Many questions can be answered by reading older discussions. The trick is finding them.
The search function that comes with the forum software is a bit tricky. If you are looking for a single word that is very distinctive, it might get you where you want to go. It's main advantage should be the ability to show a list of threads (as opposed to each and every post) that mention the subject, as well as limit which poster wrote an entry.
I've never gotten good results out of it, so I now use my regular search engine and type something like this into the search box:
site:forum.daysailer.org "finding things in the forum"
The first thing is to use "site:" without a space followed by "forum.daysailer.org". That limits searches to this subsite (and 99% of this site is the forum).
The second is to use the rules for creating searches.
If often enclose the search terms in quotes if they go go together like "jib sheet" so I don't get all mentions of jibs and all mentions of sheet.
Occasionally, I use a "-" in front of a term to avoid some topics I'm not interested in. The search
site:forum.daysailer.org coamings -varnish
should bring all posts that discuss coamings, but don't mention varnish. However, the search engines don't necessarily understand about posts, so the search expression always applies to a whole page or 10 or 20 adjacent posts.
EDIT: I've updated the URLs based on the new forum location. If you want to search the main website, use site:daysailer.org