Several people have asked how I did my center board stabilization modification, so here it is.
Of all the modifications that I have made on Gray Lady, my Bayraider 20, the most rewarding has been stabilizing the center board - don’t have to listen to the clunk clunk of the board going side-to-side, she turns smoother, and points higher into the wind.
To accomplish this I put two large slabs of plastic on either side of the board using this procedure:
Put the boat in the water and the center board all the way down. Measure the inside width of the centerboard trunk at the narrowest area directly behind the board. Outside calipers work well for doing this but you can also do it with a tape measure. Next measure the thickness of the center board at the back edge. Subtract that measurement from the trunk width measurement and divide that result in half to get the approximate thickness of the plastic that you need to put on each side of the board.
On my boat that measurement came out to exactly 1 inch. This may be the same on all Bay Raiders, don’t know how consistent the construction is. The plastic slabs I used were 21” long and 11” from top to bottom and 1 inch thick. I got my plastic in the recycle bin of a local plastic store, but there are also several kinds of plastic slabs available on Amazon. You may have to combine two pieces to get the thickness that you want. You don’t want the plastic slabs pushing tightly against the board, just close is good enough for stabilization
To install the plastic pieces, put the boat in the water and the board down. I screwed a small half round bracket to the top center of each slab and used a piece of parachute cord (later removed) to lower the plastic in place, Be careful not to drop it through the bottom of the boat. Slide each slab forward as far as it will go along side of the board. The plastic slabs are anchored in place with two stainless steel machine screws through the outside of the centerboard truck and into the plastic. The screws are well above the waterline so you don’t need to worry about leaks.
I think you will be amazed how much this improves the boat's handling.