Wear and tear
I think that all centerboards and swing keels should be up when not sailing. Point #1. Every time the boat rocks, it wears at the pin connection. Point #2. If the boat ever gets away, it will rest on a solid portion of the boat. This happened to my boat two weeks ago. I have mine on a mooring with a good mooring line. There was a storm that passed through our fresh water lake the had some pretty high winds. ( 10 boats got off their moorings ) The problem was that someone else did not have good mooring gear. Their boat gotloose and got tangled up in my mooring line. Their boats rudder chaffed through my line and sent my boat adrift. It was on the rocky bottom when I got there. If the centerboard was down, it would have sheared off. Insteed, it jambed into the center board housing and took so doing to release it. A Catalina swing keel had also gotten loose. He had his keel up. It was the easiest of the four boats I helped get off. Their was also a Paceship 23 that had been set on shore. He also has a centerboard. His was up. We pulled on his mast to heel the boat in shallow water and floated it off. If his keel would have been down it would probably would have been damaged. I guess you can tell that I am a centerboard/ swing keel up person. r.w.landau s/v EXHIBIT"A" 78 O'Day 25
