The daggerboard case is built from marine plywood, and plywood porosity taught a hard lesson: sealant tape on wood does not guarantee an airtight vacuum bag. A two-bag stopgap made infusion possible, followed by extensive internal coatings and final installation—partly carried out in the living room, with my wife’s reluctant approval.
Daggerboard case
The daggerboard case is made from marine plywood, and I discovered the hard way—after two failed vacuum bags—that the porosity of plywood makes it almost impossible to achieve a reliable airtight seal when sticking sealant tape directly onto bare wood. Something to remember for anyone building in wood.
To make the vacuum infusion work anyway, I ended up using two bags: one bag for the infusion itself and a second bag purely to maintain vacuum integrity. It was a stopgap solution and not something to copy as a “best practice”, but it got the job done.
And because workshop space was limited (and temperatures weren’t ideal), my wife gave me permission to assemble and laminate the daggerboard case halves in the back of the living room. Boatbuilding logic does not always align with interior design.
This photo gallery (33 images) documents the full daggerboard case build: moisture control and pre-vacuum drying of the timber, laminating and infusing glass onto marine plywood, hardware backing and internal coatings (including Coppercoat), assembly of both halves, and final installation into the main hull half.
