Centerboard Repairs

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Arnie Hoffman

Just a FYI to those with C.B. 30's. When I bought my '82 last summer the previous owner had wedged the board up with cedar shingles because the board rattled back and forth and wasn't lowering properly. After going over the plan all winter I was pleased to see how easily the centerboard dropped out of the slot in the keel. I encountered one screw that was difficult to loosen in the plates under the keel. Once I got the wedges that hold the pivot in place I worked the keel down. I had the boatyard set the keel on wooden supports fore and aft of the centerboard salot last fall so I could access the board easily. I had to dig a trench under the keel so the board could drop enough to angle it free. Found one of the problems, delaminated leading edge to the board was swelled from water penetration. I used W.E.S.T. epoxy and microfibre granules to make a sloppy putty and saturated the area, soaked fiberglas cloth in the epoxy to fill holes, clamped the edge with 'C' clamps until the epoxy set up. The fitting where the rope pennant had connect to the centerboard was gone. I purchased a 3" diameter, stainless steel circular ring with about a 1/2" shank diameter and set it 2/3 of the way into the centerboard where the old fitting had been. I had to enlarge the hole in the board with a drill to accept the ring. Then I filled the cavity around the ring with W.E.S.T. epoxy and microfibres again saturating fiberglas cloth to fill the larger voids. I intend to fit a s.s. shackle on the ring with a wire center rope lifting pennant. Also plan to add a s.s. security bolt through the centerboard about an inch from the trailing edge to give the ring more bite into the board. If anyone wants more information on this email me.
 
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Chris

Don't add too much hardware

while I didn't have the issues with my centerboard that you did - I have some advice.....last year I replaced my cable to the centerboard and upsized the cable. Thinking I was doing the right thing - in the off season I ordered a wire to rope splice and increased the cable one size so it would last longer. When I installed it on the original tang I reused the shackle..........2 things I learned.....once I got the cable free when the boat was in the air...it isn't a wire to rope splice - the cable has a thimble and the line a splice-- save the $ and use this method....the lengths in the manual are correct. The problem: I'm not sure if this was caused by upsizing the cable but my board got stuck in the well when docked my boat at an exteme low tide. I had to have it hauled and the shackle was wedged in the well ---I cut it off and just used a thimble on the cable attached directly to the tang and it worked great. Between the thimble and the shackle there was too much hardware in the well. My 2 cents for what it is worth.
 
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