As a leeboard the board can swing aft and forward on a traverse axis a M16 bolt. Converting the board to a hiking board I swing it as far forward as possible out of the water. Now I can reach the tip from the fore deckhouse.
I fasten three control lines to the tip. Their function will be to slide out three lead weights of 6 kilos each.
After that I swing the board down to its deepest position. In that position I connect a hinge with a rolling longitudinal axis. The hinge is a figure 8-rope hinge. Rope hinges are very strong, resilient and flexible and there is no pin or axis that you have to fit, just get the rope around and haul in, a good thing on a boat moving in waves.
That done I can remove the bolt.
Now the board is free to swing outward, but not forward and aft.
A downhaul fixes its position.
With the help of a halyard connected to mast standing off center I raise so that it becomes horizontal like an airplane wing (The angel of attack can be made so that the wind creates a downward force. The board is like an airplanes wing, asymmetrical.)
That done I can now with the help of the control lines slide out the weights. How many and how far out will depend on the strength of the wind and how hard I like to drive Ex Lex.
This is nothing for a skerry cruising boat, they change tack all the time. On my planned trip, the time scale will be very different. For example at latitude of the Cape Verde island I will have the trade wind in on my port side about five degrees north of the equator I will meat the south east trade wind head on the boat will be hard on the wind trying to clear the north east corner of Brazil. At the latitude of Bahia my sheets will be eased the wind still on the port side. Hopefully I do not have to change tack before the latitude of Rio, a distance run of maybe 40 degrees of latitude and thousands of miles probably nearly two moths of time. Weeds will be growing on the starboard freeboard if not scraped away.
Below is a nice weather link illustrating the globes weather pattern.
https://www.windyty.com/?8.494,-11.250,3
Getting the board back to prevent leeway I reverse the operation. Surrounding the nut that holds the bolt that functions as the traverse axis is a short length of pipe that slides into the boards bearing, fixing its radial position. The pipe is shorter than the board is thick. Into it you can also if there is a need insert a bar and use it as lever to aligne the hole in the board to the pipe.
Once there it should be easy to insert the M16 Bumax stainless bolt that fixes the boards axial position, thus it becomes a two step operation. Thanks to this arrangement I do only have to keep one thing in place at the time. I do not have to line up nut, bolt and leeboard simultainiusly.
To be continued…
Regards Yrvind.