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In my opinion, the X swing center board is a superior design. I don't know why Roger changed it. Even partially lowered, it probably has more surface than a dagger the same depth. You could probably sail the X very well with the board only 2' down. Plus, for shallow water sailors, harder to snap it off.

The M with a 5'9" draft fully deployed is as DEEP boat. My Hunter 34 only had a 4' 2" draft and we bumped all the time. Fortunately (unlike Rumdirty) it never broke when grounding. The M's sacrificial dagger could be expensive to own if you sail in shallow water often.

Light winds, our boat sails like junk with only 3' sticking down. I'm hoping another foot and a half of board will help a little. Once you get the boat moving, you don't need that much board.

--Russ

I'll just prove to all the other sailors just how superior the 26M is by sailing sideways!

I find the M or mine at least sails fairly well with no board at all except it don't tack reliably. I leave the rudders down. I sail it like this whenever I am in dubious water. If my course is to weather i motor until I'm in deeper water.
My boat does have two skegs I put on just for this purpose.
Ix

Ixneigh wrote: My boat does have two skegs I put on just for this purpose.
Ix

Skegs? Please explain.

Ixneigh wrote:I find the M or mine at least sails fairly well with no board at all except it don't tack reliably. I leave the rudders down. I sail it like this whenever I am in dubious water. If my course is to weather i motor until I'm in deeper water.
My boat does have two skegs I put on just for this purpose.
Ix

The boat will sail and be happy with the board up. However if you are trying to point you are going to have a ton of leeway.

In shallow water you can actually make a bit of weather distance. But sure there's a lot of leeway. I am usually taking my time picking my way across shallow water when I do this. In plenty of wind the boat does this better. I'm quite happy with it and have sailed in water I was just skimming the bottom in. It's hard to steer so you need the correct sail trim and all.

Re skegs I did a write up on these a few years back If you are interested. There are two, one on each side.

Ix

I've done soft groundings (5 knots to sudden stop) with nothing but superficial damage. Hitting something harder than sand or mud would definitely break it however. The design of the M compared to the X: the M's board is less expensive to produce, easier to maintain, and easier to replace. It's clear that the M is a less expensive boat to produce overall with its daggerboard, less complicated transom, simpler head, and lack of a hull full hull liner. On the plus side, most of those turn out to be minor improvements as well in my opinion with the exception of the head.

With regards to performance, the M daggerboard does not change the CLR as it comes up, although I question how much that matters. Obviously the kick-up design is superior for the Florida and the Bahamas, but it doesn't matter at all here on the west coast.