Newbie here. Have been running an old AMF SF for five years or so, all well. After sailing a bit this spring, brought in the boat and it was really heavy. Heard sloshing. Okay have a leak. Did a visual inspection and found a problem on the stern end of the daggerboard slot down at the hull. Some cracking of the fiberglass around the opening and I can stick my pinky in a gap in the wood at the back of the slot. No inspection ports, so I'm going to have to add some to dry it out, right? Have been reading all the #daggerboard topics and getting smarter (I hope), but will it be possible to repair the hole from the outside, without opening the boat? Any other suggestions/pointers? Thanks so much.
Jack

Thanks. The rear surface of the slot running inside the boat, seems to be wood. I can pull out splinters.

Since these boats were made with woven roving the strands of fiberglass could look like wood. There should not be any wood in that area. The only wood used was the blocks to attach the deck hardware.

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Inspection ports may be useful for repair from inside if necessary. But I dried my 88 SF without inspection ports. ?I opened the drain hole (starboard side of deck near splashguard) and a drain hole on the transom. ?Each hole is about the size of a dime. ?I taped a small 12 volt squirrel cage type computer fan to the deck drainhole and powered it with a small 15 watt solar panel. To increase heat of the damp air inside I covered the deck with black plastic sheeting. ?After a couple weeks in hot Texas sun, the air coming out the transom hole was less moist, and soon thereafter the boat became noticeably lighter. Its weight was reduced from about 170 to 130 in a month of drying out the soggy foam deck supports. ?This was much easier than installing inspection ports.