I just brought a Oday 23 home. We keep it docked at our houseboat in Sausalito, which means it is basically sitting on the mud at very low tides. As I'm sure some of you can guess, first low tide and the center board will no longer drop. Not hard to imagine that there is mud jamming it in the up position. Any idea on how I can get it to go down? As this is something that will keep happening, can anyone think of a way that I can "push" it down when it gets stuck in the up position. Relying on gravity just wont work. I was thinking I could attach a wire to the end of it (somehow) and use a boatsman hook to push it down when I go out, and just tie the wire up when we are underway. Not exactly elegant, and I have no idea what the center board actually looks like, etc. Any better ideas on this one!?! I really hope I can come up with something, as this could be a show stopper for me. Thanks! Matt
Oday 23, Center Board Stuck in the Up Position...
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Try to moor it in deeper water
--And in the mean time, you're going to need to get into the water with an old saw or building square and see if you can free it up. Unfortunately, this is one of the drawbacks to keel centerboards, and the only way to solve the problem is to never let it get grounded out. If you do decide to go underwater to free up the board, make sure that you have someone in the boat that can help in freeing it up. Good luck.
--And in the mean time, you're going to need to get into the water with an old saw or building square and see if you can free it up. Unfortunately, this is one of the drawbacks to keel centerboards, and the only way to solve the problem is to never let it get grounded out. If you do decide to go underwater to free up the board, make sure that you have someone in the boat that can help in freeing it up. Good luck.
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If you check the archives on this site, you will find that this is one of the most prevalent topics. The answer depends greatly on what year your boat was made. If you have one of the earlier 23's where the centerboard is controlled by a crank in the cabin on the table pedestal, I don't know if there is a way to free the board without diving or hauling the boat. If you have a later model where the centerboard is controlled via a pendant on the cockpit bridge deck, there is a least one option: I have had success unsticking the centerboard on my Oday 23 with a three foot long 3/8" metal rod. Unscrew the grommet where the pendent exits the bridge deck. You will see that the hole in the deck is much larger than you might think. GENTLY insert the rod into the hole with the pendent, and push down until you meet the edge of the stuck centerboard. Push on the end of the rod until the centerboard is freed up (I once had to bang on the rod with my shoe to unstick the board). Someone on this site suggested this method to me, and I have successfully used it at least three times over the past seven years. All three times I later found that the board had stuck because the centerboard trunk had a couple of extra barnicles inside; since I started scraping and putting bottom paint into the centerboard trunk every year, it hasn't been a problem. WARNING: there have been a couple of posters on this site who report that they punctured the centerboard pendent tubing using this method, resulting in boat floodings. I think they were Oday 25's where the pendent tube may have a bend in it, making it more susecptable to puncture. You may want to pad the end of the rod with duct tape or something to avoid snagging it. I bought my steel rod at the hardware store for about $2. Your idea of attaching a wire to the centerboard: when all the way up, the centerboard is completely retracted within the stub keel, so there would be no surfaces accessable to a boat hook. I suppose you could attach some sort of wire loop to the bottom of the leading edge of the centerboard, and then attach a line to that. Pushing down on the attached line with a boat hook would exert downward force on the wire loop. You could probably use a modified pintle or gudgeon as your loop. Be careful attaching the fitting to the centerboard; make sure it doesn't cause a snag itself, and make sure it is properly bedded. It will be immersed 100% of the time, and you don't want any water to get inside the centerboard. Several posters here have noted that their boards can no longer fit into the centerboard trunks as they have swelled with moisture over the years.
If you check the archives on this site, you will find that this is one of the most prevalent topics. The answer depends greatly on what year your boat was made. If you have one of the earlier 23's where the centerboard is controlled by a crank in the cabin on the table pedestal, I don't know if there is a way to free the board without diving or hauling the boat. If you have a later model where the centerboard is controlled via a pendant on the cockpit bridge deck, there is a least one option: I have had success unsticking the centerboard on my Oday 23 with a three foot long 3/8" metal rod. Unscrew the grommet where the pendent exits the bridge deck. You will see that the hole in the deck is much larger than you might think. GENTLY insert the rod into the hole with the pendent, and push down until you meet the edge of the stuck centerboard. Push on the end of the rod until the centerboard is freed up (I once had to bang on the rod with my shoe to unstick the board). Someone on this site suggested this method to me, and I have successfully used it at least three times over the past seven years. All three times I later found that the board had stuck because the centerboard trunk had a couple of extra barnicles inside; since I started scraping and putting bottom paint into the centerboard trunk every year, it hasn't been a problem. WARNING: there have been a couple of posters on this site who report that they punctured the centerboard pendent tubing using this method, resulting in boat floodings. I think they were Oday 25's where the pendent tube may have a bend in it, making it more susecptable to puncture. You may want to pad the end of the rod with duct tape or something to avoid snagging it. I bought my steel rod at the hardware store for about $2. Your idea of attaching a wire to the centerboard: when all the way up, the centerboard is completely retracted within the stub keel, so there would be no surfaces accessable to a boat hook. I suppose you could attach some sort of wire loop to the bottom of the leading edge of the centerboard, and then attach a line to that. Pushing down on the attached line with a boat hook would exert downward force on the wire loop. You could probably use a modified pintle or gudgeon as your loop. Be careful attaching the fitting to the centerboard; make sure it doesn't cause a snag itself, and make sure it is properly bedded. It will be immersed 100% of the time, and you don't want any water to get inside the centerboard. Several posters here have noted that their boards can no longer fit into the centerboard trunks as they have swelled with moisture over the years.
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