Silence that cast iron certerboard

[rockingham]

Just completed a 20 minute redo on my Montgomery 17 which has a 140# cast iron centerboard. Seems that no matter how carefully I lowered it when the stop nub on the board landed on the stop bolt in the cb housing there was a loud "clunk". I would imagine all sorts of accumulated damages from that 140#'s banging away on that 3/8 inch ss crosspin at the bottom of the cb housing. Finally pulled the pin and as I reinserted it I slipped a one inch length of 3/8 inch rubber, nylon reinforced fuel line on the bolt. Now when the board comes down it lands on that nice soft rubber with nary a sound. The force of its landing is now greatly mitigated.
This fix may work on other brands of boats as well.

 

[rgranger]

Thnx for sharing.

 

[CloudDiver]

Without a picture it never happened ;-)

 

[rockingham]

Without a picture it never happened ;-)

oops, didn't know you could post pics on this site.

 

[rockingham]

Without a picture it never happened ;-)

For those requiring the "thousand word" explanation aid here is a picture. Hopefully it will help.
The photo aligned with the keel of the boat shows the orientation of the pin in question. Picture the bolt running athwart ships in the cb housing with the black rubber sleeve inside the slot that contains the cast iron centerboard.
The second picture shows the actual keep stop bolt (the shiny stainless steel head shown surrounded with the red bottom painted cb housing) already installed in the keel.

fair winds,
Tom B

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

If the boat is on boat stands, I suggest that all stands be chained together. The forward stands (2) be chained together and the next two to prevent them from kicking out. I would not suggest putting weight on any of those chains for safety reasons.

 

[rockingham]

For sure! Each pair (there are three) are cross chained under the boat. I also put a keel block under the skeg, under the nose of the cb housing and the bow. It has been thus for about 8 months and is very solid. The weight is carried by the keel blocks, the six outboard jacks are for balance of the hull. I have been able to loosen two sets of jacks when necessary to reposition them with no resultant shifting of the hull.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

You never know from the photos sometimes. thank you for being careful. There are some out there that safety is of no issue to them and in my years of a sailboat dealer, I have seen a lot and many hurt to include death. I take safety issues seriously. thank you for being safe. Fair Winds and the wind blow from behind you.