Centerboard Sailors

[cb32863]

A question for you folks that have a centerboard or have sailed with one. Do you adjust it as you sail or do you pretty much lower it down and forget about it?

[saillife]

Drop it and forget about it until/unless it hits bottom...... Now if you're racing you'd want to raise it on your downwind run.

[OtterGreen]

on my Santana i usually leave it down unless i know it is shallow. i prefer not to let it drag if possible. inside the channel i will leave it down until i hit the shallows, or when going downwind i will leave it at about a foot.

[whroeder]

Originally Posted by cb32863

A question for you folks that have a centerboard or have sailed with one. Do you adjust it as you sail or do you pretty much lower it down and forget about it?

The angle of the board moves the center of effort, down too much gives too much weather helm.
If you have too much, turn into the wind and adjust.
On my Mac26X My rudders run start dragging before the CB does.

[chef2sail]

Drop it on close haul all the way to broad reach, especially when the wind is over 15. Raise it broad reach to run.

Dave

[5hortBu5]

Depends on my attitude and mission that day. If I'm just mucking about in a boat, especially solo, I'll set it around halfway and just forget about it. If I'm trying to get somewhere, or playing with sail trim or have a couple extra hands aboard, I'll adjust based on my point of sail. Down for beating, halfway for reaches, and up for dead runs.

[Tweegs]

We’ve found that it is a lesson in physics.
Drag vs. lift.

Here is the short of it:
Say you’re on a beat in a stiff wind. Generally, you’re heeled over fairly well.

Since our CB weighs only 100 to 200 lbs, the added length of the board really does nothing to help keep the boat on its feet, rather it generates lift in the wrong direction heeling you over further.

So why use a center board at all? To help keep the boat from slipping.
By lowering the CB you increase lateral resistance, but you also increase drag and induce lift.

We’re still playing with optimal settings under given wind speeds and boat headings, but our starting points are:

Half down on a reach.
One quarter down on a beat.
Full up on a run.

And we’ll adjust from there based on boat heading vs. course over ground as read on the GPS.


All of this is as it was explained to me by my egg-head, math wiz, jib trimmer.