Hello all,
It's been quite a while since I've posted, so I feel like a newbie all over again, and hope I'm not boring everyone with questions already hashed over.
Our old M34 keeps getting older, and after a season where we realized our centerboard was not dropping, I discovered that besides being riddled with barnacles due to poor maintenance on my part (I prefer having the boat blocked low in the winter, which precludes our being able to drop the board for inspection and removal) I now see that the centerboard, of fiberglass vintage, is showing a significant splitting down the middle along the leading edge, which is all that's viewable when retracted. I don't know the actual construction, but there must be some kind of metal structural member sandwiched in there, and I suspect water ingress is rusting it away. This seems like a big problem that will only get bigger.
I've read in more than one place that owners have chosen to glass in the whole assembly rather than deal with the whole gimmicky thing. I confess that Deb and I have always been lazy sailors, and rarely dropped the board while sailing. My question, to any with experience or simply an opinion would be 1) Is the board truly that performance-enhancing? and 2) Were I to consider glassing the whole area up, should I remove the board first?
I can probably think of a couple other questions, but that's a good start. I'm actually curious to see if folks are still out there paying attention. If so, I'll make an effort to attach photos, and later perhaps we can talk about mushy foredecks. Oh lawdy.
Paul
It's been quite a while since I've posted, so I feel like a newbie all over again, and hope I'm not boring everyone with questions already hashed over.
Our old M34 keeps getting older, and after a season where we realized our centerboard was not dropping, I discovered that besides being riddled with barnacles due to poor maintenance on my part (I prefer having the boat blocked low in the winter, which precludes our being able to drop the board for inspection and removal) I now see that the centerboard, of fiberglass vintage, is showing a significant splitting down the middle along the leading edge, which is all that's viewable when retracted. I don't know the actual construction, but there must be some kind of metal structural member sandwiched in there, and I suspect water ingress is rusting it away. This seems like a big problem that will only get bigger.
I've read in more than one place that owners have chosen to glass in the whole assembly rather than deal with the whole gimmicky thing. I confess that Deb and I have always been lazy sailors, and rarely dropped the board while sailing. My question, to any with experience or simply an opinion would be 1) Is the board truly that performance-enhancing? and 2) Were I to consider glassing the whole area up, should I remove the board first?
I can probably think of a couple other questions, but that's a good start. I'm actually curious to see if folks are still out there paying attention. If so, I'll make an effort to attach photos, and later perhaps we can talk about mushy foredecks. Oh lawdy.
Paul