The carpet is at the bottom of the well, above the lip. I was also wondering why people would not use the boards to hold the padding in place. My fear would be that the glue would bleed through whatever the padding is and glue the daggerboard in place.
Heh? Uuuhhh Ohhh....sounds like you have a boat where someone dreamed that fairing the hull to the boards was a great idea. The N20 daggerboard opening (at least the ones I'm familiar with) should not have a lip on it at the bottom and should simply go straight up to the top. The carpet should fill the gap between the board and the hull and be exposed at the bottom. There might be a little pinched in area in the profile near the back of the slot - but no lip. This explains the jamming problem and your difficulty getting to the carpet. You may need to cut away that lip. Want me to trace the factory opening on a piece of paper and mail it to you?
Our Tybee boat for '05, when I crewed for Carl Roberts, had the bottoms of the hull faired to the daggerboards. If we touched ANYTHING with the board, it was impossible to raise up. We lost about four or five positions over the course of the week because of that fairing. Eventually I got good at tying a quick purchase to the trapeze line to pull up on the daggerboard. After hitting a shark coming into Ormond Beach the board wouldn't come up for any amount of persuasion and made the beach landing a bit tricky.
