N5.2 delaminated daggerboard

Does anyone have any experience with a dalaminated daggerboard for n5.2? I was sailing today with the boards half down and the leeward board gave out. After i pulled it up in noticed the whole leading edge is delamed as well as the trailing corner is really soft. I got these boards brand new from murrays (foss brand i think) and have sailed with them maybe a half dozen times. I've never run aground with them and they are always stored in my garage. Is this normal? I'm going to call murrays tomorrow to ask about warranties. Otherwise if anyone has an extra laying around they would like to sell, let me know as i can't afford to drop 350 for a new one. Thanks all!!

Reid Rechel
N5.2
Duluth, mn

That sounds like a warrantee issue to me. Definitely not normal.

The folks at Murrays are pretty good about that sort of thing, i think you will have pretty good luck talking with them.

I called murrays and they said they would give me $150 toward new nacra boards (thats the price i paid for the Foss brands). But new ones are $350 and i can't afford $200 for a new one. I also noticed upon further inspection that the delam goes through to the leading edge. So really, the board is ready to split in half. I was thinking of just drilling a series of holes and using epoxy similar to repairing a delam on an H16 and then using C-clamps to maintain the right shape. If anyone has ever done this or has a better idea, i would greatly appreciate some help. Thanks!!!

Reid Rechel
n5.2
Duluth MN

How long ago did you purchase these boards?

I repaired some delam in a couple of Nacra rudders about a year ago. The areas were only about 4" long and 1" deep at the top of the rudders. I first tried regular epoxy with C-clamping but it just seperated again. I cleaned and scraped the epoxy out and went with "Marine-Tex". They have held together so far.

Regards,
Mike

I bought them earlier this summer around may. So they aren't that old. The whole leading edge is delamed and you can see it starting to make its way to the trailing edge in a few areas so i think i would have to epoxy the whole board.

Mike- how did you use marine tex?

All I needed to do was trowel the marine-tex into the delamination area and clamp with "C" clamps for 24 hours.
Still holding together. I'm not sure if the consistancy of the marine-tex would alow it to go through a large syringe or not. Maybe, if you let it heat up in the sun before mixing. It does get thinner the warmer it is.

Regards,
Mike

I've done some repairs of this sort before, I'm poor so I can't afford anything new. One trick that I used from high school shop was somethignlike you describes with wooden dowels. You drill holes spaced evenly throughout the board that are the same size as the dowel. You glue/expoxy/resin(orwhatever you are using) the dowels into place. After everything has dired got out some sandpapre and sand the dowels down so that the fair up nicely with the board. This adds alot of streagnth without changing the hydrodynamics of the boards. Good luck.

Fair Winds