Technical focus #1 - centerboarder

This type of questioning often results, among other implications, in having to choose between different architectural formulas, each with its supporters and detractors. That's why, in these "Technical Focus" articles, Allures Yachting shares the advantages of the technical choices made in the design and construction of its yachts. The centerboarder, an architectural concept perfectly suited to blue water cruising.

‍

Popular with long-distance sailors, the centerboarder is an architectural concept that offers many advantages to blue water cruising. Here's a detailed comparison and review.

‍

Sailing at all depths

‍

The centerboarder allows you to venture into areas with reduced draught, the aim being to be able to navigate more serenely in poorly mapped areas with risks, either of encountering unmarked shoals such as coral spuds in tropical zones, or of collision with ice in high latitudes. This formula makes it possible to reach safer shelters close to the coast, and more isolated navigation zones, while retaining the possibility of grounding the boat, for a technical intervention on the hull for example.

‍

Greater comfort and peace of mind

‍

The centerboarder has a higher center of gravity, since the ballast weight considered is both greater and placed higher than it would be if placed in a deep keel. This means that the architect needs to plan for a large beam to allow the hull to heel without approaching the ship's righting limits.

‍

These design choices, and the resulting displacement, result in smoother movements, all the more so with a shaped hull as on the Allures, and therefore provide the crew with greater sailing comfort.

‍

The centerboard itself has no added weight other than that required for its construction: it's made of solid aluminum sheet metal, as on the Allures. This means that the centerboarder 's hull stability remains the same, whatever the position of the daggerboard: a very reassuring argument when it comes to the boat's behavior in heavy seas, if, for example, it endures strong cross-waves, or even if, on rare occasions, it completely loses this appendage, the accidental absence of which will in no way diminish its ability to remain upright, afloat, wedged in its water lines.

‍

‍

Consistent performance

‍

An integral daggerboard is a deep, streamlined appendage that provides low hydrodynamic drag and smooth sailing upwind. This type of anti-drift profile, combined with the fact that modern hulls like those of the Allures have both taut lines at the bow and planing shapes at the stern, give full-daggerboard yachts a good average level of performance and good helm balance, enabling them to sail miles with regularity, especially under autopilot, without having to constantly restart the machine.

‍

What's more, a centerboarder offers the advantage of being able to sail downwind with the daggerboard raised, which reduces drag, helping to improve downwind speed as well as hull stability and hence comfort on board in rough seas.

This formula also offers the crew the advantage of being able to take the cape, or even run away with the daggerboard fully raised in very bad weather, enabling the full-daggerboard yacht, if caught by a strong wave coming from the side, to skid sideways without being laid down by the famous "hooking" phenomenon that can be generated in heavy seas by the presence of a keel.