Well, we didn't get the boards up in time and I nailed my board hard on a rock coming to shore. I think the rock is okay but my board is not.

Is this thing fixable? If it is, do you have any suggestions how to proceed or does anyone know of someone in Houston area that can I can pay to fix this thing for me? I will be in Houston at Children's hospital the next few days and I could drop it before I depart for home on Friday.

Thanks for the help.

Bob Klein
p.s It was a great day sailing up to that point

I'm not going to say it can't be fixed, because I've seen worse patched back together. The question is whether or not its going to cost you an arm and a leg to fix it.

Could be better to just buy a new one.

can't tell what kind of boat board that is from the photo.

I should have indicated the type of boat. It is an Inter 18 and I know new boards ain't cheap. However, you may be correct since this isn't just a little cosmetic ding and hence, the repair could get expensive. Didn't someone in Houston indicated in this open forum that they could make boards for the Inter boats if there was a demand?

Back to the event itself. The hit was rather dramatic. The boat almost pivated on the board with the port bow digging in and the stern going up in the air. I jumped off the boat as quick as I could trying to get it under control (hitting one board swung the boat upwind and it tried to take off down the shallow beach with the board continuing to dig in). I am surprised nothing else was ruined but I must say, my wife in none too happy with me. Her first comment was, "I was wondering why you were sailing in such shallow water with the boards down". I wish she had said something before I hit the rock.

Again, any help would be appreciated as I don't want to sail with this board if it can be fixed.


Thanks

bob

Bob,

First of all -- "I feel your pain". I assume that the I18's boards are carbon fiber. Cha-ching! I had to have a board repaired on my ARC22 in May. It was cracked almost in half. Bottom line, $500 for a new one, $325 for the repair. -- Had it repaired. Yes, it as good as new. I know you'd hate to throw it away, and anything can be repaired. I guess you'll just have to see what it costs for the two alternatives. If you need the name of a couple of good carbon fiber guys, e-mail me.

Try Tom May at "Waterline Works" 281-474-7533 in Seabrook. I have seen him put broken in half 6.0 boards back togather

Bob-

Judging from the photo it would seem that the damage is in the last foot of the board. If this is so I would make a vacuum bag out of one or more plastic trash bags and using a shop vac I would see if dry bagging the board compresses the tip back where it should be. Of course you should clear out any obvious debris that you can see or get to and sand down any really sharp and jagged edges. If the board seems to dry bag satifactorily I would then pour some slightly thickened epoxy (using silica) into the crack and re-bag it until cure. It looks like you would want to set the board on its trailing edge while curing. After that it would just be a matter of puttying and reshaping the outer surface. If the damage goes up to the root of the board (where it passes through the hull) then the actual structural properties may be in question and you'll have to re-think the repair route and weigh it against peace of mind and dollars involved.

Chris

yeah been there done that more than once...I have lots of experience at daggerboard repair.. living in caribbean there are lots of reefs and I seem to find them quite often,,,,in your case find some old wood clamps get some west epoxy repair and start filling....keep the clamp on for about a day and then start sanding....one of those hand sanders comes in quite handy....good luck....

That board is very repairable. I would cut away the top part of the material where it is all dinged up on the end. If you can press it back together with your fingers to shape then you are ready to put it back together. If it resists pressing together start digging out stuff until it will go back together cleanly.

Get yourself some good epoxy.

You can vacume bag it back together or use a bunch of clamps. I recommend the vacume bag technique. Seperate the board as much as possible without breaking it anymore and squirt the epoxy up as far as you can using a siringe(sp?). Then squeeze it back together so that it comes back to shape with the vacume bag. Let it set for 24 hours.

Take the bag off and then it is just surface repair. Buy some fibreglass matt and use the epoxy again to wrap the end in a couple layers. You might need to grind out a little to get a good layup. Use 100 grit paper to rough up anything before you do a layup. Sand smooth and fill. Then gelcoat.

It's a bunch of work but very rewarding and you will have a stronger board than what you started with.

Mike Hill
H20 #907

I just repaired one of my daggerboard from a Nacra 5.2. The top of the board was opened like yours and the foam was visible but the skin showed less damage

The previous owner tried to patch it with MarineTex or something like it but it failed.

I choosed polyester resin to repair mine because I think that my board was built with polyester. Epoxy boards should be repaired with epoxy.

I started by drying the board in the oven at 140F overnight.

I poured some acetone in the foam to wash away any grease. I dried it with compress air

I poured slightly thicken epoxy resin between the foam and the fibergrass to build back the foam. My fiberglass skin was not as badly damaged as yours so I simply clamped it back in place to let the epoxy cure.

After that I sanded the fiberglass skin away with a buffer and I left a taper edge (approx 10:1 angle) I washed it again with acetone and I build back the fibergrass with fiberglass and polyester.
Finally I taped the repair with masking take to push the fibergrass cloth on the board and draoin the excess resin. I am pretty sure that I have a 50% fibergrass content or better. Once fully cured and sanded, I put some gel coat on it.