Tom Ray wrote:
I never leave my fins up unless in shallow water. My thinking is that I need all the daggerboard I can get upwind, and off the wind they should lower drag by forcing the hull to go straighter through the water. Going sideways in a kayak makes a lot of drag. Also, with the fins down I think the back fin is "drafting" behind the front fin, like race car drivers do.
I have still done very little sailing with the drive removed, and have done no experimenting to see whether fins up or fins down works better in practice. Has anyone done tests?
With 2 Islands I can make comparisons. When out sailing on a medium reach, my sailing friend was using the other Island but was slightly slower and falling behind. He asked why his boat was slower given identical boats, similar trim and direction. My flippers were bungied, but I coud see his was not. After he fixed his flippers up he picked up speed.
When sailing upwind I usually pedal some to get boat to point as high as I can.
Flippers in down position make for the best "extra" daggar board but sailing all the time with down flippers exposes them to Manatees, crab traps, shallows & stuff.
Maybe lining up flippers in the down position is never perfect, or the water density and drag increases with depth? My GPS and more testing may be needed but bungied flippers seem faster.