I am seriously thinking of adding the 50-100 lbs. of lead buckshot into my daggerboard in the near future... I wanted to know from those who have completed this mod if it is worth it...and if you can tell the difference while motoring, sailing and while docking (more control).
It will rattle around under power, chipping and breaking, will sail tiny bit better from more righting moment but slightly slower from more weight, net gain, I don't know. i even tried 600lb bulb at bottom of reinforced daggrtboard, no water ballast and boat with about one layer less fiberglass throughout for an additional 400lbs weight savings. Whole boat sailing at over 1,000 lbs lighter. Result; some improvement under sail, much worse under power. Rattled a lot. The daggerboard trunk was shimmed to close fit with a coller around the board but still rattled too much. thinking that path is not worth it. If you are in an area with a lot of wind, get a performance genoa and roll up to suit. If you are in an area with light wind, get a full roach mainsail, (our stock main is full roach, just get much more roach). If you'd like the boat to heel less, slightly tighten the sidestays and move the jib/genoa track caars back one notch. Use grease under the mast rotation washers before tightening the stays.
Mike Inmon
We added 50 lb of lead ( spent bullets we cut up from an indoor shooting range) at $15.00 it was a cheep MOD even counting the face masks and rubbergloves. We get about 5 deg's less heal when over 15 deg's and our boat sails stiffer when out crusing (we don't race ). Wheather it is 50 lb of gear or food or just a full port-a potty the boat doesn't matter. One important thing when trailering lower your daggerboard so it rests on the trailer cross bar so it will not bend the hinged pully bracket above the daggerboard otherwise it will bend and nothing will work, OR you can weld SS stiffeners to the SS pully bracket to support the weight. I discussed this mod with Blue Water Yachts and they sayed limit the weight to 50 lbs. We do not get any rattling from the added lead and at anchor the daggerboard does not bang around any longer. We also added a 6 to 1 pully system to raise the daggerboard and it even raises it under lower power. Were now ready for a bigger sq footage mainsail we feel.
