SC19 boards

[Jonathan Levine]

I've been reading through the available materials, much of it the hyperbolic (yet highly entertaining) Boston Whaler marketing stuff. This leads me to ask a couple of questions about the SC19's boards.

First, they claimed that sailing it without boards (and with the blanks installed instead) results in a nominal performance sacrifice - they cite 4 degrees of weather performance lost. This is of acute interest to me, as I'm constantly hunting down new lakes, making the chances of bottoming out higher than average. Is this a realistic claim? I don't race, so holding a line i.e. drift is of less importance to me than many, but I'd like to know whether in the real world raising the boards to windward is going to make it sail like crap.

The other thing BW repeatedly mentioned was the "NASA Series 63 foil" shape. Should that actually be "NACA"?

[Matt Haberman]

Jonathan,

Yes, it should be NACA series 63...

There were three versions of the SuperCat 19:

• The Original 19 with 8' beam, daggerboards and a 28'9" mast.

• The 19XL with a 8'6" beam, Daggerboards and a 33' mast.

• The 19X with 8'6" beam, NO daggerboards and a 33' mast.

The 19 without boards sails very well, but you need to get forward on the boat and drive the bows down just like you do on the SC15 & SC17. Short answer to your question is that it is totally reasonable to sail with the boards up or even part of the way up, the boat should still sail well.

[Jonathan Levine]

Cool, thanks. I'm a lot less twitchy now about trashing the boards in one of the many reservoirs I sail whose depths vary a lot through the season.

Another question (if I may without going too far OT my own thread): I'm assuming that the boat I'm getting has the shorter mast, which I gather is without diamond wires. How did they hold up over the years? This is something I've earned the right to be nervous about, as I snapped my Mystere's mast a few years after getting it (pushing pretty hard with two on the wire). I had the diamond wires added to its replacement and it's been happy ever since.

[edit]

Okay, that's weird. I just took another look at the (not too good) pictures the present owner posted, and I distinctly see spreaders and diamond wires. Does that make sense on a 1983 BW boat?

[Matt Haberman]

Jonathan,

Initially the SC19 did not have diamond wires on the mast, but that only lasted for about 1 year (if that) before they were added to the SC19 as standard equipment. Very few boats were built without the diamond wires and all of those boats were upgraded to include the diamond wires.

So yes I there should be diamond wires on your SC19 Mast, if you don't have them they should be added or you will probably end up with a 2-piece mast.