center board problems

[Captmayhem]

Ok, launch from hell yesterday, O'day 23 , forgot to make sure the center board line was tied off, it was not.
Line got caught up on the trailer during launch, could neither get it free from the trailer, nor get the boat back on the trailer, horrible day, lots of blisters and sunburn!
In the end, had no choice but to cut the stop knot off the end, line pulled through and boat floated clear, all good.
Except I now have the center board down and the line no doubt trailing along up the boat.
Not worried about the depth, as the lake is deep enough, I don't think the line is long enough to foul the prop, if it is I can grab it and tie it off.
My question is, I only cut the knot off, so the line is still long enough to do it's job IF I can get it back up the tube.
Lake is about zero vis, If I put say a wire down the tube, could a diver afix the line to it and I could then pull it back up?
Other issue is going to be pulling the boat, I assume the center board swings towards the aft from a forward pivot point? This means I'll only get one shot at getting the boat on the trailer as I won't be able to go astern, the center board would then catch the trailer.
And even if I do get it on, with the board now folded back into it's home, I could not feed the line back up,Argggggh
So, I either need to fish it back, with the boat in the water, or I'm looking at crane time once out yes?

 

[LeslieTroyer]

Assuming the line is still long enough, drop a weighted fishing (pun intended) line down the hole, grab it with a boat hook - and attach it to your existing line and pull into place. shouldn't need a diver

 

[LeeandRick]

The board does swing aft from a point 18" behind the mast compression post. The wire down the tube should work. The wire would need to be spiraled around the line to make it small enough to pass through the tube. Who ever does this job explain to them how the line is attached to the CB so they can inspect it. Hopefully with all the tugging nothing got damaged.

Operate it a few times while diver is in the water so diver can check that board goes all the way up.

 

[LeeandRick]

Another trick we used on a 21' boat was to find a sandy beach and roll the boat over on it's side (halyard from top of mast) until you could find the CB line and wire down the tube then tie them together.

 

[Captmayhem]

Assuming the line is still long enough, drop a weighted fishing (pun intended) line down the hole, grab it with a boat hook - and attach it to your existing line and pull into place. shouldn't need a diver

Brilliant , once the sunburn has died down, I'll give this a try, thank you

 

[Captmayhem]

OK, weighted fishing line, down the tube, first sweep with the boat hook and we had it. Tied on end off to the cleat, the other end (fished end) is attached to the lifeline stanchion.
But we could not find the lift line, really not having any idea where the line may be is not helping, does anyone have a picture of a 23 or 25 with it's board down? would be very handy to know where I should be "fishing" with the boat hook.

 

[LeeandRick]

Here is a picture of the 23 CB out. The lift line is going to be deep about 5" from the bottom of the board. You can tell from the old paint the angle of the CB.

 

[Ward H]

Without a knot or eye on the line, there is almost no chance of hooking it. Even with no visibility I would dive down to the bottom of the board and grab the line there. Then go up slowly so you don't let the end slide through your hand.
I seriously doubt that it will be long enough to pull to one side and above water to tie to your fishing line, unless you had a lot of extra line.
Maybe if you had a soft beach and ran onto it very easy, it will push the board up a bit so the line would then reach the surface of the water?

Good luck!

 

[Captmayhem]

thanks Leeandrick, I was fishing for it way too high
Ward, I'm thinking back to how much line was tied off with the board down, I might just get lucky with the length.

 

[Ward H]

I've been wrong before so hope I am this time also. Let us know how you make out.