David D wrote:
Annie will you need to ballast these to stop them floating?
Perhaps I can answer this, as designer.
Because the boards contain air, but are also heavy, they will probably float about half-immersed - that would be ideal. What happens is this:
When the boat is upright, the boards will drop part of the way, and then will need pulling down and securing with the downhaul.
When the boat is beating to windward, needing first one and then the other board down, the windward board is dropped as soon as it is decided to tack. In fresh breezes, with the boat heeled, it will probably drop all the way, and will then simply need securing with the downhaul. As the tack proceeds, the pressure will come off the lee board, while it is still immersed, and then it can be quickly raised while the water is still carrying plenty of its weight. If this is left too long, the board is right out of the water, and more effort will be needed to raise it.
All this needs some crew effort and good timing, so when short tacking, both boards can be left down (with some loss of windward efficiency).
So you can see that this is rather a subjective matter (much like timing the tacking of a big genoa on a pointy-rig) - would you rather haul the board down against its floatation, or haul its entire weight out of the water, if you get the timing wrong? What I have advised Annie to do is "Wait and See" - conduct trials with the boards as they are built, and if they need a little ballast, it can be added, on the top or the bottom of the board. My feeling is that it won't be thought necessary, but time will tell.