cmason, Welcome!
I've had my E23/2 for 23 years and love it! Our original intent in '78 was to have a one-design fleet here and we fell a few boats short, loosing out to the J24. I picked mine up in '85 from the "fleet". Although I've never raced it I've participated in a few one-on-one's w/ the keeled version and it was impossible to differentiate between pure boat speed/pointing ability due to differences in the ability of skippers and sails. I'm sure there must be a slight rating difference between the two. There's an E23/2 racer here, Bob Boe, who also has an E23 newsletter. If he doesn't "show" go to the Owners & Projects link at the top of the page and drop him an e-mail. He also knows everything there is to know about board replacement.
I wanted the CB version because the boat's docked at my house in ~30" of water and the channel out to the lake is ~4'. It's also really hard to launch a fixed keel boat on our lake, as the J24's found out(the CB's a breeze to launch and retrieve). Upwind performance w/ the board up is "adequate" to stay out of trouble, but dropping the board when out of the shallows is like hopping on a set of rails, huge difference in pointing ability and leeway.
A followup Q . . When the board is all up, does/can the boat sit solidly on the keel?
Yes, I guess I mistook the original ? On my roller trailer there are 4 heavy-duty rollers that take the full weight of the keel. I've dropped the outer wheel assemblies to do bottom paint. The boat can also be lifted w/ a sling behind the keel and a strap thru the bow eye for CB removal.