Just want to start with saying that the daggerboards for these boats are TERRIBLE!
They flex too much, chip to easily, are poorly built, and break for silly reasons.

Does anyone else share my frustration?

I've talked to some foil builders and they can't believe how crappy and cheapl these boards are. The bonding is terrible, there is no epoxy used, and very little carbon.

I broke a daggerboard on my boat in just 2 months and I just saw a board completly separatate after a fairly low speed impact with a rock.

Has anyone out there found a solution? New builder? cheap fix?

My boards also look like they have been used for 5 years when they have only been used in about 5 regattas. They have chips all over and are already hooked.

I'm loosing sleep over this!

The new boats are also coming with little notches in the back of the well to fit carpeting. My boat came in the same container as some of these and doesn't have this.

Almost finished making a pair for mine.

teamVMG:

Are you documenting your build on a website. Love to see how you are doing with it.

NACRA has scrapped the jibbing centre boards. I would say this is the different between the two wells.

I'd be interested in seeing your process as well. A friend of mine is going to try to make some this winter.

I'm aware they scrapped the jibing daggerboards but would making the distance in the back of the well bigger help reduce the jibing?

Not directly. Simply put, the leading edge of the board moves as much as the trailing edge, meaning the whole slot is a different shape. This has to do with loading the board correctly so that it jibes to the correct place in the case. The notch in the back of the case (as you describe it) simply creates space for carpet to fix the board in position. After you add the carpet the resulting gap is actually smaller and fixes the board in place. It's a simple approach to fitting a board into a hull, the production tolerances are greater resulting in cheaper production costs but the trade off that reduction in accuracy.
Just to be 100% clear I haven’t seen this notch in the NACRA case as you describe it. It sounds exactly the same as what Hobie has done in the wildcat and that is what I have described above.
Possibly the problems you are describing is why NACRA has moved away from the jibbing boards and chosen this new solution.

Here is a representation of how it works, looking down from the top. I have exaggerated for this discussion.

On the right is the filled in daggerboard and on the left...obviously the Gybing.

There is a fair amount of space, on each side, required for the Gybers which may lead to too much extra drag in the water also it tends to chew up the trailing edge. My daggerboard's trailing edges are being repaired right now.

While filling I left enough space in the back part, after filling, to allow the trailing edge to have plenty of room. I do not want the same problem again. The space is about equal to what Nacra does, since they started installing the boards fixed and not gybing. I have seen new boats with carpet and without carpet in that area but I do not think it matters if there is enough space so the trailing edge does not touch.

Later,
Dan

Very interesting - at long last I understood what a gybing daggerboard is! I now wonder if the fact that a boat has gybing daggerboards does influence how much (if at all) one has to lift the boards downwinds. On my Cap I have the feeling that this is only necessary when wind is > 20kts. This is confirmed by the guys of Landenberger Sails. Pretty unusual, I guess ...

On the Cap, we have not seen the trailing edge damage Dan notes above. I've sailed happily with the stock set-up since 2006. We find that we start pulling the boards on the run when we get to solid double-trap conditions on the beat. If I'm on the trampoline to fly the 'chute, boards stay down.

I don't think this is quite right. If you look down the trunk of an infusion you will see that the trunk pinches the dagger about 2/3 of the way back. So the gybing takes place around the pinch point, not at the back, at least I think.

That's a wicked animation to explain how it works. Gibing board can rip up the trailing edge pretty badly. That's why we, just like Dan, leave room at the trailing edge so it doesn't rub.



Correct

Does not matter much. Where ever you see it gybe it still uses the same principle. Mine looked like it gybed near the trailing edge. Actually about 1/2 forward of it. That was before the shimming material.

Dan

Try these then, http://www.reverie.ltd.uk/marine_home.php awesome boards made by a man in the composite industry and top nacra crew, he came 3rd in this years archipelago raid where you need strong boards !! I have a set on my shockwave and they are the business !!!.

Saw the thread on foils and just thought i'd point out www.reverie.ltd.uk (click marine shop) make autoclaved pre-preg carbon foils finished in white durepox epoxy with clever internal carbon stringers running the full length, lighter and much stiffer than oem plus the trailing edge does not break out easily. Very happy with ours and we have an upf__cker bush fitted so we can pull the leward board up from windward on short course racing.
Avaliable for Nacra infusion (as used by several top teams) and new Hobbie wildcat (as used by Mischa at the worlds).

Simon can you post some pics on how you set up the pull up system?

Those sound great but at $1345 U.S. dollars it is a bit rich for my blood.

I'd be willing to pay 700 for a blade that was a lot more idiot proof and wouldn't chip like the current ones do.

Anyone have any ideas where to find such a blade? Local guys have told me it'd come out to about 1K a blade unless there was a bunch of orders which might get it to the 7-800 range.

Capricorn blades are nearly 1k AUD = bit over $800 USD + freight.

wouldn't want to lose one!

Concerning the Capricorn, according to my information the problems started with the 2008 models. Before that you are safe. Mine dates from 2007 and up till now I had no problems (knock on wood ...)

There was a manufacturing problem, involving laminate bonding with one batch of boards. This problem has been rectified. The really unfortunate thing is that out of the affected batch 80% of them went to Germany in one order. We have replaced any boards that have failed from that batch.

If you've been sailing on your board since 2007 I don't think you have much to worry about... unless you hit something