Talk:Centreboard

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Contents 1 Spelling 2 Diagram request 3 Keel or foil? 4 Centreplate

[edit] Spelling

Call me Americentric, but the thing on my sailboat is called a "Centerboard."

Yes, however the article was created using the British spelling, and I think the SOP is to use the spelling that's already there, unless there's a compelling reason to pick one over the other (such as, for example, an article about a place in America or the UK, which would use the "native" spelling). Certainly there should be a redirect from "centerboard" to this article, if there isn't already. scot 19:45, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Diagram request

[edit] Keel or foil?

In modern yachting terminology, "keels" are heavy or ballasted "foils" which provide both stability and lateral resistance, whereas "centreboards" are foils which provide only lateral resistance, usually being "lighter than water".

This is consistent with keel#Sailboat Keels. "Keels are different from centerboards and other types of foils in that keels are made of heavy materials to provide ballast to stabilize the boat." i.e. centreboards are not keels, but both are foils.

See also: BLACKLISTED LINK DELETED . This tells us that: " "Foil" is the common term that applies to wings, rudders, keels and centerboards. To the aerodynamicist and hydrodynamicist they are all the same. "

Usage of foil in this context is presumably unfamiliar to the lay reader, and perhaps we could mention that "keel" is a commonly used but technically incorrect term. GilesW 07:04, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Keel is, and always has been, a word having covering both structure and hydrodymics. It is a keel whether weighted or buoyant, fixed or moveable ^{[citation needed]}. The term is as familiar to all sailors now as it was in past centuries. "Foil" can be found in some articles restricted to the topic of certain small boat parts. Extended to other areas it is a neologism. To the aerodymicist, as it is to the lay public, it is used to wrap food for cooking. Meggar 23:41, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I have consulted yacht & dinghy racing colleagues at my yacht club about this and they disagree with the usage you claim, which was described as "landlubber" terminology. The term "foil" is a neologism. "Foils" is now the widely used collective term for a centreboard or daggerboard and rudder blade. In a victorian era sailing book, keel is clearly differentiated from centre-board (usually hyphenated). Googling for "keel strip" gives examples of the application of the term "keel" to canoes and dinghies even though they may be GRP mouldings no longer having the longitudinal structural keel that earlier wooden boats had. GilesW 21:41, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Centreplate

"Centreboards are often ballasted". Does this refer to the flat heavy metal "centreplates" (UK term) used in some old UK classes like the Finn (dinghy), Firefly (dinghy), Bosun (dinghy), Drascombe, Wanderer (sailing dinghy) etc? May I suggest a paragraph for "Centreplate" in this article, and redirection to the Centreboard article from Centreplate (and the US equivalent)? GilesW 07:43, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Suggested addition:

Centreboards are usually buoyant. They were typically made of plywood or laminated wooden strips to reduce the risk of warping or splitting. Foil bending and twist are generally considered undesirable, so that modern foils often use a wood or foam plastic core sheethed in glass fibre. The fastest dinghies and skiffs may use carbon fibre sheathed foam foils for stiffness and lightness.

Centreplates are heavy metal plates typically made from galvanised steel sheet, having a flat plate section often with shaped leading and trailing edges. These presumably originated long before the (buoyant) centreboard.

Or something like that. GilesW 09:04, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

In a Victorian era sailing book I find that what we now call centreplates were referred to both as centre-boards and centreboards. Thus centreplate is presumably a retronym for the metal centreboard. GilesW 17:20, 12 September 2007 (UTC)