Dagger Board Jam Cleat

[orion27]

I'm going to change out what I think in the OEM Jam cleat for
the dagger board. I'm always cautioning crew to be careful not
to drop the board or mishandle the sorry Jam cleat. By the way,
I've always wondered what would be the result of an accidentally
dropped board? Anybody have this happen?

Tom

[Jim Kloss]

In the water, it's not a big deal; the displaced water slows it down and buffers the loud "thunk". On the hard might be a different matter. In any case, the biggest danger is too anyone foolish enough to try and grab the runaway line.

Jim Kloss
s/v Ambivalence
S2 7.9 #8

[507]

Keel on Second wind has been dropped twice while on the water. Both times resulted in a seriously stuck keel. Most recently the boat had to be lifted out of the water to free the keel. D & J

[dave]

Jim, you surprise me since this copied post was from you!!!! I know that this was a grounding and not a dropping, but the point is that the board trunk is NOT very stout ANYWHERE, and nowhere near stout enough at the bottom. This problem is why I recommend replacing the foot block that turns the DB line to the winch with a ratchet. Even one wrap on the winch and the friction from the ratchet is enough that even a small/weak crew should have no excuses for dropping the board!!!
http://www.sail79s.org/board/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1128

[Stef]

In the past 5 years Odyssey's keel has been dropped twice also. Had to work on it a bit the second time to crack it loose. Actually, I had quite a bit of tension on it and we took a break, it popped loose right after cracking open a couple of beers.

[Tom Elsen]

We've dropped our board a couple of times, on a couple of different boats. Never a problem, not even a minor jam. BTW I was talking with boat dealer who has sold more 7.9s than anybody outside the factory. Great guy and as honorable as the day is long. He used to race the boats a lot. Claimed that in the early days they never eased the board down. At the leeward mark they just undid the jammer and let her fly. Never had a problem.
Not sure I'd recommend doing the same thing, but it provides a good data point.

[dave]

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing ever breaks until it does!