Exploding Daggerboard!

[BitterGnat]

So, over the last couple months the wife and I have noticed our boat was getting slower. Couldn't figure it out. Our bottom cleaner didn't tell us anything. It all came to a head when we finished a 22 mile race an hour and twenty minutes behind the first place boat. That boat was an S2 7.9 that walked away from us at the start. We dove the boat yesterday and discovered this.....

http://www.rcyc.org/uploads/Keel2.jpg



Has anybody experienced this sort of catastrophic delamination of their daggerboards? Just by the way the glass cracked off in mostly straight lines makes me think this was a failed repair.

I have a guy who says he can rebuild it. But, wondering about options. Would searching for a used board somewhere be a better option?

Still kinda stunned at what we are looking at here.

[BitterGnat]

Not sure why the link to the second photo is not showing. Trying again...

http://www.rcyc.org/uploads/Keel1.jpg

[FYC7.9]

Seen that happen on two so far (both owned by myself or a family member). One had some hairline cracks in the leading edge that started the delamination process. One had big chunks falling off to a lesser degree than what you have. Had the one in worse shape professionally repaired in like new condition.

[reidmefirst]

Dang, that looks rough. Your board does not have the telltale 'ran aground' notch at the top of the board. I guess usually the top back side will have a crack if you ran the board into the ground. Maybe you, or a former owner, hit a ufo with it? Could have been just hard enough of a tap to put a crack in the leading edge, without doing the usual run-aground thing.

Mine was pretty bad after last year. Most likely the prior owners had run aground, and not treated the boat right over winter months, and things get bad after a while.

Here's a shot of mine in the spring when a Boat Wizard pulled the board. There was a horizontal split in the board right at the water line:



He ground away a ton of fiberglass to expose wet foam board (and the boat had been out of the water in a covered, heated garage about 6 months when he pulled the board!). He had to let this dry out a while so that he could start getting epoxy to actually stick to it when laying new fiberglass:



The end result is pretty great though. I'm guessing the centerboard is not quite faired to the original specifications, but it looks pretty darned good to me!



I did hunt for a second board for a while. Found a few very old, very dated listings, called a few, the folks on the other end laughing that they had sold their board X decades ago after scrapping the hull. I left an ad up on the classifieds section here. Figure it might be cool to buy and rehab a second board to keep around...spare parts amirite? But it's probably easier to find someone good with fiberglass and glue than to find another board.

One thing Jon (the guy who repaired my board, he's done a few 7.9 overhauls) told me was not to leave the board down if you keep the boat in the water all summer like I do. I guess the problem ends up being: any little crack in the glass lets water in, and freeze-thaw in the winter months quickly takes it toll.

I think you live down south so maybe don't have that latter problem quite as bad? But still seems like practical advice, and it's a good little workout at the end of a sail to crank the board up .

[BitterGnat]

Thanks for the great responses. Much more helpful than those I'm getting on my post on Sailing Anarchy.

Luckily, I have a couple of guys to chose from who are confident they can fix the board. Will make sure all cracks are repaired and the board is to class specs.

I'm a bit wary to leave the boat with the board all the way up at the dock. We live in Texas and regularly get very high winds. I've seen my boat lean a good thirty degrees during a 40MPH gust. Don't want to taunt Mother Nature too much! Our lake does not freeze over. We have two other S2 7.9s here that have stayed in the water with boards down for years. They have not had this problem. .....yet.

Again, thanks for the info. Will make sure I post back here with updates.

[Jameso]

This was posted yesterday on the for sale portion of this site. The area code is Houston. Good luck. For what it’s worth had a similar issue on my keel, the repair turned out great.

“My current boat (hull#534 - Chili Pepper) was t-boned 2 weeks ago and totaled with a huge hole in the port side.
Chuck Begley 832-563-0421”

[reidmefirst]

Thanks for the great responses. Much more helpful than those I'm getting on my post on Sailing Anarchy.

Heh, sailing anarchy is good for a few things, but maybe not for nuanced advice for an aging one design boat...

I will say, we get high wind up here in Iowa sometimes too. We had a derecho last summer (100+ mph wind storm) that actually broke a mooring on one of the marina's docks. The whole dock slid into an adjacent dock. Fortunately it stopped just short of colliding, so no boats were damaged -- just nobody in the affected lane could get their boat out for a day or two while repairs were made.

The slips here are single boat slips though, so my boat always has 4 docklines at the corners plus springlines. I'm sure another boat would collide with mine before mine had any issue with tipping or breaking loose.

A mooring might be a different story, but lifting the keel at least a foot or two would still be a good idea in my opinion. The boat has plenty of ballast and righting moment, even with the keel fully 'up'.

I wonder if the keel does rattle a little in the trunk, or gets some stress applied right where it meets the hull, causing some eventual fatigue right at the exposure line. Varying the amount it is lifted out of the water after each sail might do good to 'distribute the fatigue' and make the glass last longer.

But I dunno, I'm admittedly grasping at straws for an explanation as to why the damage occurs the way that it does. Might be hard to tell from my first photo but mine definitely a 'chunk' missing at the leading edge. Jon's thumb is covering the chunk that is missing. It probably would look like yours if I had left it for a year or two...

From the SA forum it sounds like you know a great fiberglass-smith. If I do end up getting a second board I might like a referral. I think I could ship the thing on a pallet for some spiffying up, then keep it in storage here...

Thanks Jameso for the note about Chili Pepper. Sucks that a hull got destroyed. I don't see the listing, but will call Chuck and see if he's parting it out.

[Pete]

Sure looks to me like a poor previous repair. If your boat goes through winter freeze and thaw cycles it will definitely "blow up". I had a Kirby 25 years ago and used to bring the rudder home out of our cold Canadian winters. One year it continued to ooze red water. Decided to open it up for a look. It was truly sodden. Was able to rebuild to like new with epoxy instead of polyester. Important thing to remember, you cannot expect a board or a rudder to ever dry out if it's full of water. Good luck ! They are great boats and worth the effort.