Asymmetric Daggerboards

[Silver Raven]

Originally Posted by Gary Baigent

Very innaressing, Silver Canuck, you tapered the DAGGERboards (they're not cbs, cobra) fore and aft, but mostly for'ard, to a small square tip - which is a lot different than a chopped equal chord at exit, as at tip, dagger. Yeah, well, foil shape is more art and "that feels nice" - many schools of thought.
Also Canadian cedar sounds very much like Port Orford cedar (Chamaeycyparus Lawsoniana) which is marketed here in Auckland, rated as the best timber for weight/strength. Kevlar is okay in tension but weak on compression - but combined with the cedar/carbon, must have been okay - as from your experience.
Curious about your cavitation with Lock's preferred elliptical tips. More details please. Which Sundancer was that? The one I knew was David Barker's 40 foot cat which was built in (polyester) in Sydney and then sailed home to Takapuna beach, Auckland.

G'day all. TomS, TimB, Gazza & DavidC. Firstly I'd like to offer my apologies to David - I didn't intend to leave you out of this as I sure value your comments & would like to ask a question about forces, but more on that later.

Gassa, there is ONLY 1 true 'Sundancer' design #C-1- David Barker design & head builder along with some small assistance from Karen, Michael Ball & me. No David - no boat though - all credit to him alone. C-2was 'Stratosphere' & C-3 is 'Sundreamer' - owned by Phil Hart. There is another - but at this point in time it's only a dream & is stalled due to lack of funds - - but one never knows & hope lives always very deeply within all yachties, me thinks.

If you go back up a few posts - you can read the resin chosen & used to build 'Sundancer'. High solids (68%) Isothalic wax free resin was used back in 1967 as the epoxy resins weren't very reliable nor as controlable as they are today. 'dancer' weighed - when launched , between 5200 lbs & 5300 lbs with all the sailing gear on board. Then it was sailed & tuned in Sydney harbour & off it went while I tried to get my business back into the black & continue building, repairing & sailing boats.

The horour stoy is that now 'dancer' lies in a yard in Kerikeri (for the last 15 years) & the current owner will not sell it - as he is having a totally deluded fantasy with the boats reputation which he thinks improves his. 'dancer' is 'past' rebuilding at a reasonable cost so David says & he lives in Kerikeri, (but I'd still do it) but again Leroy Ford wont sell it. You might read into this - DAMN HIM - DAMN IT etc but I'm trying not to hate him - very trying!!!

Interesting multihull designs by David - can't figure out why nobody else went to 'canted symetrical hulls'. Here is a cruising boat that can race or if you like a racing boat that can cruise. Light, strong, stable, fast, cost effective & very successful over a very long period of time. Bit like Phil Hart's 'Sundreamer'. Ooops, I forgot - you said you can't have a cruising boat that can race seriously - me thinks you should look at 'dancers' track record & maybe 'Sundreamer's also. But then I guess you think that they are slow & to old to be 'smart' practice both in design, sailing & speed. We're never going to agree on that one, for sure. A newly built, slightly re-designed (by David of course) using modern materials, sail design & sails - would (will?) give the best of the best - hot-shots - a right royal -comeuppance - big time. Aprox 1800 to 22----00 kgs & 15.5 mtrs long.

Now to (ooops) dagger-boards. Can't you build a board that is pressurized at the bottom to force some pressure up the board by boat-speed & thus stop the break-away flow at the hull? David - what you think? This question is not a trap & only 1/2 loaded - but is intended to help answer The Mac 36 board solution to come to reality & at a fair price. The above question is to see if you chaps can answer the how's & why's because I already know that the above is/was correct as far back as 1965 on an 'A' Class cat that won the world champs, only 6 races out of 7 (the 7th - we went out in the pick-up boat cause they were short of crew). I didn't figure all this out - I just built them. Can't ask Locki or Bob - cause they went for that long sail - DAMN - Haven't talked to the others in a long time & suspect - some of them may also have gone-sailing.

If I wasn't so bloody dyslexic I might be able to explain it better & learn more but I'm still in here trying. Sorry guy but thanks a lot.

Gazza & Doug - where's the right forum heading to discuss wing-masts? please. Ciao for now. Sure hope we are being of some help with his board selection problems. When it starts to take some direction - I will suggest a laminate just to start the ball-a-rolling. Ciao guys from down-under, james (Gazza we're leading by 100's & 100's & the Skipper was 329 not-out). WOW

[Gary Baigent]

hey James, apologies, this is a repeat but more relevant to this thread; I love those Golden Oldies multis ... but although today they might be considered fairly cruise-y, they weren't when they appeared; most of them were considered extreme, eye popping racers: like Sundancer, maybe not so much Sundreamer, but that boat was very light for its time - (by the way I've done many miles on that cat ... and swum around cleaning both long hulls underwater before races a number of times), also raced against Sundancer in the early days too. And an old acquaintance of DB, after all we're both arty farty wankers, same sort of education.
The Kiwis came back to win (but the one eyed Aussie crowd voted an Aussie man o' match, almost as disgraceful as the infamous low ball)... maybe Tendulkar will get a double century.