These are made of two part 6# urethane foam, that is cast in a plywood form , and then sanded into shape. Their purpose is to fit down in the daggerboard trunks behind the boards, and act as a cushion if (when) the daggerboard hits something. Without them, if you hit anything hard enough you can damage the trunk, which is glassed into the hull, even opening up a gash below the waterline. Not good.

fiberglass cloth is saturated with epoxy and laid up on the face of the crash block that will make contact with the daggerboard in a grounding or other impact.

Then it is trimmed up and smoothed out before insertion down into the trunk.

We had a hard grounding in the waterway down in Palm bay Florida. A big tupperware boat overtook us, so I eased over to the side of the channel there to let him come on by. He didn’t have sense enough to slow down- he just steamed on past at half throttle, pulling a monster wake. We whacked the bottom pretty good, and I heard the sickening crunch. The crash block was destroyed, but it saved us. No real harm done. Be careful down around Palm Bay…

Here is a new one being inserted into the daggerboard trunk.

Daggerboard back in

This is looking at it through the inspection port, belowdecks. I have some oysters growing inside the trunk, below the waterline. it is very difficult to clean the inside of the trunk without hauling the boat, or at least diving on it. I’m not that good anymore, lol. Can’t hold my breath that long and am way too buoyant. With my luck I would bump into a manatee in this murky water and have a heart attack. Guess I’ll bite the bullet and pay a diver…