I have a '79 Oday 23' as well. My centerboard is stuck inside the keel cavity. I have been sailing it with the centerboard up, and Yes, she definitely slips to leeward. I keep saying to myself, "Can't wait to get this centerboard fixed!" (I sail on a very narrow lake, and have to tack very often) I have heard that the attachment pins to the line seize up, and get caught inside. Joe, I think I am going to ask you for pictures of you 222. Probably the repair job for my boat would be easy - the hard part would be getting to it! I am not to crazy about blocking up my boat in my yard, and crawling underneath there. Probably will just pay a boat yard to lift it up and fix it.
That would probably be the safest way to do it. I'm assuming that the later model O'Day 23 is set up similar to my O'Day 222 with the exception of the single sheave for the pendant line to ride through. Your boat doesn't have this as far as I know. The O'Day 26 does though.
The fifth pic shows the slots where the wedges fit in place. The centerboard pivots on that round fiber pin and the wedges are held in place with a regular polysulfide adhesive caulking. 3-M 4200 would work for this.
The sixth pic shows a rough sketch of how the wedges support the fiber pin. The plates are bolted to the keel against the wedges a screw holds the wedge in place until the caulking sets up.
They need to be careful when removing the four 1/4" Phillips head bolts. Probably the best tool for removing these bolts is good impact cordless drill with a Phillips bit in the chuck.
There's a bronze plate embedded in the lead on both sides of the slot according to what I've been told by Rudy of D&R Marine. If you should break a bolt you could re drill and tap for threads if you had to. I just took my time and removed the two stubborn bolts that were giving me trouble. I used an impact tool with a hammer, but I think a good cordless Makita with a bit in the chuck is the way to go.
To remove these wedges I used my fish fillet knife to cut the caulking. I heated the blade with a torch and worked it through the caulking. Then I used a putty knife with the blade heated.
If you damage the wedges you could reconstruct them with fiberglass.
Once the plates and wedges are removed and the slots are cleaned of all caulking, the board and pin will slide right down out of the slot.
The board is probably about 12" wide. The bottom of the keel needs to be about 18" off the ground. Good luck!
Joe
and my swing keel is gone. If I didn't replace and was just going to cruise around a few lakes nothing serious what would be the worst case? I know the older 22's didn't have a swing keel, 
