I have read that you can use carpet in the dagger board slots in the hulls to hold up the dagger boards on a nacra 5.2. How do you attach the carpet to the slots, glue or double sided tape or something else. Also does the carpet last very long being wet and then drying all the time.

thanks airborne

Airborne,
It is uaually as simple as using marine carpet (rot resistant) and gluing in with contact adhesive.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Phill

PS:-Do you have the room in 5.2 slots for carpet?

That sounds great, but how hard is it to remove the contact adhesive in the slots if you have to?

On the Nacras you probably won't have room for carpet. I would suggest dinghy centreboard tape. It works well.

I suggest instead of trying to glue carpet in your board wells, (it's too thick and the boards won't fit when you are done) why not spend the $8 per side, ($16 total to do it right) and buy the pre-glued gasket strips from any Nacra Dealer. You can use the ones for the Inter 20 or F18. They are about an inch wide x 12" long and have a peel off strip on the back, already sticky, very easy to simply peel and stick in the well. You would want one for the top and one for the bottom in each well.

Yes, it might cost you a few more dollars than a "do it yourself" kit, but I'll bet the finished product works much better. It really sucks when you can't get your boards up or down!

That sounds great. I don't know if I have a problem but, I can stick some low cut carpet on one side and I still have a lot of room in the dagger board well. I don't know but I could stick carpet on both sides and it still might not hold the dagger board. I don't see any repairs around the dagger board slots from the inside or the outside either. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

airborne

Well if they are so loose that you can fit in a layer of carpet, then go for it! But try to find some very skinny outdoor carpet and contact cement. Put a one inch wide strip around the top and another around the bottom of the well.

Thanks again. I didn't think about doing it that way. I was going to put it in vertical, up and down in the well. I like your idea much better.

airborne

I use low-pile industrial carpet on the N20 and the F18. So far it has held up better than the nacra tape and done less damage to the boards (my F18 tape had a seam in the middle of the board well that wore a groove in both my daggerboards from going up and down). Home Depot now carries this low pile (cheap stuff) without the rubber backing; this is important. Glue it in place with contact cement - though I used windshear on the last ones and they're doing just fine. If you use contact cement, keep in mind that you will need to slide the carpet in while it's all wet, then carefully slide a board in place (you'll really have to work a little to keep it from pushing the carpet out of the well) and let it setup.

The reason you want it around the well instead of up and down in the well is to keep water from shooting up the well when you get going fast. You want the bottom gasket to form a seal between the hull and the board so no water shoots up into the well. This will also help hold your boards all the way up when you come in to shore.

I guess the with of the carpet strips depends on how well they hold up the board.

Thanks airborne

I cut about an inch-thick strip of trailer bunker carpet and used contact cement to glue it into the top of the well. I did it to make it easier to slide the board up and down for my son. I still use the pipe on a bungee to keep the board in place. I'll try to get a picture on if anyone wants to see it.

-Rob V.

I would love a picture of that. Also if anyone has a picture of how the bungie runs through the boom and attaches to the outhaul that would be great also.

airborne