... is a 1986 boat so 25+ years old. Particulars are > 40.25 LOA; 31.6 LWL; 12.7 Beam; 19,000 disp; 7600 ballast; 727 sf sail area. Draft Board up 4.75' (although these days I think that's closer to 5 feet). Draft Board down 8.5 feet. Moderate draft fin keel (it's really quite large, resembles more of a full keel than a fin keel IMO), large balanced spade rudder, tall, high-aspect rig. Our Centerboard foil is 4" thick and supposedly, according to the Tartan sales literature "dramatically improves windward performance." But I'd disagree with that, at least the word "dramatically". I don't know how much our Board weighs, I'll guess and say around 300 pounds.

Most of our sailing for past 10 years is Bahamas/Florida. It blows in the Bahamas, generally 15+ knots and while there is plenty of sailing in the protection of the banks we do most our moving around outside in open water, it can be and usually is a bit rough, I would say average 4-6 foot seas.

Maintenance > I give the entire system a solid look-over on an annual basis, several things on my check list to verify, and while snorkeling I will give it another look or two during the season. Regardless what it looks like, every 4 or 5 years I replace the running gear on the CB, the pennant (and like Tom says, when I do it still looks new), the sheave or entire block mounted on top of the Board, the thimble on the eyesplice of the pennant at the Board end, and on our boat the CB trunk is in the bilge, below waterline, with a SS access plate on top, I pull the plate, replace the fasteners, clean all the surfaces and rebed with Sikaflex. All of this work is done with the boat hauled. Several years ago we pulled the entire Board, cut it open, replaced all of the hardware, pin, mounting & backing plates, but not the spline. Injected a bunch of new filler, Fiberglassed it all back together, sealed it all up, some dings & cracks, epoxy undercoated and painted. That was quite a project, took a couple weeks on & off.

Every year I power-wash as best I can the inside of the trunk from the outside when hauled, and bottom paint that and the Board, as best I can, which is not 100% ... the only way to get 100% coverage with my configuration is to pull the Board. I don't do that, we just get the boat as high as we can in the Travel Lift, drop the Board all the way and get in there as best I can with bottom paint dripping all over me, this obviously requires hanging in the slings for several hours, overnight is best for paint to dry.

Sailing > I would be in the camp where Tom says "I've talked to some people who say they can't tell if the Board is up or down." Well not quite, but close. We probably use the Board most often for reasons other than going to windward. Often, with a breeze, on a reach with the Asym sail up, we'll put the Board at least half way down to steady the boat and keep her from rounding up. And to answer your question, we often sail with the Board in various places between all the way up and down, I wind up tweaking it often, its not all or nothing. Like Chris mentioned for instance, we often put the Board half way down when reaching. I do notice a difference when going to windward, and generally we will put it down every time when sailing uphill assuming there is enough water, but it certainly is not "dramatic". I think we get less leeway and not necessarily able to point higher, if we can point higher, and remember we are cruising and not racing, perhaps that is a degree or two, certainly not 10. I think we can get higher and see better performance by paying more attention to trim than messing with the Board. When it's rough and going to weather, the Board definitely helps flatten the boat, but then the Board also bangs around a bit, when this happens I usually pull the Board up some until that stops. Like everything else, there is a sweet spot where I notice the Board does shine, but that involves a combination of heading, wind speed, boat speed, sea condition, sail trim and a number of other things and it's not very often all these are lined up perfectly to get us to that "sweet spot".

Anchorages in the Bahamas are generally in shallow water. There are plenty of places you want to go that require shoal draft. Playing the tide is a big deal there. Tucking in close in 6 feet of MLW where the wind is blowing 10, as opposed to a couple hundred yards behind us in 8-10 feet MLW where its blowing 20+ happens all the time. With our draft, we can navigate places like Conch Cay Cut to get to the Jumentos where other boats need a day or two longer, considering daylight hours, to get to. Or traveling the Bight of Acklins where deeper draft vessels simply cannot go. We were sailing one day in the Bight of Acklins for 3 or 4 hours, with the spinnaker up, with the boat speed consistently more than the water depth !

So I guess what I'm saying is geography may well dictate shoal draft. We spend lots of time sailing on the Banks of the Bahamas without putting the Board down at all and notice very little if any change in sailing performance ... I don't ever recall saying to myself cruising along in 7 feet of water, "Gee, I really wish we could put that Board down." On the otherhand, while not necessary it's nice to have ... we will drop it a bit to reduce weather helm for instance, it can be just another thingy to tweak if that flips your skirt. And we have definitely seen some benefit in a rolly anchorage ... with the Board all the way down knocks down some of the roll. CB's require quite a bit of maintenance, but for us, cruising in the Bahamas, it's worth it. So far, we have not yet forgotten to raise the Board when coming into shallow water, but if you do forget and you smack something, you will most likely have to haul, dry and repair the Board, which is going to take a couple weeks if done correctly, if there is a yard nearby. I did see once however in Georgetown, Exuma a couple guys with scuba tanks replace a parted CB pennant on a boat in the (warm, excellent vis) water, took them a couple hours.

Good luck with your decision, cheers, John