Barrington daggerboard - which edge forward?

WIUPgamer

New Member
This may sound like a stupid question to some, but nonetheless I am confused. I am refinishing a Barrington board. I am ready to taper the trailing edge. I know the dimensions I need to adhere to but I can’t figure out which side is the front and which is the aft. Doah! I thought I knew but then I saw some things in the SF bible which made me think twice.

I thought the long edge was the front, and a couple of photos in the SF bible of the different boards seem to support this. The captions under the photos are somewhat vague though and only confuse me. Two of them even seem to contradict each other. Then I noticed several line drawings in the SF bible which show the short edge of the Barrington board forward. Although the board kind of looks like it would work better with the long edge forward, I remember reading somewhere that the SF daggerboard is designed to slide up the trunk if you run aground. In that case it looks like the short edge should be forward.

Maybe I’m just looking at this with way too much detail and missing the forest because of the trees. At any rate, I would really appreciate it if someone would set the record straight for me and tell me which edge, long or short, is the front edge on the Barrington style daggerboard. I’d like to get this board ready for our first race in two weeks because I’m sure it would be an improvement over the old round style board I currently use.

Thanks for the help!
 
Brian,

It may be personal preference, but I sail with the long edge forward on an unmodified Barrington board. If you look at the diagrams in the class rules, the composite board has the long edge forward. If all the diagrams are orientated the same way to be forward, it would stand to reason that the long edge would be the leading edge. The trailing edge would have the slight taper in it. Experimintation with two boards with oposite edges modified (rounded) would be the only way to know for sure. Your Barrington board will deffinately make a difference compared to your old round board. Take both boards out and try each in turn just to compare.

I understand your confusion. Page 47 has the long edge forward on the Barrington board, based on Bruce Sutphen 1987 Worlds win (this book revised in 1996). Page 209-210 of the SF Bible has the tapered edge (short) forward for the Barrington and long edge forward for the old style (round) based on other race results (this book written in 1984). The author also suggests using practice blades. For those of us who like working in wood, making a board is a pleasent past time, a second board would not be a problem. The other alterative is to get the composite board. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the help Supercub! I'm glad to hear I had reason to be confused. I was begining to think it was just me. Now I feel comfortable tapering that rear edge. I didn't want to sand it down and find out I had the wrong side.

Have a great day!
 
Brian,

If you look at a 1971 Sunfish brochure you will see the longer to be the trailing edge. I've been sailing it that way since then. If you'd like a copy of the brochure you can contact me. [email protected]

Al Courtines
 

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