How many people put the line on the boards so you can pull them up without going low?
Seeing the pic of the viper with them made me wonder how often people rig them and use them. I haven't rigged them and don't really see the need to for the most part. Adds another line on the tramp if you do....

I don't have them. I believe the Alter Cup boats have them.

My problems lie more with the board staying down while going upwind, which will be fixed this weekeend with a short piece of bungee.

Patrick, is your boat equipped with high aspect daggers?

my boat doesn't have the high aspect boards (although I kind of wish I did).

I had that problem- the leeward board wouldn't stay down and the leeward wouldn't stay up when I wanted them down halfway or so when the wind was honking. I fixed it with several small felt pads at the bottom of the well.

Then dont worry about bringing them up ever. I learned the hard way.

Sounds like there is a story in there.. wanna share?
I do leave them fully down all the time when sailing now, but in very high winds I think it may help to pull them up a tad. They wouldn't stay down reliably until I added the felt patches.

With high-aspect or gybing boards, you'll want to pull them on the trip downhill every time unless current is pushing you where you want to go. Haven't seen a Viper yet - are gybing boards allowed?

The Cap boards are deep and they gybe. If you are pulling boards, the strap or line system to get them up is a great feature. Crew comes in from the wire approaching A, pulls windward board, sets the 'chute, then a quick tug on the strap gets the leeward board up, too, without the need to go low to get it. An older innovation, sure, but a welcome return for this feature, IMO.

just take it at that. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You should try real hard to race against other boats and then worry about "adding" stuff to your boat. The less things you have to change around, the faster you will be.

I agree.

Gina (SuperCrew) suggests that low-aspect boards don't need to be fiddled with at all. High-aspect boards should be pulled up at JW suggests (downwind).

When Gina talks, I LISTEN!

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> "Child Development and Human Relations Research Assoc. " Didn't that used to be called Mom or Honey?

Back in the day I planned to install the daggerboard uphaul line on my Taipan F16. However I never did. I'm now 4 years on and I haven't needed them ever. I have the low aspect boards and I always keep them down. The boat seems to like that under spinnaker, it picks up faster and reacts better to the rudders.

I have no felt lining in my daggerboard wells and my boards always slid down or floated up till I installed my own version of the retainer bungees. It looks like this. I have a steel ring on either side, one that can slide along the side stay. I have a bungee with a plastic hook tied to the head of my daggerboards. The hook hooks onto the ring. The forward pull of the bungee tries to tilt the daggerboard forward and as such jams the daggerboard trailing edge in the rear wedge of the daggerboard well (on the keel). This is sufficient to keep the boards were they are irrespectible of how rough the conditions are. When the boards are raised the ring slides up along the stay and as such maintains the forward pull at a constant level. When the boards are fully down then I hook the rings under the protruding part of the pins I use to secure my sidestay chainplates. Either that or the I hook them under the chainplates themselves. This setup works really well and I'm not going to change it. Best of all I like the fact that you can easily move the daggerboard up and down by just grapping the board and pulling it a little back against the force of the bungee. This "unlocks" the boards and makes it slid up and down as if there is no bungee retaining the board. When you let the board go then it immediately locks it into place.

Cheap, simple and effective.

Wouter

ok I will be the ignorant one and ask, why does the high aspect need to come up and not the low aspect?

see this Thread on Aspect Ratio

The current theory as empahaized by Greg at his talk in Zandvoort is:

Leave them alone unless you have to. This goes for either style.

With the spin you are trying to generate as much apparent wind as possible. The boards only help with this.

If the wind strength is such though that you can not keep the hull down and the boat is not accelerating you can raise them a little to try and raise the center of resistance and let the boat settle down. Messing around with them trying to lower wetted surface is a waste of time and the extra steps will loose you more ground than you can make up in all likelyhood.

Of course no one has mentioned how nice they are to have when coming into the beach by yourself at speed! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
I've had mine on since I got the boat in 1998- of course that was pre-F16 and spinnakers so definitely used them sailing then in non-Wild Thing conditions-