A few pounds of lead added to to your daggerboard on a 13' boat will not
make any significant difference in stability. Hiking out about a
quarter-inch farther will do more for the boat's stability than any
reasonable amount of lead would do.

The reason people used to add lead to centerboards and daggerboards was just
to counteract the buoyancy of the wood, and to keep them from floating up in
the slot.

If you want to do something more useful, shape the daggerboard into a really
accurate NACA foil cross-section. Do the same with your rudder. If the
cross-section of those two foils is kind of crude now, you'll be amazed at
the difference.

Tom Dacon

"John Smith" wrote in message
news
I would like to drill a couple holes in my mahogany daggerboard (on a 13'
boat) and fill them with lead.
Although I am sure the boat can handle it, I am not so sure about the
daggerboard. I am thinking of sanding an 1/8" of an inch off it all
around
(or maybe routing it, that should be more precise and faster...) and
wrapping it with fiberglass; a couple inches further up than the lead. It
seems to me that a few pounds of lead at the end of the daggerboard ought
to
add significant stability to a small boat.
I figure the fiberglass will add more strength than the holes take away.
I am not particularly knowledgeable about these things, so it is entirely
possible I am overlooking something that will make this a stupid project.
(I have lost 8 pounds this year, and plan to lose some more; so I am not
concerned about the effect of a few pounds of lead on the boat.)