Centerboard pin on Ericson 25

[Scott]

I have a 1976 Ericson 25 centerboard which I stripped the bottom of last year. While doing so, I removed the centerboard to check and do some repairs to it. The pin, which is held in by two small screws into the hull. As I recall, the pin is 1/2" to 5/8" and was in very good repair. I was unable to get a good read on the hole in the board where the pin fed through, but it seemed to have a fairly small amount of what looked like cast iron on its leading edge. Has anyone had any experience with this? My concern is if the board is strong enough?

 

[Bob]

Achilles heel

Scott-When the boards go bad on these boats it is invariably in the area you describe. The board is made of a "spine" of steel plate, covered by dense foam (for shape), itself covered by fiberglass. Sooner or later water gets into the interior, causes the spine to rust (invariably in the region of the pin hole), and then the board swells and splits. Because the pin hole is so close to the 'shoulder' of the board there is not much metal around it and in my view it is a built-in weakness of the design. Some E23 boards have the pin hole located farther back from the edge and this seems to make them last longer. I have built some boards using stainless bushings welded to the spine to beef it up in this area - this seems to work well also.

 

[Tony]

E-25 Centerboard

I am buying an '75 E-25 C/B next weekend 8/20 Is there any way to determine the condition of the centerboard on the trailer ? The pin looked good but the boat's been out of the water quite a few years. It looks to be in all around rock solid condition.I am open to all suggestions

 

[Bob]

Hope for the best...

Tony, and plan for the worst. Those are real good boats, but if the board is original and has not been repaired, it will probably need work sometime in the near future. You might try to get a written statement from the seller agreeing to go halves on any c/b repair cost, or something similar. The boards do last a long time, but 30 years is a LONG time. I did a repair job on my '76 a couple of years ago and it has held up well, but I'm holding my breath and plan to build a spare soon. It's hard to tell what shape the pin is in until you pull it out - it can be bent or corroded and still look OK from the outside. By the way, these boards add very little stability to the boat - they are weighted with lead, but only to make them drop easily when the pendant is eased.