Wouter,

Thanks for your input. Maybe I am missing something so help me see the light:

You said:
>> Loading up the rudders by mast rake or loading up the rudders by placing the daggerboards forward both lead to the same end result.

But I was talking about placing the boards back under cat rigged/sloop and forward under spi. It was my understanding (and maybe I'm wrong here), that by doing this one would NOT be loading up the rudder either upwind or downwind. If this is true, wouldn't an unloaded (or minimally loaded) rudder be more efficient? Less drag? Less likely to stall? Now, if unloaded rudders don't offer any benefit or if really matching CE/CLR doesn't unload the rudders, then that is what I needed to know regarding why this approach would have no value.

You also said:
>> You have begun to buy into the Fairytale. Don't you see ? Why can you balances the rudders to remove the feel of the big weather helm that is part of "shared lift principle" as a direct result of the board placement but can't use the same principle of balanced rudders to relieve the stain on the skippers of other boats as well.

It was my assumption that if the CB is placed properly for each sail configuration to balance CE/CLR then you wouldn't need to balance/rake the rudder for either big weather helm or big lee helm. This sounds more efficient to me; if it's not really more efficient, then that is what I wanted to know!

Finally, please understand, I'm not disputing that the current approach "doesn't work" - in fact it works quite well. Does that mean it can't work slightly better? That's what I am trying to understand. Fortunately you guys have far more experience than I!

Jerry