"Al" wrote in message
...
My 13' sailboat has a mahogany daggerboard. There is a crack in it,
running
about 1/3rd of the length, about 1" from the trailing edge.
It does not affect anything, but I am concerned it will crack further
and
break off; so I am hoping to stabilize it to prevent that.

how much does the cracked section move relative to the rest of the wood?
I've stuck oars back together using just superglue before now (still going
strong).

I've had good success with fine cracks with just running epoxy into the
crack, and then very lightly painting epoxy across, you'd be surprised at
how much abuse even a tiny amount of epoxy like that will take on.

If it were my daggerboard I would _be_tempted_ to try running epoxy into
the
crack if the seperated section was not flexing a great deal and seeing how
that held up. If it re-cracks then a more aggressive strategy would be in
order (drill through with a FINE drill bit in a few places (more towards
the
end) and fill the holes with epoxy perhaps? a bit like spotwelding if you
want an analogy, or what your cabinetmaker suggested).

I would be strongly swayed by what your cabinetmaker suggested, he has a
far
better idea of wood and it's treatment than I do and most importantly, has
seen the piece of timber in question.

Another thought I have is that a light, running-epoxy-into-the-gap
technique
could well be complemented effectively and as minimally intrusively as
possible by running a little glassfibre tape along the bottom of the
dagger
board. This would be far less visually intrusive, would "tie" the two
piece
of wood together at their point of greatest leverage and would add
considerably to the abrasion resistance of the timber.

There is almost no motion, but I doubt I could get any glue into the crack;
it is too tight. (and I would like to keep it that tight.)

I also thought of tape along the bottom, but I am not sure there is enough
surface area to do the job.

Thanks.