The Reason

I have always hated the ISO dagger board, mainly due to its weight. On talking to some 49er people at my club. I found out that their boards are now up to a mark three dagger board, and as they are custom fit to the boat, there are spare old boards around.

Making the Bits

I used the 49er board as a mould, by putting paper round the board and then covered it with brown packing tape, this then covered in fibre glass woven mating, the paper allows the fibre glass to slide off and it does not stick to the brown tape. I then made a mould to make a flange for the top of the cassette. I then made two plugs one to fit the top of the ISO dagger board case and one for the bottom, and then trimmed the top plug by the thickness of the fibre glass, and the bottom plug by two times the thickness of the fibre glass. Both plugs then covered in paper and packing tape, I then wound 50mm fibre glass tape around the plugs, thus making two collars. After cleaned them up, I then repeated the process on the lower plug with the first collar on the plug, therefore making two collars, one that fits inside the other; this is due to the fact that the hole in the top of the ISO board case is smaller than the bottom.

Assembly

The bottom outer collar was double sided sticky taped to the bottom inside of the ISO board case. The upper and lower collars were glued to the cassette with a few spots of mastic; this gave me time to line the board up in the boat. Once the mastic had set, I filled the gaps between the cassette and the collars with resin. The cassette was then glued in place with mastic.

Conclusion

I have used the new board at my club all this season. And is a great improvement in all round performance. The boat feels more responsive, as the board is held rigidly in the boat and it has a much better profile. The 49er board is half the weight of the old board, I feel has little effect on performance, it is the profile that makes the difference, the advantage is the crew can now pick it up.

I made this cassette to prove the idea, and to be able to take it in and out

If this idea were to be accepted by the ISO Class. The 49er method of installing the board could be used, which is to line the board up in the boat and put epoxy filler around the top and bottom of the board case, have a look at any 49er and you will see what I mean.

After reading all this, I think the phrase “get a life” comes to mind, and if you understand it you can join me in therapy.

John Gill
ISO 1003 'Tinky Winky'