I'll put a break in the exchange between you and Wayne. In the test video, it looks like it's a bit too easy to get a "wheelie" with the boat which while cool to watch, does not seem fast in a straight line. Our experience with the curved boards in the A-Class is to fine tune to get just enough lift to keep the bows up but not much more. Some of the A-Cats are using trunks that allow adjustment of the daggerboard fore and aft rake for different conditions.
It looks like you are always sailing with the windward board at least half up both upwind and downwind. Towards the end of the video, there is a shot of the boat sailing upwind on port tack with the leeward board up about 4-6 inches. Do you think the boards may have too much lift potential (like they experienced with the first iteration for the M-20)? Just curious if there might be more fine tuning.
There is still a lot to be learned about curved daggerboards for sure.
Bob Hodges A-Class USA 230
Bob,
Its not too easy to get the boat to foil in the extreme, it takes a specific set of circumstances controlled by the sailors in order to make the boat do that trick. In racing conditions the crew have total control over the behaviour and the boat just simply goes faster than you could expect a boat to go.
The windward board will generate lift on the windward side and aid hull flying, so its good to have it down when you want to get the hull up, but after that its quicker to have the board up a little to reduce the windward hull lift.
