I sail a R33 on Lake Coeur d'Alene Idaho and the problem I am having is my dagger boards keep getting beat to crap. There are enough logs on the lake that float a foot or two just under the water that I hit them fairly often. Last time I hit one it brought the R33 to a complete stop and took a large chunk out of the starboard board. So my thought is I either need to build break away edges on the boards for easy repair or totally get rid of the boards and re-design the dagger trunks to accommodate a set-up like on the Hobie 21 Sport Cruiser or H17 sport. So I am hoping some of you may have some great ideas. Luckily on the R33 they made the trunks very strong and kind of off to the side of the hull, which appears to me that if I hit something and damaged the trunks extensively it would not create a hole in the hull. I did wash the hulls yesterday while in the water next to the beach and I reach under the hull and found some damage on the bottom of the trunk (fiberglass torn up a bit). I am really getting tried of the darn boards hitting things and fixing them regularly but maybe there is nothing I can do. Any help via suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Stainless steel leading edges on the boards?

don't strengthen the boards, you want them to break before you split the hull.

a bit off the wall, but, what about a thin wire/line from the tip of the board to a point right foward on the hull under the water. Like the serated wires that the u-boats used to have up to the conning tower. Not fast or silent, but it would guide the rubbish out of the way.

paul

Interesting. Tie it off near the bow?

At speed, how strong would that wire have to be to deflect/ride over a log?

A stainless leading edge shouldn't strengthen the whole board, it should just stop the chipping. I'm only talking about the first centimetre (1/2") or so, rebated into the board and held in with a very good quality glue so that it doesn't get knocked off.

Or, instead of having the SS wrapped around the leading edge in a rebate, which requires bending of the SS, cut a straight groove down the leading edge and insert some flat bar SS into it. Then grind the sharp corners off it to make the leading edge fair again. Might be a bit easier to build.

Stop running over stuff.....

Doesn't always work that way. It's floating under the surface. You can't see it, until you hit it. I have done something like that twice with daggerboards. The first time was a piling about floating about 6 inchs under the surface. The second was the "stub" from a broken channel marker (think telephone pole broken off 1 ft under water). In both cases it resulted in a violent pitchpole.

Going back to the original question. A centerboard that will fit in the daggerboard trunk will be too small. Fitting proper sized centerboards will involve cutting up the hulls. You could try fitting leeboards. Leeboards are basically centerboards that are on the outside of the hulls. If you put them on the inside of the hulls they are not quite as ugly. Because flow is not bounded by the hull they are not as efficient as centerboards. To make them work, you will need very good foils.