Leaking around the base of the centerboard in a Man-O-War

Here you can discuss Chrysler Sailing across all makes of Chrysler sailboats.
Post Reply
mjlehner
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 30, 2004 7:29 pm
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Leaking around the base of the centerboard in a Man-O-War

Post by mjlehner »

I'm just getting back into small craft sailing after a short (29 year) absence. My last boat was a tiny Starcraft sailing dinghy. I had fond memories of the Man-O-War that blasted past me one day. I told myself that someday that would be the boat I'd have. That day is today. It's a bit rough around the edges and I'm told it has a small leak around the base of the centerboard/daggerboard. Any thoughts on how to seal that? I suppose it's a fiberglass resin sealing process of some sort but I've never worked with it so I'm looking for suggestions. I suppose it's fatigue but don't really know. The boat sat in the woods behind the house for years until the wheels were totally sunk in sand. Not too much the worse for wear. Just needs a new cover and some TLC. I'm excited!
Julie2512

Leaking around centerboards

Post by Julie2512 »

You posted this message quite some time ago but I've also noticed leaking around my centerboards in my LS-13. Did you ever figure out how to seal that? My husband has the noble idea to try and fix it for me this spring but he has never worked on a boat so I'm a little nervous about that!

Thanks!
Julie
mjlehner
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 30, 2004 7:29 pm
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Leaking around the base of the centerboard...

Post by mjlehner »

Hi, Julie. I have started at the tires and have been working my way up, so the centerboard leak hasn't been fixed yet. I have been asking around and for the Man-O-War, the issue seems to be that the long centerboard can pretty easily hang up because of its length and the structure around it just isn't sturdy enough to take the force of the board bending, so the place that gives is the hull around the base of the board. That's what I'm told thus far, so I believe that the two things that can be done to minimize leaking into the boat are fresh gasket material around the centerboard slot and grinding down the glass around the base of the centerboard, applying resin and fiberglass cloth, and refinishing the surfaces, both top and bottom. I want to do a really nice job on it, but everyone I've asked has said, just make sure you stop the leak first and do not worry so much about the appearance. the interior coating can be blended pretty easily and the bottom of the hull won't be showing anyway.

I want to really make this boat look nice by re-doing the trailer too, so it's more of a project for me. I got the exact boat that I used to see when I was young, using my little Starcraft sailing dinghy and I want it to look pretty much exactly like that one did, so that means like new.

Hope this helps!

Happy sailing! Mike
gclaborn

Weak daggerboard support

Post by gclaborn »

Hi folks,
This happened to my 1976 Man-O-War, too. The daggerboard support is just too flimsy for its size and stress cracked my hull within 4 years. I fiberglassed the cracks on the hull bottom, but more importantly, I reinforced the daggerboard support in the cockpit with 4 diagonal pieces of wood, each running from the cockpit floor wall corner to the top of the daggerboard support. I fiberglassed these into place and it's been trouble-free for the last 25 years. Four pieces are required to fit around the center flange on the support. I angled the ends of each piece to fit flush vertically along the support and interior cockpit wall.
This of course reduces foot space in the cockpit, but solved the stress problem.
Post Reply