Our centerboard has been giving us greif this season. It appears to be pretty thin after almost thirty years of rusting. Should I replace it? If so, How? and how would I go about getting a new one or are there specs by which to fabricate a new one?
O'Day 23 Centerboard
- Thread starter Cpt. Tom
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What year is your O'Day 23 Tom? If it was built before 1974, it should have a Fiberglass centerboard and a cast iron keel. From what I've been told by Rudy Nickerson of D&R Marine, http://www.drmarine.com/ The O'Day company started out building the O'Day 23's with cast iron keels for some foolish reason and the keels would rust and constrict the fiberglass centerboard in the keel slot. It was only after 1974 that they starting building these boats with lead keels, that the problem was solved. About two years ago, a fellow on the forum who went by the screen name of "Baysailor Bill", was posting the work that he did on his 1973 O'Day 23. He built a new centerboard from scratch and cleaned and painted the keel of the boat. He had a wicked hard job trying to remove the old centerboard from the keel, and wound up breaking it in half. When he got through working on this boat, it was like new again. I'm told that Mystic Seaport Museum in Ct., has all the specs on the O'Days. Hunt Associates had given them to the museum and they are available to the public for a fee. Give Rudy a call at D&R Marine. He has all the parts for O'Days and is very knowledgeable about them, having worked there years back. Good luck Tom.
Joe
If you have a steel centerboard on your 23, it must be a replacement, not original. All of the 23s had fiberglass centerboards, however due to the nasty ruting problem of the cast-iron keels on the 1971-75 models, several owners apparently replaced their FG centerboards with steel plates due to the thinner material fitting better in the rusted cb trunk.
The 1977-85 23 was a better design and had as Joe mentiones, a fiberglass keel that was lead-filled and a fiberglass centerboard (I think the cb is the same for all 23s, both 1971-75 and 1977-85, check with Rudy to be sure).
The 1977-85 23 was a better design and had as Joe mentiones, a fiberglass keel that was lead-filled and a fiberglass centerboard (I think the cb is the same for all 23s, both 1971-75 and 1977-85, check with Rudy to be sure).
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