Daggerboard, floorboards

Submitted by Jim Gallacher on Mon, 05/27/2013 - 14:46

Forums:

I have just acquired an older Mirror dinghy and have a few dumb questions about sailing it.

How do you keep the daggerboard in a midway position? - there is a short length of bungee cord next it,so does that get pulled forward over the vertical leading edge of the board to maintain height through friction, or is that cord simply to stop the board falling right out during capsize?

Also wondering are there generally no floorboards provided in Mirrors? My dinghy has what appear to be two floor stiffeners running either side of the daggerboard case, plus a smaller 'V' section framing piece to the cockpit rear. Other than this crew is standing on the bare plywood.

Thanks for any advice, Jim.

mirrorpete

Mon, 05/27/2013 - 21:33

You should have a rather taught bungie cord that tightly holds the dagger board all the way down.
If you want the dagger board part of the way up move the bungie cord to the front or the rear of the dagger board and the friction should hold it in place.

You can insert a floor board behind the dagger board case. The one I have has water resistant styrofoam between the floor battens. I have this because the floor board is only 1/8th inch plywood. I think I used door skin. The styrofoam provides extra support without adding much weight.

I hope this helps some.

Pete

Jim Gallacher

Tue, 05/28/2013 - 13:44

Thanks Pete, practice will also help me to rig the cord in the way you say. Good idea with the foam. I have also found the diagrams for installing a single sheet plywood floor at the mirrordinghy.info website now, and I think from the flexibiliity of my floor I will need something in place. Thanks, Jim.