Shaping the Daggerboard

I had to take a break from sanding the hull, so I thought I'd shape the daggerboard. This, after deciding to make a daggerboard rather than a swinging centerboard. I had considered this design because it eliminated the below-waterline pivot bolt, but decided to make things simpler with a daggerboard.

Here's a printout of a NACA 0009 profile that seems to be common for daggerboard profiles.


And here's a little template I made from plywood that roughly matches that profile for the 13.5" wide laminated cedar plank I made.


I drew lines at the half-thick mark on both sides of the plank, and also drew lines 1/3 of the way back from the leading edge where the thickest part of the foil would be.


Tools used for shaping; first the planer, then the belt sander with a 60 grit belt, then a block of wood with 60 grit paper, then the foam backed sanding block with 60 grit paper. Here's the plank with the trailing edge of one side planed.


It's planed down to the half-thick mark (blue Sharpie line) on the trailing edge.


A view from the end, lying on my strong back.


Now the leading edge side is planed.


Another end view with one half of the plank roughly shaped.


Now finished. Rough shaping to final sanding. It's ready to be laminated with fiberglass. The leading edge is made with a piece of oak for better impact resistance.


A view from the end. Before shaping the plank, I worried a bit about how much this weighed. Well, a ton of wood was removed in this shaping. So much in fact that my shop vac filled up with cedar shavings while planing. It's very light now.