centerboard leak Please help

[tuntini31]

Hi. I am 17 and bought a daysailer to just have fun. Im not a racer by any means, however I am new to fixing sailboats. Well just like many others with daysailer II, mine has a crack located in the bottom of the hull, at the forward opening of the centerboard trunk slot. Can I just apply silicone in the crack and make it water tight. Im unsure about the whole fiberglass cloth fix, but I feel like the silicone or epoxy in the crack would do the trick. Am I right? Thanks everyone, im a noob to daysailers.

[GreenLake]

Silicone is probably the worst you could attempt. It get's into the gelcoat and prevents any later permanent repair.

I'll let people who have made a fix to that area be the first to respond with more specifics.

[tuntini31]

Ya I was just throwing out ideas hoping someone more knowledgeable than me had any advice to offer came along.

Thanks for your input. Silicone is a no-no. epoxy? Idk I'm going to wait for someone who has made the repair before like you said. Thanks!

[GreenLake]

While we are waiting for a DSII owner to chime in, let's take this systematically.

The first thing that would worry me is the source of the crack. If you don't counteract the stresses that were leading to the crack in the first place, then there's a good chance that even a solid repair might be damaged again soon.

Otherwise, repairing fiberglass with expoxy is not hard. Searching the sites for West System or System Three will give you links for manuals, such as the Epoxy Book. (Searching this forum will dig up some disucssion of working with epoxy as well). Reading up on that will give you some necessary background if you have never done epoxy/fiberglass work before.

What you don't do is just pour epoxy into a crack. A proper repair starts by widening the crack, so the expoxy can actually get in there. After that, you could use epoxy mixed with glass fibers to fill the crack (short shavings of mat or cloth would do in a pinch). That would get the crack watertight.

After that, you'd want to put an extra layer or two of glass over the crack as a patch, to support the area. If that would make a bump on the hull, you would first need to grind away a bit of the existing material, so the repair becomes flush. In that case, adding some reinforcement on the inside (backside of crack) would also be useful.

Perhaps this will give you a start towards a repair.

[Alan]

I'm in agreement with GreenLake - I'd definitely want to reinforce the back side. On the DSII, you'll need to cut open the cuddy floor just forward of the centerboard trunk. If it were me, I'd probably install an 8-inch inspection port there. It would be easy to close up, and you'd have access to check on your work from time to time.

[talbot]

See Roger's Daysailer II repair manual in the Daysailer II forum. It specifically addresses this problem. Roger says cracks in this area may result from the CB hitting hard against the forward edge of the trunk (as when the board bumps over obstruction underwater and then slams back down).

I cemented a small block of stiff foam at the forward edge of the trunk to provide some cushioning when the board drops.

Congratulations on your boat. I wanted a DS when I was 17, but my family could only afford a 12' Penguin catboat. I had to wait until I was 40.

[tuntini31]

Thanks!! I'll check it out. And yes I lucked out on this one. However it's a bit of a fixer upper. Got it cheap from some guy who had it in his yard covered in leaves etc. I spotted it on the way to school (I guess school does have its benefits)