'll try again
RE: Skerry daggerboard finish
» Submitted by Birch2 - Sun, 12/13/15 » 11:31 AM
I can see your point about the daggerboard and rudder taking a beating. I hung my rudder from some rafters while I was coating it with epoxy and managed to drop it on its tip three times. By the end the tip was crushed enough that I had to reform the last 1/4" with some peanut butter epoxy.
So if you don't mind the weight, glassing the daggerboard could be a great idea. (But I'm going to just use mine as is for a while and glass it latter if necessary.) The heavier daggerboard might stay down in the slot a little better. Mine tends to float up and needs to be kept down with a bungie cord.
On a related topic, has anyone tried creating a vinyl or rubber or plastic closure for the daggerboard well on the bottom of the boat? One of my sailboards has such a closure and it seems to me that it would help keep the daggerboard down as well as perhaps limiting the slopping of water into the boat when under oars.