CB movement at the slip

[Adana]

After owning my H23.5 for 4 years and only taking her out 3 times,last summer I decided to paint the bottom and put her in a slip. I'm in the Florida panhandle so our sailing season is long and there were only about 2 months that she hasn't been used since last September. And since the first of June I get out twice a week most weeks if the afternoon storms permit. Best decision I ever made! Unfortunately the slip I currently have gets a little more wave action that is probably ideal for a boat of her size (ie weight). I hate to leave this slip because the price is right and within 5 minutes of backing out of the slip we are hoisting the mainsail. Here is my dilemma: the wave action gets so rough some days that I can hear the CB pounding against the top of the CB trunk. As a wave pushes the hull up, the CB follows (the line is pulled tightly so that under most circumstances this is not a concern). When the boat falls back down with the passing of the wave, the CB continues moving up with its previous momentum.

@THUNK@

And that continues for the duration of the rough weather. I happened to be aboard once (installing additional bow cleats because the one was not sufficient for this) and it seemed so loud that I was afraid that I was going to end up with hull damage from the CB pounding. I grabbed an extra line and wrapped it around the entire hull forcing the CB to stay in the CB trunk. This has solved my problem, but I'm wondering if anybody has any better ideas. Would leaving the CB extended be better?.... Or worse?
Thanks for ideas and/or comments.

Adana

 

[teebutch]

Have u thought about rocker stoppers. I had some years ago but never used them. I guess they are still around.

 

[Mike in Cape Cod]

You may want to haul the boat and check the condition of the uphaul line as well as the bushing that the pivot pin goes through on the centerboard. There are shims on the stainless steel housing that keep the board from moving from side to side and may warrant inspection/replacement. You may want to read my entries detailing my centerboard saga, as the bushing on my board that the pivot pin goes through was considerablly wallowed out of round causing banging and eventual failure.

 

[Adana]

I replaced the up haul line last summer when I painted the bottom (including the CB) and the pivot pin and everything else looked in very good condition. There is no side to side motion. Because the CB only connects at the top (forward most end when pulled up) the weight of the other end of the board (aft) is pulled by gravity just an inch or two away from the hull. When I pull up the CB at the end of a sail I hear it thud quietly as it reaches it's furthest point upward and I have gone under with a mask to verify. It looks great. I know it's not moving more than a couple of inches but it seems very loud inside the cabin when the momentum forces it to bang up against the top of the trunk. I'm sure that if the CB was being pulled up by a cable connected to the bottom end of the board this would not be a problem.

 

[Benny17441]

Just raise it up and secure it. make sure to frequently exercise the raising and lowering mechanism. In Florida a concern for swing keel or centerboard boats is marine growth. If left of unused over a matter of weeks marine growth can obstruct the operation of the keel or centerboard. Have seen boats keel over on the trailer as they are hauled out because the keel would not retract and centerboards that refuse to go down because they were left up for to long.

 

[peptobysmol]

Is your slip deep enough to leave it deployed? Seems that could be a good/easy fix. IDK, you might hear from others who own a 23.5 to see if this is plausible.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Please follow the advice of Mike in Cape Cod as he is pretty much saying what I would say. Thanks Mike for piping up on this one.

In addition, I would haul that up snug but not to snug to keep the CB from banging but check out the up haul line, rudder, etc. first to make sure all is well.

Crazy Dave Condon and the 23.5 was my baby.