I just pruchaced a 1995 hunter 26 and on my first time out I lost the swing centerboard do to some errors on my part with the shore. I need to find out where and how to buy another one with the hardware to attach it. any suggestions?
Replace the swing centerboard
- Thread starter kittiff
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sorry to hear that but cant help but wonder as I'm sure others in here are just as curious how did you do that ???? Theres got to be one helluva story behind this ?
I think you will have to order one from Hunter Marine,or you could try Ida Sailor. Joel may be interested in building one for you, he no longer lists the center board on his site but may be interested in doing one for you. It would probably be better than the one from Hunter.
good luck, Bob
good luck, Bob
Contact "Bob" at Foss Foam in Florida. Foss is the OEM for most keels and rudders. They are very easy to work with. The still had the mold for my '84 H22.
too dark and deep
Thank you for your advice.
I am a diver but the place it fell off the water is 125 feet deep and the visability is less than one foot this time of year. The center board being flat and long it would have sliced through the water a long way from where I lost it. When the water clarity changes you can bet I will spend some time looking for it.
Thank you for your advice.
I am not sure how much anyone is willing to read about my trip but, I will try to explain the most of it. We have been looking for a sail boat for about two years. we could not make our minds up. We found this hunter on EBay two weeks ago and made a dash to bring it home from California. The guy we bought it from knew nothing about the sailing and decided to get rid of it.
I stood everything up in our drive way to make sure we had all of the right stuff. We had vacation planned and decided to put our new boat in Strawberry Reservoir. I have been sailing for about 30 years off and on with other people and their boats. This is the first time I have owned one. The sail boats I was used to had fixed keels. This one has is a water ballast swing centerboard and I was not very sure of my knowledge of one.
In our yard I found out the Evinrude 9.9 motor’s water pump was not working so I replace it with a new one. I purchased knew batteries and made sure all of the electrical was working. We put everything away and we were off.
We arrived at the lake stood the mast up on the trailer and were ready to put the boat in the water. The guy I bought the boat from told me to undo the bolt in the rudder and let it roll down and place the bolt back into the other hole. I removed the bolt and the rudder did not move so, I gave it a push and away it went into the lake. The water was about thirteen feet deep and 40 degrees.
The people in charge of the marina towed my boat over to the slip we rented. I had to drive back home and get my dive gear (three hour round trip). I made it back to the lake about 6:00 pm. I pulled out the dive gear and realized I had my wife’s BC and my weight would not fit in her weight pouches. The rudder was in fifteen feet of water so, I decided to put my weights in her pockets. I swam out to get the rudder and one of the weights fell out and I tried to grab it. Just then the other one fell out and I floated to the surface. A friend of mine was there helping to launch some other sail boats and said “can’t you just grab a rock?” so I did. I was able to retrieve my rudder and my weights.
The next two days we just hung out on the docks because of weather. The third day I thought we should take the boat out. The beginning of our trip was a gentle wind and gave me a chance to pull the jib sail up and try it out. This lake has an Island in it that is surrounded by canyons and pine trees (one of my favorite places). We sailed to the south side of the Island and drop the sail to motor into the canyons to circle the Island.
When we arrived at the north side of the Island where the main part of the lake is the weather had changed for the worst. There were white caps and much stronger winds. The wind was from the west which was the way back to the harbor. I knew I would have to tack north to be able to sail back to the harbor. I motored out into the lake what I thought was far enough away from shore to be able to make our heading. I was not sure how stable our water ballast boat was and we were in some strong winds but, I was ready to find out.
I pop up the jib sail and tightened the sheet and the boat healed to the starboard side my wife and grandson was in the cabin at the time and I heard her make a noise that startled me and I instinctively let the jib sheet out. This caused us to lose all forward momentum and we began to drift towards the shore very fast. I started the motor and put it in gear to pull us away from the shore. The motor ran for a short time and killed. I could not get it started again. The center boar was touching the bottom so I raised it up.
At this point I realized I should drop the jib sail to slow our drift down. That was when I found out why the motor would not run. The halyard fell into the water and had wrapped around the prop. I had to cut the halyard to be able to drop the sail. By this time we were on the shore bouncing in the rocks. I jump out to push the boat away and found out I could not budge it at first. The back of the boat was farther out in the water so, I jumped back into the boat to start the motor and put it into reverse. I had my wife try to steer the boat while I jumped back on shore again to push. All this time the waves were fighting me. The backend of the boat began to move back to shore so I jumped back in the boat to raise the motor as to not cause more damage. I jumped back out of the boat just about ready do give up and watch our boat break up on the rocks. I gave it one more push and somehow the boat began to move away from the shore. I know I had help just then because I was exhausted and could barely move. I was able to turn the boat enough so, I could climb on the back and float away with it. I started the motor again and we went back into the channel away from the wind.
My wife put on some music to calm us down and help us to relax a bit. We were finally out of harm’s way and motoring around and we heard something hit the bottom of the boat. Then a second time something hit the bottom the boat and the line to raise the center board became tight and then very lose. That is when the center board fell off.
We made our way back across the main lake by motor and was able to get to the marina and dock the boat. Without the centerboard we had a heck of a time trying to navigate into the wind.
That is most of the story and now I am trying to find another centerboard and a new halyard. I am sure we have some scratches and dings we need to fix also.
I just "knew" there was a helluva story and that is definetly a doozy. sorry to hear about all the hiccups but keep in mind a year from now you two will be sailing and be able to smile at that first trip with the new boat. besides its always nice to get that first scratch out of the way and overwith. wish you the best on the repairs and hope to hear progress reports as you gain ground on it.
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