by GreenLake » Fri Dec 18, 2015 10:48 pm
The DS1 pawl is to keep the CB up, presumably so it doesn't lower itself in between the supports on the trailer as you launch....
There are some people who rig a line from the handle to force the CB down. This would be of interest mostly in racing, where you can lose valuable advantage if your board decides to have a mind of its own. In cruising, the tolerances aren't as critical and you are mentally not as occupied, so a regular check of the handle position would be enough to catch the CB misbehaving.
What I found is that for the vast majority of conditions I sail in, the board stays put nicely due to friction in the pivot. I have mine adjusted to where it takes a bit of effort to lower. Also, one needs a bit of positive pressure on the gasket to stop any leaks. In my experience, the force required for the latter is sufficient to cause enough friction for the former.
For my rudder, I equally rely on the friction hold. There, I found that the wing nut must be tightened with a tool. Merely hand-tight is not enough. But just beyond that is a regimen where the rudder will still be down at the end of sail, yet can be bent 15 degrees by hand to facilitate storage (without touching the nut). If I tighten it to the right point, I don't have to check it for many, many trips in a row. Except, if I have new crew, they have a tendency to want to take the rudder apart for storage or to loosen the nut for whatever reasons of their own, and they can't get it tight enough again without a tool (leatherman). So, I need to have an eye out for that.
Profiling both CB and rudder had the effect of reducing drag (somewhat). Every little bit helps in keeping those foils down.
I suspect that if we had more sustained high winds, and more planing conditions, that friction alone might reach a limit. In that case I would rig the usual downhauls with auto-release cleat on the rudder, and fit some kind of downhaul strap (with break-away release) to loop over the CB handle. But not until they prove necessary.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~