I recall back in the '90s when I purchased my first composite board it came with a warning about fingers getting crunched. Over the years I've noticed issues with the stop peg. Just recently I see the opening in the composite board has been eliminated altogether. You might be wise to do a little research before you go off and create some sort of digital guillotine.The handle would be just continuous with the board, a simple, diagonally slanted hole to help me grab and pull.
How high, IMHO, will be a matter of function for your sailing style. At this point you’ve answered part of your own question by doing a mock-up and noting the handle needs enough wood around it to be sound. The only other issue I see is, will the extra amount that sticks up interfere with sailing the boat. Again, probably best answered by installing the mock-up and looking at it.I would like to make a new daggerboard, and i am thinking of adding an integral handle out of the same piece of wood, angled slightly towards the cockpit to make it easier to pull up. How far do you guys think the daggerboard should stick up above the well?
Nothing functional that I can think of aside from the horizontal alignment of two pegs is more difficult to achieve than using a single wood block.Also, im thinking of using pegs as stops (below the handle), as compared to the wood strips used on the original. Any thoughts on this?
Once you’ve answered for yourself that the protruding fin isn’t an interference to your sailing, it’s simply a matter of stylizing your boat to suite your taste … Sure, Go For It. Worst case is you saw it back and make it like the original, maybe this go-around adding a brass handle screwed on top.I believe i am just going to duplicate the shape of my original ('76) board, and add 3 or four inches of height above the stops (which will probably be 2 pegs on each side) to integrate a handle. This extra height would only be on the forward facing side, and it would slant down as it proceeds aft, with the handle just below the edge.
I can understand that. Since you are leisure sailing you’ve probably never measured performance objectively. You’ve simply become accustom to the behavior of your board’s design and that’s become your comfort zone. Changing designs now makes handling feel awkward. You are functioning in a subjective environment and don’t need anybody else’s approval, but your own.Honestly, i was rather content with my old board. And upon using my spare (i know it is newer and a different shape, but not when it was purchased), i have found that i prefer the old one